Class Discussion 1

For our first session, the first thing I learned was the phrase “See it through!” This, according

to Dr. Haywood, is a must for Bible students like me, to be reminded to endure the

difficulties of this semester. This is especially applicable to me because I am studying two

Masters degrees as of the moment while working and ministering in church. Dr. Haywood

emphasized the basic principle of Hermeneutics, which is Biblical context. And this can be

achieved through observation, interpretation, correlation and application. Since we are

studying Biblical interpretation, we discussed the Bible itself. The Bible is God’s special

revelation to the human authors’ minds. In turn, they were inpired to write using their own

abilities, backgrounds and styles. The Bible was translated into the Bible that we now have.

Illumination is the Holy Spirit’s way of making God’s children understand the truth through

reading and studying the Word of God. Before studying the Bible, we discussed that it should

be recognized as an authority. It is the Word of God and it is authoritative. It is also amazing

to read about how 40 human authors worked with one Divine Author in order to write the

Bible without contradiction and error in a span of 1500 years. Then, we discussed the subject

matter. Hermeneutics which is the theory and methodology of interpreting the various ways

God speaks to us through the Word. For this session, we covered observation. Dr. Haywood

gave an exercise on how to observe just on verse. We should know who are involved, where

and when it was taking place and other facts that may seem not important for now but could

be used for later study. I also learned that I should focus on what I see on the passage not on

other information that is not on the passage. Whatever is there, I should try to draw out and

not try to add according to my own knowledge or pre-conceived idea of the passage.