What’s That Supposed To Mean?

The common rejoinder to a biblical quotation which refutes someone’s argument, “That’s just your interpretation!” is the Custer-esque last stand when backed into a corner in an attempt to hold to a non-biblical position.  Rather than give up the non-biblical view in preference to the better supported position, they seek refuge in a subjective approach to biblical interpretation in an effort to avoid confronting what the text says.  Now, there are some who take this view out of necessity in order to keep some belief they have.  But then there are others who believe this is simply just the way the Bible was intended to be understood, and are not necessarily trying to protect something.

“The most enduring tradition in the 2,500 year history of biblical interpretation is that there is no one “correct” interpretation, but an infinite number” says John R. Coats, writing for the Huffington Post in an article titled: Interpreting the Bible: Your Place at the Table.  What Coats is suggesting is the authors who penned the Bible texts did not write with the purpose of the readers receiving a certain message.  This assertion that it is a “tradition” is not only baseless, it trivializes the severe ordeals the authors went through.  To believe that Paul while relaying the urgency of his readers to take for themselves a new religious tradition, had no intention for his words to be understood in a particular way violates certain sensibilities.  For one, why should we expect Paul to endure the trials of persecution, imprisonment, and ultimate martyrdom for a cause which he documented, if we were simply supposed to understand his words in any way which tickled our fancy?

Coats and others who would advance this view, that the Bible texts were intended to be a self-help motivational work, confuse the fact that there are differences of opinions in interpretation of certain passages, with personal interpretation being the intended purpose.   That people disgree, does not mean they are supposed to disagree.  In fact, there is only one valid interpretation of the Bible texts.  The truth is, the majority of the Bible texts are uncontested by those attempting to understand it.  Of the passages which are in dispute, and there is disagreement, someone is wrong.  The authors wrote with a specific message, any deviation from that specific message is an incorrect understanding.

Obviously people will disagree for any number of reasons both legitimate and illegitimate.  Of course, in a perfect world everyone would agree.  Unfortunately that is an impossibility.  However, when approaching any text, religious or otherwise, one ought to be seeking the message the author intended to be conveyed, whether we agree with that message or not.

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