Bible Interpretation Quotes

The weird thing about the bible is that almost everything in it is a metaphor.

So it seems to me that when the bible describes church as a place where two or more people discuss God, they don't mean just the cathedral like churches. I don't know what, who or where God is; but if everything is a metaphor, I think he or she is a comparison to us. I think we are like, or as God. I think when we get together, and talk about ourselves, about being human, about what hurts us; we are also talking about God.

So that's also church, right?

I know this might seem blasphemous, but my priest tells me its okay to ask questions, even if they seem bizarre. ~ Elizabeth Acevedo

Strange how the perspective changes with the point of view, isn't it? Most people who claim to believe in the Bible don't actually know what it says ~ Karl Wiggins

The worst extremes usually start with slight deviations. ~ John F. MacArthur Jr.

In the deepest sense, the Bible is not meant to be interpreted, but rather revealed! ~ Eli Of Kittim

It's not your job to judge or to decide if someone deserves something. It's your job to lift the fallen and comfort the broken. ~ Karen Gibbs

So that originally, and Naturally, there is no such thing as Slavery. Joseph was rightfully no more a Slave to his brethren, then they were to him: and they no more Authority to Sell him, than they had to Slay him. [Genesis 37]. ~ Samuel Sewall

The Bible is only as good and decent as the person reading it. ~ Dan Savage

And the Light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not
John 1:5
And the Light shineth in darkness; and she comprehended it not
Her 7:2013
The Light still shines in darkness; and she did not know this
She 6:2014
His Light continue to shine in the darkness; and she did not recognize him
We 5:2015 ~ Gregory C. Warner

We've got enough going on in our lives today without stressing about things that might or might not happen tomorrow ~ Karen Gibbs

The Greek meaning of the word "blessed" is "supreme happiness." [see Matthew 5:3-5] ~ Eric Ludy

Whoever, then, thinks that he understands the Holy Scriptures, or any part of them, but puts such an interpretation upon them as does not tend to build up this twofold love of God and our neighbor, does not yet understand them as he ought. ~ Augustine Of Hippo

May the Lord grant you grace to read and understand the Holy Scriptures. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

It is not enough just to read the Bible; it is even just as important to understand it. As to living it- that is accomplished in and through us by the Holy Spirit."


~R. Alan Woods [2013] ~ R. Alan Woods

Christ is our all. He is everything to the Christian. He fills all, is in all, and He is our life (Colossians 3:4, 11). It is in Him that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden (Colossians 2:3). He is the author and finisher of our salvation, the one who starts it, works it out, and completes it (Hebrews 12:2). This is as the Father wanted it. He places His people in the hands of the Son, having joined them to the Son in a super-natural union, so the Son, by His perfect life of obedience, and perfect act of self-sacrifice upon the cross, can bring about their full and complete salvation. ~ James R. White

Create a trophy room in your heart. Each time you experience a victory, place a memory on the shelf. Before you face a challenge, take a quick tour of God's accomplishments. Look at all the paychecks he has provided, all the blessings he has given, all the prayers he had answered. Imitate the shepherd boy David. Before he fought Goliath, the giant, he remembered how God had helped him kill a lion and a bear (1 Samuel 17:34-36). He faced his future by revisiting the past. ~ Max Lucado

Many in our world today want us to believe that we can except Christ simply as a Savior from sin, but not the Lord of our lives. They teach essentially that a person can perform an act of believing on Christ once, and after this, they can fall away even into total unbelief and yet still supposedly be "saved". Christ does not call men in this way. Christ does not save men in this way. The true Christian is the one continually coming, always believing in Christ. Real Christian faith is an ongoing faith, not a one-time act. If one wishes to be eternally satiated, one meal is not enough. If we wish to feast on the bread of heaven, we must do so all our lives. We will never hunger or thirst if we are always coming and always believing in Christ. He's our sufficiency. Christ the bread from heaven. We must feed on all of Christ, not just the parts we happen to like. Christ is not the Savior of anyone unless He is their Lord as well. ~ James R. White

I admire the way the Bible defies anybody who wants to nail it on a preferred meaning. There are so many ways to interpret the Bible as there are different opinions about what a certain passage or verse really means. So anybody can go there and read a meaning into (eigesis) whatever passage or verse he wants to suit his inclinations. Proof that the Bible is inspired? It caters for all sorts of people and views. ~ Bangambiki Habyarimana

The reason we haven't yet fully understood the Jesus story is that we are gospel-based rather than Bible-based Christians! ~ Eli Of Kittim

Using only nonnarrative portions of the Bible to interpret narrative is not only disrespectful to the narrative portions but also suggests a misguided approach to nonnarrative parts of the Bible. ~ Craig S. Keener

Proponents of canonical hermeneutics are either unintentionally or willfully naive here-in most cases the naivete is willful. Canonical readings simply act as if the evolution of the text is irrelevant to its meaning; usually this is because it is deemed to be more expedient for the purpose of exhorting a faith community if such considerations are put aside. ~ Thom Stark

I'm of the opinion and quite certain that our 'personal histories' with God are meant to be well informed by the Scriptures ~ R. Alan Woods 2007

The battle for our lives, and the lives and souls of our children, our husbands, our friends, our families, our neighbors, and our nation is waged on our knees. When we don't pray, it's like sitting on the sidelines watching those we love and care about scrambling through a war zone, getting shot at from every angle. When we do pray, however, we're in the battle alongside them, approaching God's power on their behalf. If we also declare the Wordog God in our prayers, then we wield a powerful weapon against which no enemy can prevail. ~ Stormie O'martian

His [brother in law Jim Hampson] appointment to the Episcopal parish in Wenham, near Gordon College brought them in close touch with leading evangelical faculty members in their pews and church leadership, including Elizabeth Elliot and Addison Leitch. They were instrumental in drawing Jim and and Sarah into the cutting edge of evangelical intellectual leadership, with friendships with Tom Howard and J.I. Packer. My ongoing relationship with Jim Packer, FitzSimons Allison and many other brilliant Anglican evangelicals would not have happened without Jim Hampson. His early influence on me in my transition from modern to classic Christian teaching was immense. While I was trying to demythologize Scripture, he was taking its plain meaning seriously. His strong preaching led him to become one of the founding sponsors and supporters of Trinity School of Ministry in Abridge, Pennsylvania ... ~ Thomas C. Oden

The Bible itself is a book that constantly must be wrestled with and re-interpreted ... Bible interpretation is colored by historical context, the reader's bias and current realities. The more you study the Bible, the more questions it raises. It is not possible to simply do what the Bible says. ~ Rob Bell

Well, Louie, you'll know then that Leviticus also tells us not to cut our beards, not to wear linen and wool together nor to eat crayfish or frogs or snails. I'm afraid that if we adhered to Leviticus the entire French nation would be an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. ~ Paula Boock

Shakespeare said it this way: Even the devil can cite scripture for his purpose. ~ Dawn Flemington

Biblical interpretation is not a passive matter. It requires our own active negotiation. When we pretend that, deep down, all the voices are really saying the same thing and ought to be able to get along, we forfeit our responsibility as inheritors of this richly, sometimes disturbingly, contradictive literature. ~ Timothy Beal

Some people may think that it is a dangerous attitude to take toward the Bible, to pick and choose what you want to accept and throw everything else out. My view is that everyone already picks and chooses what they want to accept in the Bible ... I have a young friend who whose evangelical parents were upset because she wanted to get a tattoo, since the Bible, after all, condemns tattoos. In the same book, Leviticus, the Bible also condemns wearing clothing made of two different kinds of fabric and eating pork ... Why insist on the biblical teaching about tattoos but not about dress shirts, pork chops, and stoning? ~ Bart D. Ehrman

The truth is, it doesn't matter what a verse means to me, to you, or to anyone else. All that matters is what the verse means! ~ John F. MacArthur Jr.

Daily mediation on the Holy Scriptures is a spiritual act. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

When we meet the great men and women of the Bible face-to-face, we may be surprised to discover just how much like us they are. It is faith in a great God that makes a great man or woman of God. ~ Mike Bickle

110. When I enter the pulpit with the Bible in my hands and in my heart, my blood begins to flow and my eyes to sparkle for the sheer glory of having God's Word to expound. ~ John R.W. Stott

As your congressman, I hold the Holy Bible as being the major directions to me of how I vote in Washington D.C. ~ Paul Broun

The gospel is the fulfillment of all hopes, the perfection of all philosophy, the interpretation of all revelation, the key to all the seeming contradictions of the physical and moral world. ~ Max Muller

It's never possible to know for certain the "true" source of any given interpretation, the dividing line between our association (i.e., projection) and reality. The question quickly becomes, What is real? It is always possible to consciously or unconsciously "see" almost anything we want. I can look at the ceiling and see an image of the Virgin Mary, or I can look at the ceiling and see that the spackler did a damn good job. ~ Derrick Jensen

If the bible proves the existence of God, then Action Comics prove the existence of Superman. ~ Graham Kendall

WE think we have advanced too rapidly. Let us go back a little. Before our last attempt to overcome the difficulties of dream distortion through our technique, we had decided that it would be best to avoid them by limiting ourselves only to those dreams in which distortion is either entirely absent or of trifling importance, if there are such. But here again we digress from the history of the evolution of our knowledge, for as a matter of fact we become aware of dreams entirely free of distortion only after the consistent application of our method of interpretation and after complete analysis of the distorted dream. ~ Sigmund Freud

Never had I heard from my elders that what I thus did was bad. It is true that there are the ten commandments of the Bible; but the commandments are made only to be recited before the priests at examinations, and even then are not as exacting as the commandments in regard to the use of ut in conditional propositions. ~ Leo Tolstoy

The Bible is full of evidence that God's attention is indeed fixed on the little things. But this is not because God is a great cosmic cop, eager to catch us in minor transgressions, but simply because God loves us
loves us so much that we the divine presence is revealed even in the meaningless workings of daily life. It is in the ordinary, the here-and-now, that God asks us to recognize that the creation is indeed refreshed like dew-laden grass that is "renewed in the morning" or to put it in more personal and also theological terms, "our inner nature is being renewed everyday". Seen in this light, what strikes many modern readers as the ludicrous details in Leviticus involving God in the minuitae of daily life might be revisioned as the very love of God. ~ Kathleen Norris

The Bible does not profess to make men omniscient, but simply to tell them enough to make them happy and good, if they will believe it and live up to it. ~ Henry Van Dyke

All believers need to become teachers, shepherds, ministers, and good-news-bearers. ~ Henry Hon

We don't want to give people straight answers. We'd rather they question things for themselves. ~ Deborah Curtis

Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. ~ Anonymous

If the Bible is correct, and the Earth is only 6,000 years old, that means there were no dinosaurs, and museum curators have been messing with us. Or the dinosaurs were here, and we never noticed them. Or a lot of people saw them but didn't want to say anything. ~ Ron Shock

Above all else, guard your heart for it affects everything else you do. ~ Anonymous

Wie Gott in Frankreich' was the expression used by the Jews of Eastern Europe to describe perfect happiness. I puzzled over this simile for many years, and I think I can interpret it now. God would be perfectly happy in France because he would not be troubled by prayers, observances, blessings and demands for the interpretation of difficult dietary questions. Surrounded by unbelievers He too could relax toward evening, just as thousands of Parisians do at their favorite cafes. There are few things more pleasant, more civilized than a tranquil terrasse at dusk. ~ Saul Bellow

Now, go knock 'em dead."
I assume he means that I should make a good impression at the party, and not to follow the literal interpretation of that expression. ~ Bree Despain

It was illegal for black people and white people to play checkers together in Birmingham. And there were even black and white Bibles to swear to tell the truth on in many parts of the South. ~ Isabel Wilkerson

I believe that the devil has destroyed many good books of the church, as, aforetime, he killed and crushed many holy persons, the memory of whom has now passed away; but the Bible he was fain to leave subsisting. ~ Martin Luther

Stand in the divine rain, and seeds of wisdom will grow in your soul. ~ Peter Kreeft

Lasting love extends grace. No relationship will make it without grace. The Bible tells us that this is part of love. You're not going to have a relationship unless you have forgiveness, mercy, patience, acceptance, grace. You've got to cut people some slack. ~ Rick Warren

I am the Maker of all things. By my word were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of my mouth. I spread out the northern skies over empty space; I suspend the earth over nothing. I clothe you with skin and flesh and knit you together with bones and sinews. I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster. ~ Zhang Yun

What makes the difference is not how many times you have been through the Bible, but how many times and how thoroughly the Bible has been through you. ~ Rodney "Gipsy" Smith

Idolatry is huge in the Bible, dominant in our personal lives, and irrelevant in our mistaken estimations ~ Os Guinness

I gave up writing for seven years (very biblical) and picked it up again, still clueless and still seeking the exotic, when I was twenty-one. ~ David Bergen

Do what's right. Be on time, be polite, and be honest; remain free from drugs; and if you have any questions, get out your Bible. 2. Do your best. Mediocrity is unacceptable when you are capable of doing better. 3. Treat others as you want to be treated. Practice love and understanding. ~ Lou Holtz

Sadness is not out there. It's inside you. Sadness is often a misperception and false interpretation of a situation. ~ Debasish Mridha

God gave the Bible to us because He wants us to know Him and love Him and serve Him. Most of all, He gave it to us so we can become more like Christ. ~ Billy Graham

Inspiration: The process by which God worked through the human authors of the Bible to communicate His revelation. The term derives from the Greek theopneustos, meaning "God-breathed" (2 Tim. 3:16), and refers to God as the ultimate source of the Scriptures. ~ Anonymous

Conflict becomes sinful when our responses to it are destructive, hurtful, abusive, or violent.
There are good ways to disagree & there are also unhealthy ways. Even people who are right sometimes...about the issue... can deal with it in a way that is very unloving. Being faithful to Christ involves more than taking the right stance or being on the right side of an issue. It also requires engaging those with whom we disagree in positive respectful dialogue. ~ James T. Flynn

In this age of space flight when we use the modern tools of science to advance into new regions of human activity, the Bible ... remains in every way an up to date book. Our knowledge and use of the laws of nature that enable us to fly to the moon, also enable us to destroy our home planet with the atom bomb. Science itself does not address the question whether we should use the power at our disposal for good or for evil. The guidelines of what we ought to do are furnished in the moral Law of God. ~ Wernher Von Braun

The existence of the devil is so clearly taught in the Bible that to doubt it is to doubt the Bible itself. ~ Chip Ingram

There aren't many sins in my bible. Giving up is the greatest one of all. ~ Karen Marie Moning

I don't really understand it. Never have. The more I think on it the more it horrifies me. How can they look in the eyes of a man and make a slave of him and then quote the Bible? ~ Michael Shaara

Meaningful learning in a community requires both participation and reification to be present and in interplay. Sharing artifacts without engaging in discussions and activities around them impairs the ability to negotiate the meaning of what is being shared. Interacting without producing artifacts makes learning depend on individual interpretation and memory and can limit its depth, extent, and impact. Both participation and reification are necessary. Sometimes one process may dominate the other, or the two processes may not be well integrated. The challenge of this polarity is for communities to successfully cycle between the two. ~ Etienne Wenger

My ground is the Bible. Yea, I am a Bible-bigot. I follow it in all things, both great and small. ~ John Wesley