The Reader Is An Interpreter

Whether you've thought about it or not, every reader is at the same time an interpreter. We invariably bring to the text all that we are, with all of our experiences, culture, and prior understandings of words and ideas. Sometimes what we bring to the text, unintentionally, leads us astray, or else causes us to read all kinds of foreign ideas into the text.

When a person in our culture reads the word "cross," centuries of Christian art and symbolism cause most people automatically to think of the Roman cross (t), although it was more likely shaped like the letter "T."

When we read texts about the church at worship we automatically see people sitting in a building with pews, much like we use today.

The need to interpret can be seen by simply noticing the church as it is today. The contemporary church makes it abundantly clear that not all "plain meanins" are equally plain to all.

There are those who would argue that women should keep silent in the church on the basis of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and at the same time deny the validity of speaking in tongues and prophecy, the very context in which the "silence" passage occurs.

For some, the Bible "plainly teaches" baptism by immersion; others believe they can make a biblical case for infant baptism. Both "eternal security" and the possibility of "losing one's salvation" are preached in the church, but never by the same person. Yet both are affirmed as the plain meaning of biblical texts.

Besides these recognizable differences among "Bible-believing Christians," there are also all kinds of strange ideas and teachings floating around. People are always bending the truth by the way they select texts from the Bible. every imaginable heresy or practice claims to be "supported" by a text.

Even among more biblically orthodox believers there are many strange ideas that manage to gain acceptance. Usually, because somebody decides to take a particular text out of its legitimate context for the purpose of supporting their own pet beliefs.

Next Posting: "The Nature of Scripture"