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Bible, Theology & Philosophy
Hidden Meanings
God's Name
Hermeneutics
Bible Interpretation

“God is not pleased by the herculean efforts some people go to look so hard for hidden meanings—whether linguistic or allegorical or what have you—that they miss the simple point of what he said.” - Mark Ward

Discussion

Thu, 07/27/23

I think God is not pleased by the herculean efforts some people go to look so hard for hidden meanings—whether linguistic or allegorical or what have you—that they miss the simple point of what he said. Bible interpretation is hard enough without layering on top of it all kinds of linguistic silliness.

Exactly. But, people want to be seen as knowing the "deeper things" of Scripture. Anyone can plainly see what the text says, but you've got to have that extra knowledge to know what it "really means."

I've sat in several Sunday school / ABF classes where someone regularly spouts some Greek or Hebrew nonsense (usually the results of a faulty word study) and prefaces it as, "If we study the deeper things of Scriptures, then we'd realize that this word actually means ...."

This kind of stuff is rampant.