Biblical Interpretation: Enabling Common Understanding of the Bible

This essay explores whether common people can understand the overall meaning of the Bible, considering the challenges posed by archaic language and complex theological concepts. It emphasizes the importance of understanding the Bible for its intended audience and discusses potential linguistic barriers, particularly the original Hebrew and Greek texts. The essay argues for the necessity of accurate translations into accessible languages like English to facilitate broader comprehension of God's messages and the teachings of Jesus Christ. It highlights the role of theologians and priests in providing interpretations while stressing the importance of individuals developing their own understanding of the scriptures. Ultimately, the essay concludes that overcoming language barriers through quality translations is crucial for enabling ordinary people to grasp the essence of the Bible and apply its teachings to their lives, fostering a deeper connection with their faith.

Running head: CHRISTIANITY
Christianity
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The purpose of the following essay is to focus on the fact if the common people are able
to understand the overall meaning of the Bible in their own ways. The meaning of the Biblical
texts is very difficult to understand sometimes because of its use of the archaic words. Still it is
very important for all the people across the world to understand the meaning of the Bible since
they are the most crucial target audiences of the Holy book. Sometimes challenges might appear
but it has become very much important to know the God by proper interpretation of God. Most
people do not have a proper understanding of the theological understanding but they try their
best to know the meaning of God and understand its true meaning (Strenski, 2015). So, the
potential challenges will have to be discussed along with realizing how it can cater to the
understanding of all the people.
At the beginning, it should be mentioned the biggest potential challenges in
understanding of the Bible. Bible is the most important and most credible source to understand
the Omnipotent God and the words he has said. Critics believe that it is not always necessary for
common people to know about all the things that are within the Bible beforehand or understand
the difficult words. The words of the Bible have always been challenging to understand for the
common people (Strenski, 2015). However, the verses of the Biblical Scriptures have been
written for the common people only. The messages of the Holy God have been revealed through
the words of His Son Jesus Christ. God has revealed all His messages through the Bible and all
those messages are depicted through the different stories. It looks like a very easy thing but
practically it is a very challenging work for the common people. They face the linguistic
problems at the beginning (Geller, 2014) The stories in the Bible have revealed the messages to
the society and people within. The main purpose of writing the Bible cannot be served until all
the people understand its meaning.

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The Bible has revealed that God is the only creator of this world and He has shaped the
creatures of the world in that way as well. Adam and Eve were the first people on earth sent for
their committing the sin (Schneiders, 2016). People should be aware that they will not get away
if they commit the sins in their lives. They must understand the overall meaning of the Bible
truly. God won the battle over sins and He wants people to follow a sinless life (Strenski, 2015).
This can only be achieved if people in the society can live a life properly with all the human
feelings embedded within them (Village, 2016). The language barriers are very crucial ones in
this scenario. The Bible had been written in the languages like Greek and Hebrew in ancient
times. Both these languages are extremely difficult to understand (Geller, 2014). So, it has
become very significant to make the proper translation of the Biblical texts so all the people in
society would be able to understand it (Robinson, 2014). Christ has revealed the messages of the
God and He has also said that salvation of sins is the only purpose for the human beings on this
earth. They might commit the sins in the world and they will have to find out some ways in
which they could get over their sins (Brand & Mitchell, 2015). This is why they should be able to
know the meanings of all the Biblical texts.
According to the critics, people should always understand the things that have been
preached in the Bible. The potential language barrier should be able to overcome in this scenario.
The translation of the Bible should be made into English (Dunnill, 2016). Only then people
would be able to understand the meaning of the Bible. It has been written in Hebrew around
3000 years ago and in Geek around 2000 years ago (Geller, 2014). One of the most important
things that have been said in the Bible is to know God and have utmost faith in Him. Ordinary
people not having any idea or training on the classical theology should also be able to learn the
messages of God. English is the most widely used and popular languages in the world and

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Biblical texts should be translated into English for the benefit of ordinary people (Migliore,
2014). Ordinary people were not able to understand these Hebrew and Greek languages. The
message and commandments had yet been recorded in those languages only (Fee & Stuart,
2014). Still the translators had to face some problems to understand the meanings of the words in
the original manuscripts and translate word by word. Literally it was not possible. So, they went
on to make the translations of those Hebrew and Greek words through by its closest meaning
(Wilt, 2014).
During this process, translators would also come across numerous new words. These new
words were used in different meanings to bring out the original preaching. Through His words,
God directed at all the human beings and His followers as well. These words should be followed
by each and every person following the Christianity (Wilt, 2014). Every devoted Christian
wanted to follow the messages of God but it did not always need the original manuscripts. The
theological experts could understand these manuscripts as they have gone through enough
research on this topic (Schmidt, 2016). Still they could make the translations for the sake of the
common people. God always reminded people of the fact that He was the one who created the
world and He would judge the life of the human beings based on their virtues and sins (Fee &
Stuart, 2014). He is their savior as well. So, it will create a huge problem for the human beings if
they did not understand the meanings of the Biblical texts.
Through these texts, they would be able to interpret the ways they would be judged by
God on the Judgment day. Christian missionaries had been sent all over the world to carry out
the task of spreading of Christianity (Migliore, 2014). Thus, they had to spread the words of God
as well. This needed the simplest language so everyone could understand it. The use of plain and
lucid language would help all the people in the world to understand it thoroughly. Through the

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Bible, different types of genres are covered like historical descriptions, poetry, psalm, songs and
many other things (Wilt, 2014). Ordinary people should know about the creativity of God and it
will only be possible if they understand the meaning of the Biblical Scriptures and the other
texts. If the translators can successfully make this happen, millions of people would gladly
accept it and it will be helpful for them in a large scale as well. People should be obedient to the
God and have the utmost faith in them (Migliore, 2014). The flow of language of the Bible
should be so much lucid that non-Christian people can also understand it. All the ways have been
written in the Bible on how people would be achieve the success in their lives (Wilt, 2014). If
people can follow all these ways with full faith, they will definitely reach to that position
positively.
On the other hand, the roles of the expert theologians and priests should be acknowledged
since they have a huge knowledge on this matter. The explanations of the Bible given by them
should be strictly followed by the ordinary people. Apart from that, the verses of the Bible would
enable ordinary people to comprehend the things that God has advised them to do. These
instructions are for their own benefits only (Migliore, 2014). Through understanding the Biblical
Scriptures and texts, lives of the ordinary people would be enlightened. They will find out a new
way of life through comprehending the several texts of the Bible. In the past, it has been seen
that the priests have misinterpreted the Bible for their sake only. Their purpose has been to
influence the people take up Christianity as their religion (Schmidt, 2016). Rather, it would be
important to make people understand the original essence of the Bible and arousing the interest
in them. The interpretations of the Bible should be properly rendered by the quality of the
translations (de Wit, 2015). Otherwise, the total meaning of comprehending the meaning of
Biblical texts will be fruitless.

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In order to conclude the discussion, it can be commented that the interpretation of te
Bible by ordinary people is somewhat difficult and the most significant reason for this difficulty
is the language barrier. All the language problems can be dealt by proper translation of the
Biblical texts. This will help the ordinary people to understand the meaning of the Bible without
any help of the priests or the religious experts. The main essence of the Bible lies in knowing and
understanding the God. Therefore, all the principal teachings of the Bible can be understood by
the common people in the society.

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References List
Brand, C., & Mitchell, E. (Eds.). (2015). Holman illustrated Bible dictionary. B&H Publishing
Group.
de Wit, H. (Ed.). (2015). Bible and Transformation: The Promise of Intercultural Bible
Reading (Vol. 81). SBL Press.
Dunnill, J. (2016). Sacrifice and the Body: Biblical Anthropology and Christian Self-
Understanding. Routledge.
Fee, G. D., & Stuart, D. (2014). How to read the Bible for all its worth. Zondervan Academic.
Geller, S. (2014). Sacred Enigmas: Literary Religion in the Hebrew Bible. Routledge.
Migliore, D. L. (2014). Faith seeking understanding: An introduction to Christian theology.
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Robinson, H. W. (2014). Biblical preaching: The development and delivery of expository
messages. Baker Academic.
Schmidt, L. K. (2016). Understanding hermeneutics. Routledge.
Schneiders, S. M. (2016). Biblical spirituality. Interpretation, 70(4), 417-430.
Strenski, I. (2015). Understanding theories of religion: An introduction. John Wiley & Sons.
Village, A. (2016). The Bible and lay people: An empirical approach to ordinary hermeneutics.
Routledge.
Wilt, T. (2014). Bible translation: Frames of reference. Routledge.

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