Skip to content
Credo Feb 2015 Caneday Slider-01

Do You Understand What You Are Reading? (Ardel Caneday)

In the new issue of Credo Magazine, “By the Book: How Well Do You Know the Bible?”, Ardel Caneday has contributed an article that aims to tackle how we interpret the Bible: “Do You Understand What You Are Reading?” Ardel Caneday (Ph.D., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is Professor of New Testament Studies and Biblical Studies at Northwestern College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He has served churches in various pastoral roles, including senior pastor. He has authored numerous journal articles, many essays in books, and has co-authored with Thomas Schreiner the book The Race Set Before Us: A Biblical Theology of Perseverance and Assurance.

Here is the start of Caneday’s article:

Philip, the evangelist, came upon an official from the royal court of Ethiopia who had been in Jerusalem to worship but was returning home, riding in a chariot and reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah concerning the Servant of the Lord being led to slaughter as a sheep (Isaiah 53:7, 8). Philip inquired, “Do you understand what you are reading?” The royal official wondered, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” So Philip entered the chariot to interpret the prophet’s meaning, for the Ethiopian asked, “About whom does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Both he and Philip believed that understanding the meaning of an ancient text is truly possible, even if translated from the language in which it was originally written. So, Philip explained how Isaiah was speaking of Jesus Christ.

Do we understand what we are reading when we open the Scriptures as the Ethiopian did? We face the same challenges that he did, though we have the New Testament to aid us. Let’s consider a few of the difficulties we encounter when we read the Bible.

Interpretation is Inherent to Written Texts

Every text worth reading conveys a message. Thus, at a basic level, to read a text is to interpret. Yet, because one can read words without understanding, to interpret entails more than simply having ability to read combined words. If reading a text correctly requires us to read what the text’s writer actually wrote, essential to interpreting properly what a text means obligates us to know what the text’s writer intends. This assumes that the writer of a text is sufficiently skilled to invest the written words with intended meaning. Even devoted postmodernists become annoyed if anyone interprets their statements the way they deconstruct literary masterpieces, including Holy Scripture. Though they may insist that ambiguities of language, restrictions on human understanding, individual uniqueness, and social and cultural influences on how we come to know renders true knowledge of what any given text means impossible, deconstructionists readily accuse others of twisting their meanings when their own statements are subjected to the same principles of deconstructionism.

Despite numerous obstacles we encounter in communicating with one another, whether by spoken words or written texts, we properly expect people to write or to speak what they mean and we assume that we will understand them. So it is with the writers of the New Testament Scriptures. Though they wrote their texts in Koiné Greek long ago in the first century and within a culture vastly different from our own, they rightly expect us, their readers, to read their texts with understanding and thus with benefit. So, we have confidence that we can read the text of the New Testament with reasonable clarity, understanding, and spiritual profitability. The true meaning of the text of Scripture is not opaque but pellucid, nor is it fluid but formed, for Scripture itself encourages us to expect that we can understand what is written.

Therefore, we legitimately seek the meaning of Scripture and properly admonish Bible study participants who declare, “That’s just your interpretation,” or announce, “This is what the passage means to me.” Such notions are errant because a text’s meaning is assigned by its author not by its readers. Thus, interpretation must always seek the meaning with which the author endows a text and be wary lest we impose a foreign meaning upon the passage due to our own biases. If we understand Scripture, we have the Holy Spirit to thank, for apart from the Spirit we would neither accept nor understand God’s Word (1 Corinthians 2:12-14).

That said, a few basic principles should be readily evident. …

Read the rest of this article today:

View the magazine as a PDF (Click Here)

Credo Feb 2015 Cover-01How well do you know your Bible? Now that is a scary question, even if you have been a Christian for a long time. Between church events, little league games, and a full-time job, finding time to read and study Scripture is a herculean task. To make matters worse, when you finally do escape to read the Bible you struggle to understand what it means. At times you can relate with the Ethiopian eunuch who said to Philip when asked if he understood what he was reading, “How can I, unless someone guides me?”

In this issue of Credo Magazine we are here to help! If you feel tired and frustrated, this issue will give you that shot of adrenaline you need to keep going. And if you feel like you just don’t have the tools in your belt to interpret the Bible properly, then you are in good hands. Consider this an exercise in going to the hardware store to find those tools you need to comprehend the Bible. Obviously this issue of the magazine won’t give you all the tools you need, but we hope to get you started, even provide you with the motivation you need to study the Bible on your own. Sure, it’s hard work. But hard work pays off. And maybe one day you will be able to say, “Hey, I do know the Bible, and I think I can help someone else understand it too.”

Contributors include: Robert Plummer, Ardel Caneday, Michael Kruger, Deven K. MacDonald, Paul D. Wegner, Augustus Nicodemus Lopes, Kevin DeYoung, Douglas Moo, and Thomas Schreiner.

Advertisment
Back to Top