One thing about bible studies prior to our current generation is the absence of re-interpretation.
Lets look at just two examples: Paul taught the bible revealing a mystery that was preserved in the ancient text: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” – Gal 3:16 KJV
How did Jesus teach the bible: “Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” – Jhn 10:34-36 KJV
I can hardly do a bible study that doesn’t ask us to re-interpret a word or phrase. Example:
The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill. – Dan 2:5 KJV
“In the original Hebrew, the phrase ‘the thing is gone from me’ actually means ‘the word from me is firm’. ” – This is pure speculative re-interpretation. Even if the phrase is better understood in modern English as ‘the word from me is firm’ the dangerous claim is not that questionable explanation but rather the incredible claim that the “original Hebrew” said that. This implies that the translators wrote something untrue and in complete error. This calls into question the scholarship, accountability, and worthiness of the interpreters to understand the Hebrew and construct an English sentence with any sense of intelligibility. It also denies preservation. If there has been a change in the English language since the translation was produced then it is completely appropriate to provide further explanation, but in contrast, if ambiguity existed in the original then that should be preserved. God often inspires and instructs his prophets and apostles to write down mysteries that he can make clear later to show his glory (Prov 25:2).
I have noticed the incredible shift in most bible studies from studying what the bible says and deriving meaning and application from that to studying what the means (usually through redefining Greek or Hebrew words) and imposing meaning upon them. When I was a child before the internet we never heard now lets go look at the greek and see what Strongs says about this word. Let me be clear we also did not just blindly trust the men that translated the KJV but what we did do was believe the Word of God. God has preserved and delivered His Word to us and we studied it trying desperately to understand and apply what it was teaching us. We had enough trouble trying to renew our minds to what it was teaching us. Today, I do not see the same motive. I see everyone redefining the word in a way we can understand it. This is dangerous and lazy. We feel like we are working and “digging in the word” but what we are really doing is making it palatable and fit into our own understanding.
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