Principles of Biblical Interpretation

This course teaches the principles and methods of interpreting the Bible properly in order to guide our life and relationship with God.

This course introduces the basic principles of Biblical interpretation. Most of the lessons in this course are based on a popular textbook, Living by the Book, by Howard and William Hendricks. If you have access to this book, you will find exercises to practice the principles taught in the course, as well as further discussion of each principle. However, the textbook is not required for the course. All the required material is included in these lessons.

Students should read each lesson prior to coming to class. You should plan to have 90-120 minutes for each class session, in addition to time for doing assignments outside of class. Because this course is primarily based on practical activities, you may wish to divide a lesson into more than one meeting. This will give students additional time to do the activities.

Most lessons include several activities for practice of the principles taught in the lesson. It is important that students take adequate time to do these activities carefully. These activities move through many different scriptures. Do not rush to finish the lesson. Because many of these activities will be new to the students, take time in class to make sure each student understands how to complete the activities. The primary goal is not to find a particular answer; the primary goal is to develop skill in studying and interpreting the Bible.

By the end of the course, the student will have carefully studied several passages of scripture. Each student should keep their study notes in a notebook for future use. The work done for this course will be useful for sermon and Bible lesson preparation.

Discussion questions and in-class activities are indicated by arrow bullet points ►. In the case of discussion questions, let students discuss the answer. Try to make sure that all students in the class are involved in the discussion. If necessary, you can call on students by name.

Each student will work on a course project throughout the entire course. After Lesson 10, they will make a presentation to the class or submit a paper to the class leader. Instructions for the presentation or paper are given in the assignments section of Lesson 10.

A couple of other assignments are also included at the end of Lesson 2 and Lesson 7. Students should show the class leader their completed work but should keep a copy of their work in their own notebook.