The Christian is to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. The minister of Christ is to labor in teaching the Holy Scriptures. The ability to properly interpret the Scriptures is essential to both the Christian and minister of the Gospel. Broadly defined, hermeneutics is the science and art of interpreting the words of an author. General and Special Hermeneutics are two divisions of hermeneutics where General Hermeneutics examines the thinking of an author while Special Hermeneutics emphasizes the style of language used.
In Biblical Hermeneutics some have treated the interpretation of Old and New Testaments as separate from one another. The very mystery of Christ was hidden by God from the foundation of world and made known by Christ to His apostles. The light of the revelation of Jesus Christ must illumine our interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures. In addition, one cannot detect clear Hebraisms in the Greek New Testament without some understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures. Sacred Hermeneutics compels us to recognize the unity of the Old and New testaments and be diligent to study the whole Bible without neglecting any part.
Biblical hermeneutics is distinguished from introductions to the books of the Bible that deal with such things as the date and authorship of a book. It also differs from Textual Criticism, which aims at discovering the autograph from the extant copies of the Greek New Testament. Nor is biblical hermeneutics in itself exegesis. The exegete utilizes interpretive skills to examine the words of Scripture to bring out their sense. Understanding hermeneutics as an art, exegesis plays a vital role by testing the soundness of hermeneutical principles through the application of them. The necessity of biblical hermeneutics is underscored by the obvious multitude of opinions among Christians, ministers, and scholars.
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