Ten Commandments for Interpreters; A Portion of an ABC Lecture delivered by myself.

[Rev D Andrew Sands]

1.     Thou shalr not seek any interpretation other than the one intended by the original author.

2.     Thou shalt not replace the Word of God with personal experiences, church creeds, or human traditions.

3.     Thou shalt not misuse the names of the Bible by dogmatically calling any doctrine Biblical that is not clearly taught in Scripture.

4.     Remember Sunday to keep it for prayer and final thoughts on the sermon. Six days are available to prepare for Sunday's sermon.

5.     Honor the interpretations of your godly predecessors and contemporaries so that you can have balance in your own exegesis.

6.     Thou shalt not destroy the power of the Word of God by overemphasizing secondary truths in a passage, but must strive to find the primary truths taught to the original audience.

7.     Thou shalt not adulterate the Word of God with thine own wisdom, psychology, or personal revelations.

8.     Thou shalt not steal a truth from one passage and artificially impose it on a second. Each passage has one historical interpretation, and this does not have to be spiritualized.

9.     Thou shalt not bear false witness against the Bible by purposely ignoring rules of interpretation to make it appear to teach something it does not.

10.    Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's sermon or his exegesis of Scripture. Learn from him, but do not let his work replace your own.