Alistar McGrath wrote a book in recent years entitled Christianity's Dangerous Idea. McGrath is both a church historian and a Biblical scholar. Christianity's dangerous idea, he writes, was promoted by the insistence of Protestant Reformers to translate Scripture into the common languages of the people; namely, that any Christian with the Bible and the Holy Spirit can accurately interpret the intended meaning of Biblical passages.
One reason why the Roman and Orthodox Church did not want copies of the Scriptures in the common language of the people was their concern over this issue. Why should an individual Christian's interpretation "trump" the interpretations of the Churches' scholars and the pronouncements of Popes and Bishops? If the official Church's interpretation is not accepted, and the interpretations of individiual Christians proliferate, the only result will be Biblical confusion and theological (and ecclesiastical) chaos!
SHALL WE LEAVE INTERPRETATION TO THE SCHOLARS?
While most right-thinking Christians value the contributions of humble, insightful Biblical scholars which can be found (mostly) in commentaries published over the past 400+ years, they also should affirm (I believe) that the common, everyday believer does well to engage in interpretation.
Interestingly, Luke records in his account (ACTS) that the "people in (the city of) Berea where more noble than those in Thessalonica" because they "searched the Scriptures" to see whether or not what Paul was teaching was true. In a very quiet way, Scripture encourages every-day believers to carefully "observe," and "interpret," and then "apply" the Scriptures to their thinking and life.
WHAT DOES GOOD INTERPRETATION TAKE?
First, it takes "time." It takes time to read and re-read and make observations about what you are reading (grammatical, historical, and contextual). Howard Hendricks rightly said, "The greater the observation, the more accurate the interpretation."
Second, it takes a "whole-parts-whole" approach. What is that? It means that the books of the Bible - virtually all of them - were each written with a unique, and key, purpose in mind. That's the first "whole" of the formula above. Someone has compared it to the "picture on the front of the box" of the bicycle you have to assemble. Any interpretation of a particular passage should fit with the "whole" picture. Usually that "whole" picture can be seen by reading an entire book of Scripture several times, and then writing out your sense of "what this book is about."
Then, with that front-of-the-box picture, you take the time to look at the parts, or passages of Scripture. Each passage (or paragraph) makes a point which fits into the whole picture. Then, when you gather the points of all the sections or paragraphs, see them together and restate your view of the whole. Yes, it really does work.
Third, good interpretation is often the result of work done together in a team of people. With two or three working through Scripture together, the observations go up and the accuracy of the interpretation is increased. Usually, a group can come to a good interpretive statement which answers two questions. (1) What is this passage talking about? [What's the subject of this passage?] and (2) What is the passage saying about this subject?
Finally, one's skill in this increases the more you do it. Take time with the Bible and over the months, you will grow in your confidence to understand the wonderful book God has given us. He will help you.
MY ENCOURAGEMENT
Read the Bible! Take it a book at a time. Take time to read, observe, reflect and pray. God's Spirit can help you understand what is being said, and apply it to your life.
It's a good thing, and it's not dangerous!
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