Participatory Bible Study: Hanging Biblical Interpretation

Introduction: What is a Good Biblical Hanging?

I am often asked for quick tips on interpretation and even quick methods for interpretation. The desire for a method that will allow one to be a Biblical scholar in five minutes a day is a pretty natural one. We are, after all, pretty busy.

I don’t know any short cuts to Biblical interpretation. But what I’ve found is that most people want some way to avoid making errors in the way in which they use their Bible. This fear can lead them to surrender their own judgment and their own hearing from God to others. But that is simply a way to replace your own errors with someone else’s.

In answer to this need, I present the “hanging rule.” In the words of Jesus:

Two Great Commands

³⁴Now when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they approached him together, ³⁵and one of them tested him by asking him, ³⁶“Teacher, Which commandment is the greatest one in the Torah?” ³⁷Jesus replied, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole being’ {Deuteronomy 6:5} and with your whole mind. ³⁸This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ {Leviticus 19:18} ⁴⁰On these two commands all the law and the prophets hang. – Matthew 22:34-40 (TFBV)

It’s alright for you to notice that Jesus isn’t saying to hang your interpretations. He’s simply saying that everything that’s said in the law (Torah or Pentateuch) and the prophets (most historical and prophetic books) can be connected and seen to depend on these two laws. So to state this as a principle of interpretation, I reverse it. If I’m looking at an interpretation, or more specifically at an application, I need to ask myself, “Can this interpretation be hung from the two great laws?” To make sure I’m being clear, let me restate that another way. Can I trace the way in which my understanding of a particular scripture depends on and fulfills the principle of these two laws?

A good Biblical hanging is one in which your interpretation is firmly attached to the two laws as expressed by Jesus. If you can’t hang it, consider the possibility that you’re off track somewhere!

Principles and Applications

Another way I teach this is by reference to eternal principles and specific temporal applications. Let’s consider what this could mean.

A foundation for Christian theology and understanding of the Bible is that God is love. God sent Jesus because he loved. This is about as eternal as a principle can get within our understanding. The second law is actually a bit more removed as a principle. From God’s love, his creation, and his provision for redemption, we understand that humanity is all part of God’s creation, they are his family in a sense. The second law is thus a principle derived from the first one. To see this derivation in action, read 1 John 4:7-20. So right here in the two great commands God has demonstrated the idea of principles and applications.

Some people get the idea that because the first law is greater than the second, it is more important to love God than it is to love our fellow human beings. But the real reason the first law is greater is that it is more fundamental. The second law is derived from it, that is, it is an application of the first law to our particular situation as human beings here on earth. The love of God is shown in us by our love for one another. This is more specific. It applies the fundamental principle of God’s love to this planet and this time.

In the ten commandments, we have a broader application. If I love my neighbor, I will not murder him. I will not give false testimony about him. I will not steal from him. In Luke 10:25-37, the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus gets much more specific. If I love my neighbor, I will give of myself, and risk myself in order to help him. This takes the principle of love for one’s fellow human beings, derived from God’s love, and extends it to a particular type of circumstances.

Finally, suppose I see somebody at night by the side of the road who needs help. That person may be in trouble, but I cannot be certain things are safe. What is the correct application of the principle of love in this case? Well, there may be those who argue with me, but I suggest that in most circumstances the right application is to help that person. The way to answer the question for yourself, however, is to ask how your particular actions can be traced back to the greatest principle, that of God’s love. For example, supposing that the person has someone else to take care of. Is it right to risk them in order to save someone else? That is a more difficult question, but one I think you can still clarify by looking at the specific Biblical applications of the principle in question.

I believe that doctrines can also be tested by the same means. Very often we proclaim doctrines that are biblically correct, in that they are derived from good Biblical texts, properly interpreted in context, but nonetheless in the way we apply those doctrines we miss the most basic principles. If you can’t hang both your doctrine and the way in which you apply it from the two great laws, perhaps you need to re-examine either the doctrine, or your way of applying it, or both.

The Law Pyramid

Alden Thompson, in his book Who’s Afraid of the Old Testament God?, pages 59-60 discusses this issue especially for the Old Testament. He presents the one law, the two laws (as I’ve just described), the 10 laws (ten commandments), and then the many laws, as expanded in the Torah. The derivation is quite simple. In his lectures, he refers to this as the “law pyramid. You might even think of the pyramid as inverted. You anchor yourself for spiritual stability on the one law, and you use the other laws to help you get more specific and to guide you in making sure that all your actions help to carry out the great law.

I like the picture of the pyramid, and I think this scheme agrees completely with tracing laws as they are derived from higher, or more fundamental laws.

Excuses

It’s easy to make excuses or to find loopholes based on principle. I sometimes hear people say, “I don’t need to obey the law; I just need to love.” But if the law is derived from God’s love, then obeying the law and loving other people will be identical. The differences in our behavior and our treatment of others may derive from different understandings, or we may have difficulties living up to the law (who doesn’t?), but we should be striving to fulfill that ultimate principle.

How can you test to make sure you aren’t simply making an excuse. When you look at a law in the Bible and find that you simply don’t like it, is it because your circumstances are different, or because you can’t really accept the principle that underlies it? Test yourself on this point by trying to imagine the circumstances under which you would be able to see that law as an expression of the principle of God’s love. If you can’t imagine such a circumstance, or you can’t fit that command into the situation in which the Bible presents it, let me suggest that you put it aside for some time, and make it a matter of study.

God’s love is such a fundamental principle that we may have a hard time finding the application directly. That’s why we have so many examples of applications and stories of people who applied the principle, correctly and incorrectly. For some notes on understanding how to apply stories, see Interpreting Stories.

As Paul said, “The completion (or fulfilling) of the law is love.” — Romans 13:10

God’s love. If you can’t imagine such a circumstance, or you can’t fit that command into the situation in which the Bible presents it, let me suggest that you put it aside for some time, and make it a matter of study.