Bear Ribs
Well-known member
I'm an ordained minister. I tend to follow the bible and distrust traditions of men or "this conclave said-" kind of reasoning on it and look more towards the scripture itself rather than trying to get interpretations out of it. I'm distrustful of anybody with modern theology degrees ever since I was discussing the bible with a fellow minister with his new fancy degree, argued with me that his degree made him more qualified to discuss the bible than I was. I was willing to listen until he handed me "So when Joseph, Jesus' father, went to spy out the land of Canaan..." I don't know what they're teaching ministers these days but that really just kind of destroyed any faith I might have in said learned degrees. God reveals his secrets to babes and hides them from the wise and intellectual ones, after all.
Where possible I'll look at the original language (it's not always possible to get an exact word-for-word in the Hebrew/Aramaic scriptures but close, and the master texts are extremely close to every word exactly as it was written on the New Testament) and look at the meanings of those words where I think it's critical to understanding a passage. Generally, though, I think the bible as we have it stands on it's own merits and I don't like to see too much "interpretation" of what it means as my experience is that they really mean is twisting the scripture to their own ends.
Where possible I'll look at the original language (it's not always possible to get an exact word-for-word in the Hebrew/Aramaic scriptures but close, and the master texts are extremely close to every word exactly as it was written on the New Testament) and look at the meanings of those words where I think it's critical to understanding a passage. Generally, though, I think the bible as we have it stands on it's own merits and I don't like to see too much "interpretation" of what it means as my experience is that they really mean is twisting the scripture to their own ends.