This week Perkins continues to give us advice on interpreting Scripture.
Most of the chapter is given to looking at how to rightly pay attention to the nature of the passage.
Perkins says that in interpreting Scripture rightly, you may need to do the following:
(i) On occasion it is appropriate to supply words which are lacking in the text where this is consistent with the analogy of faith and with the circumstances and words of the context;
(ii) If an alternative explanation of the text involves changing one noun (or name) for another, this is an indication that a figure of speech is being employed;
(iii) The grammatical and rhetorical properties of words indicate their different nuances of meaning;
(iv) Apparent contradictions in Scripture can often be resolved by realising that the passages deal with different things although the vocabulary may be the same, or they may be dealing with different aspects, or perspectives or even different time-frames;
(v) The meaning which is most appropriate to the context should be assumed for any word which is open to a range of meaning;
(vi) In our English Bibles, marginal references sometimes mention a Greek or Hebrew word indicating that there is some variation in the extant manuscripts of the passage.
I appreciated the encouragement on how to handle obscure passages: 'Cryptic or hidden passages are those which are difficult and obscure. For expounding them this rule and guide should be followed: If the natural meaning of the words obviously disagrees with either the analogy of faith or very clear parts of Scripture, then another meaning, one which agrees with both similar and different places, with the circumstances and words of the passage, and with the nature of what is being discussed, must be the right one.'
Difficult passages must be seen through the light of other Scriptures.
Read Chapters 6 (Right handling the Word of God) and 7 (Use and application).
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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