Eight Principles Of Scripture Essay

In order to interpret scripture one must follow eight principles that help unveil the word of God written in the bible. These eight principles are, as follows, charity, faith, reason, context, literary genre, history, language, and the senses of scripture. Through each paragraph I shall explain in more depth about each principle’s purpose and an example of it being used in the interpretation of the bible. The principle of charity deals with the love of god, neighbor, and oneself for the sake of god. If there is anything from the Bible that contradicts charity it must be false. An example of this would be Mathew 10:34-36, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household.” When first reading this it sounds as if God wants to tear your family apart, but we know that God would never intend this because he tells us to love and care for all. What God really means is that those family members who praise him might be prosecuted by their own

This principle is of utmost importance because one word can have two or more meanings and the reader needs to know which meaning is the true meaning of that one word or understand the double interpretation and symbolism the term. There is also the fact that certain words had specific meanings in the language during the time it was written. For example, let’s say someone was to read Genesis 2:24, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh”, and they notice that the word ‘cleave’ is used. In the dictionary, cleave means to divide or split, but the proverb tells me that cleave means to cling to and be “one