The authors word and sense of Scripture

The Bible is a collection of writings coming from various places, lifestyles, and the distant past. We read of the historical, the partly didactic (intended to instruct and teach), and the prophetic. Each writing teaches throughout the Scriptures about the relationship of God to man.

Historical interpretation of Scripture:

Those who study the Scriptures must understand that they are to give the author's words the sense that they had been given by God in the times they lived, understanding the period and the knowledge that the authors possessed. Also, to be considered is the communion each writer had with the LORD and the religious and civil rites or customs each author practiced within their community.

When we begin an investigation of the historical interpretation of the Bible, we may apply the following:

The Old and New Testament books are to be constantly and carefully read and considered. As readers begin to collect the expressions used by each writer, they should understand the harmony the passages reveal on the same topics.

Certain critics, teachers, and scholars assert that in interpreting the Old Testament, all references to the New Testament should not be sought or included in the investigation of the Old. The problem with this thinking is that unless we consult the New Testament, there are passages in the Old Testament whose meaning cannot be fully understood.

For example, in Genesis 1:26, "God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness." So, Adam was "made in the image of God."

This was his condition in that primal state of spotless innocence before the corruption and the fall. Because this pristine condition was forfeited because of sin, how can we get insight into what is truly meant? Also, what and who can we compare the first Adam to before the fall?

We would have to move forward into the New Testament, as expected and directed to do. What we are looking for is a person who is without spot and blemish. Our example can be found in the man, Jesus Christ. Upon a full investigation of Jesus, we will have a more correct understanding of the Divine image given to man before the fall.

It is seen in Jesus's righteousness, holiness, love, and knowledge of His Father.

Ephesians 4:24, "That ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

Renewed in the spirit of our mind. Here is an allusion to the original creation of Adam. God was man's model in the spirit of His mind. Righteousness and true holiness, one illustrates the other, for they refer to the same thing.

Colossians 3:10, "And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him."

Renewed in knowledge: the Christian knowledge reveals the Creator, the author of life. Some say God has revealed Himself to us in this Christian dispensation. How, then, can we know who or what we are unless we have someone or something to which to compare ourselves?

Only in the light of Jesus Christ can our true original identity be revealed. God is the maker; we are the vessels; God is the original, and from Him is the copy taken.

We can better understand that the Old and the New Testaments work well together because they instruct and teach. Incomplete information in one area is completed for us in another.

Let’s compare a few Hebrew words and forms of expressions with those that occur in a Greek set form of words, especially those words that are used in a ceremony or ritual and particularly in doctrinal passages.

As all languages have some modes of speech common to each other, it sometimes happens that the same word or expression in both Hebrew and Greek gives us a proper meaning, whether we take it in a Hebrew or a Greek sense. But in such cases, it is preferable to adopt the meaning native to the people of that day. The writers of Scripture likely had this in view rather than the Greek meaning.

For example, the expression found in John 8:24, “Ye shall die in your sins,” if explained according to the Greek Idiom, is equivalent to, “Ye shall persevere in a course of sinful practice to the end of your lives:” But according to the Hebrew Idiom, it not only means a physical, or temporal death, but also eternal death, and is equivalent to, “Ye shall be damned on account of your sins in rejecting the Messiah.” Therefore, the latter interpretation is preferable as agreeing best with the Hebrew thinking and context.

This rule applies particularly to the doctrinal passages of the N.T., which must, in all cases, be interpreted according to the way of thinking of the Hebrews and their ancient language. So, to “fear God,” in the language of the Jew, means to reverence or worship God. The knowledge of God, which is so frequently mentioned in the N.T. if taken according to the Hebrew idiom, implies not only the mental knowledge of God but the worship and reverence of Him that flows from it, and consequently, it is both theoretical and practical knowledge of God. The reason for this rule is apparent.

1. The apostles, being the first teachers of Christianity, were Jews, educated in the Jewish religion and language, and who, except Paul, were, for the most part, uneducated, therefore unacquainted with the finer points of the Greek; this at the time when they had been called to the apostolic office. Thus, because of this shortfall, they could only express themselves in the style and manner familiar to their fellow citizens.

2. The religion taught in the N.T. agrees with that delivered in the Old. In the Old Testament, ritual worship was ordered by the law of Moses, but in the New Testament, it is succeeded by a spiritual or internal form of worship. The legal dispensation is now succeeded by the Gospel dispensation, in which what was initially imperfect, and obscure has now become perfect and precise.

Things continued are substantially the same or of a similar nature. The expression, “To come to God,” occurs both in the Old and the N.T. In the Old, it simply means to go up to the temple; in the New, it implies a mental or spiritual approach unto the Most High and the spiritual worship of God. In like manner, since the many particulars related in the O.T. concerning the sacrificed victims, the priests, and the temple are now transferred in the N.T. to the atoning death of Christ, to the offering of Himself unto death, and the Christian church, the veil of the figure withdrawn.

Prophetical and historical types.
There are three types: legal types, prophetical types, and historical types contained in the Law of Moses. Let’s talk about Prophetical types first. Prophetical Types are those by which the O.T. prophets signified present or future things using external symbols. One of these would be the prophet, Isaiah, going naked and barefoot (that is, without his prophetic garments.)

Isaiah 20:2, The Lord said to Isaiah, “Go and loose (remove) the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off the shoe (sandal) from thy foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot,” prefigured the fatal destruction of the Egyptians and Ethiopians.

Compare the following verses, Jeremiah 13:1-7, with Jeremiah 16:2-5-8.
Jeremiah 13:1-7, The Lord told Jeremiah to take a linen girdle and put it on. Then Jeremiah was told to take it off, bring it to, and then hide the girdle in a rock on the banks of the Euphrates. This he did. After many days, Jeremiah was told to retrieve it from the rocks. When he did, it had become marred (ruined or rotten.)

This prefigured the destruction which would quickly come upon the abandoned and ungrateful Jewish people. Compare the above with the following verses as further evidence.

Abstaining from marriage; Jeremiah 16:2, “Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughter in THIS PLACE.”
A nation and people in mourning; Jeremiah 16:5, “For thus saith the LORD, enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even loving kindness and mercies.”

The feasting of the people, Jeremiah 16:8, “Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.”
Also, similar calamities are prefigured against the Jewish people and the land by breaking the potter’s vessel, as read in Jeremiah 18:2-10. Again, this indicates the calamities God pronounced that would come against His people for their sins.

The making of bonds and yokes is seen in Jeremiah 22:1 thru 8. This prefigured the conquest and subjugation of the kings of Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, Tyre, and Sidon by King Nebuchadnezzar.

In Acts 21:10-11, Agabus’s binding his own hands with Paul’s girdle was to declare the delivery of Paul into the hands of the Gentiles.
Also, in this class of prophetical types, we can refer to prophetic and typical visions of FUTURE EVENTS. Some have their interpretation connected or annexed. As in, Jer.1:11 thru 16. Jeremiah’s vision of the almond tree and a seething pot. Ezekiel’s vision of the resurrection of dry bones, Ezek.37.

Other such visions will be explained in the future only by their actual accomplishment. For example, Ezekiel’s vision of the temple and Holy City, Jerusalem, Chap. 40 to the end. The Revelation of John will be made more transparent and more intelligible when the prophecies come to pass.

We had the calling of the Gentiles in many parts of the O.T. This was a strange saying for the Jews to hear and understand before its accomplishment, even to those who were well acquainted with the writing of the prophets. We see an instance of this in,

Acts 11:1-18, “The apostles and brethren -- heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.” Peter tells of his dream of the “great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners, and it came even to me.”

Verse 17, God gave them (the Gentiles) the like gift as He did unto us (the Jews) who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Verse 18, “Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.”

Historical Types:
Historical types are the characters, actions, and fortunes of outstanding persons in the O.T. ordered by God to be an exact prefiguration of the character, actions, and fortunes of future persons who would appear in the time the N.T.

In some cases, those called and whose characters and actions prefigured future events have been declared by God to be typical long before the events they were to prefigure came to pass. These are called innate or natural historical types.

In some instances, others were only known to be such after the things they had typified had happened. These are called inferred types, which are by probabilities agreeable to the analogy of faith.

The most remarkable and outstanding of these characters are Adam, Abel, Noah, Melchizedek, Isaac, the ram sacrificed by Abraham, Joseph, the pillar of fire, the manna, the rock in the desert from where water flowed, the scapegoat, the brazen-serpent, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Sampson, Samuel, David, Solomon, Jonah, and Zerubbabel.

We could write a book to show how clearly these people and things corresponded with their great antitype, the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, whatever persons or things recorded in the O.T. were expressly declared by Christ or by His apostles having been designed as prefiguration's relating to the N.T. are types of that person or thing with which they are compared in the New.

But suppose we state clearly that a person or thing was designed to prefigure another person or thing, where there is no such prefiguration, neither had it been declared by God’s authority. In that case, we cannot make that declaration. Why? Because we do not possess, nor will we have, any foundation for that assertion.

And even when comparisons are started or originated in the N.T. between antecedent (a preceding event, condition, or cause) and subsequent persons or things, we must be careful to distinguish the examples where a comparison is instituted merely for the sake of illustration, from the examples where such a connection is declared, as exists in the relation of a type to its antitype.

IMO, and according to the Apostle Paul, this passage refers to our being created in His image as a Triune God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. He created man as a triune man. Body, soul, and spirit.

1 Thessalonians, Chapter 5:

23And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews, Chapter 4:

12For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.