Principles of Hermeneutics: An Exploration into the Art of Interpretation

There are many books written on how to read and understand the Bible. However, most tend to be either basic (written for beginners) or complex (written for seminary students). Principles of Hermeneutics: An Exploration into the Art of Interpretation is written for those in between, those who are familiar with the Bible but desire to go to a deeper level of understanding.

The approach taken in this text is to concentrate on practical method rather than abstract theory. When it does become necessary to speak about theory, what is discussed are foundational principles rather than scholarly complexities. For example, the concept of communication is presented in terms of its basic nature rather than speech-act theory. Grammar and syntax are discussed from the perspective of day-to-day usage rather than linguistic concepts.

The focus throughout this book is on understanding the intended message of the original author. Accordingly, it delves into ancient literary techniques, which were very different from ours today. Modern day writing uses visual clues, but, due to difficulties in writing in ancient times, these types of literary devices were not available. However, ancient writers had their own techniques for effective communication. By learning those ancient techniques, a student of the Bible is better able to understand the important messages that the authors were trying to convey.