Interpreting The Bible

I read an article online the other day that had to do with some subject in the Bible, and one of the dissenting comments posted was, "Well, scripture is open to interpretation." Really? What verse says "All scripture is inspired by God and is open to interpretation"?

I've been reading and studying the Bible for over 40 years and I have yet to read anywhere in the Bible that it is "open to interpretation." Now, we may disagree with scripture, we may misunderstand it, we may bend it, we might even reject it. But before God, scripture is not open to anyone's "interpretation." It says what it says. Any misunderstanding of it, purposeful or not, falls upon us, so we had better be seeking the Holy Spirit to help us to not misunderstand it.

Another dodge is one I heard about the same time: "Well, Jesus didn't say such-and-such, so it's someone else's opinion or it's open to question."

No good. Jesus didn't say a lot of things. For instance, Jesus said nothing about using crystal meth, or texting while driving, but that doesn't mean such things are good ideas. The Bible does tell us that it is "inspired by God", and Jesus himself validated the Old Testament by quoting from it a number of times in the New Testament. Furthermore, he said that scripture "cannot be broken." Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus disavow anything in the Old Testament, so we can conclude that he accepted it wholly.

The New Testament is essentially the story of Jesus (as is the Old Testament, for that matter), written largely by his close associates (the disciples) about him and their their personal interaction with him, or by those directly acquainted with those associates. The point of this is, the New Testament was written by people who knew him intimately. Direct and accurate interaction leading to direct and accurate reporting. Because of this, we can assume their writings portray Jesus accurately.

If that weren't enough, remember that some of Jesus' people were imprisoned (Paul, for one), and some were executed (Peter, for another) because of their faith in Jesus, yet none denied their relationship or belief in him. It makes no sense to believe that anyone facing death because of a belief in a false messiah who didn't deliver what he said he would, would not deny him simply to survive. None did. They knew him, believed what he said, witnessed his death and resurrection, and continued in that faith, even unto death.

So, if it's in the Bible, you can "take it to the bank" as reliable and true. If you want to parse or add on to scripture, that's fine. If you want to limit your belief only to direct quotes from Jesus, you are free to do so. But you do so at your own risk.

Frankly, I think most of the time people use things like "open to interpretation" or "Jesus didn't say this" to appear sincere when they're actually looking for a way to exempt themselves from scriptural authority. If so, they have succeeded.