What Did Jesus Weep About? A Lesson In Observation vs. Interpretation

In this episode we dive into John 11:35 (the, Jesus wept, verse) and the surrounding section as a case study on how to practice good biblical observation and interpretation rather than mixing these two things up.

One of the very first lessons they teach you in Bible college is about the art of biblical interpretation known as Hermeneutics. There are 4 basic steps to practicing good biblical hermeneutics:

-Historical Context

-Literary Context

-Observation

-Interpretation

These last two steps are PARTICULARLY tricky for us. While we might know, intuitively, that observation is different from interpretation, whether we are practicing one or the other is hard to discern.

We naturally bring our inferences, assumptions, biases, and general understanding about the world into the text and forget that these things are part of interpreting the text rather than simply observing the text.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with interpretation by any means. However, when we wrongly believe something we INTERPRET is the same as something we've OBSERVED, we tend to respond in anger when someone else observes or interprets something different than we have.

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Logo: Matt Hernandez

Music: Acoustic Indie Folk Years By MarkJuly