Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Karl,

> The moment that you can "stick in an alternative
> interpretation", especially when that alternative
> interpretation is linguistically allowable, then
> you cannot insist that your interpretation is the
> only correct one.


HH: There are all sorts of wrong views of words and verses in the 
Bible that have a superficial plausibility. If we could not insist on 
a correct view of words and statements simply because an alternative 
exists, we could never preach God's word with authority.


> How do you define "best interpretation"? What
> objective standards do you adduce?


HH: The best interpretation is the one closest to what the author 
meant when he wrote the words. This is determined by the whole 
hermeneutical process, part of which is word definition. Here are a 
couple of web sites where you can read about the principles of 
hermeneutics. The first is quite good:

http://www.forananswer.org/Top_General/Hermeneutics.htm

http://www.themoorings.org/doctrine/issues/hermeneutics/intent.html

Yours,
Harold Holmyard