Leonard's Six Stages of Biblical Interpretation

Stages of Biblical Interpretation always starts and encompass interactive prayer. Pray and make Psalm 119:18 your prayer, cry and heartbeat "Open my eyes so that I might see wonderful things in Your law!  
 
1.  Observation: What does the passage say and how does the author say it. (Follow the Six-Step Process)

• The student recognizes the “then and there” internally within the text. Find all situation and purpose clues and summarizes the findings.
• The student discovers how the Biblical writer develops that truth in the passage.  Tracing the argument and following the train of thought as they are being developed.  Finding and identifying paragraph breaks; and paragraph points and passage boundaries.  Summarizes, validate and substantiate your observations.
• The student finds out how the teaching of the passage fits into the surrounding context. Finding and identifying passage breaks. Summarizes, validate and substantiate your observations.
• The student recognizes a passage, that emphasizes the key principle truths and finds them in the writers’ own words. The student is called upon to determine what is primary and subordinate in the passage. (Analysis).  Solidify the paragraph breaks,  paragraph points , passage boundaries, and Key Centers. Summarizes, validate and substantiate your observations.

2.  Investigation and Research: Supplementary studies and external sources.

• Find the central theme of the passage and develop it: Solidify your conclusions of the Key Center. Summarizes, validate and substantiate your conclusions.
• Identifying and doing supplementary studies: Biographical studies, word studies, cultural and geographical investigation (Use Templates).  Summarizes, validate and substantiate your findings.
• Research the background of the book: Author, date and time period in which it was written. From external sources and combine them with your internal observation. Focus on facts that deal and pertain to the specific issue, avoid "Interpretation and Examination," when looking at commentaries for insight. Cross and compare several sources before coming to a conclusion. Remain objective and look for facts only. Summarizes, validate, substantiate and document/reference your findings.

3.  Interpretation and Examination: What does it mean ‘then and there’. The student then looks at what the passage says in light of the situation and the writer’s interpretation purpose of the ‘then and there’.

• Copy and paste. Culminate all the findings from observations and investigations and make a conclusion about what is being said and what was meant to the original audience it was written too.
• Be sure to make the connection with who wrote it with what was written. Be sure to connect the ‘then and there’ with what was happening at the time and with what was written. This is discovering the original indented meaning that the original author was communicating to the original audience at the original time period in which it was written. This is the goal of Biblical interpretation.
• Put it all together and write out a summary of your observations and investigations, outline the passage, the book, and write your commentary of the Biblical text.
• Research what others have written about it from other commentaries. Confirm and compare your work with others. Explore other ideas that come to bare and investigate the validity of their conclusions (be careful, remain objective).

4.  Application: How does the teaching of the passage apply to me and us, ‘here and now?’

• The student looks for the universal timeless, principle that can be applied today.
• The student looks to see if there is a comparable situation in our world to the one in the passage/text.  Situation can be Analogous:  
• The student notices how the "Then and There" and "Here and Now" are similar and different.
• The student realizes there must be a line of continuity between the "Then and There" and the "Here and Now".  Line of continuity must be established.

WARNING!!!! Only if there are significant points of similarity can there be analogous!  If our situation is much different then one cannot apply it! Do not ever do stage four without doing stage one through three first, this would short circuit the process.  The chance of misinterpreting Scripture becomes enormous.
 
5.  Response: What am I or we going to do about what it teaches.

• This is where the intended meaning of Scripture becomes personal and real i.e. what does it means to me!
• This is the point at which the student’s life is changed!
• This is where the power and authority of the Scripture is discovered!
• This is the point at which the Scripture ceases to be simple words on paper and it provides an opportunity for an encounter with the Living God. Allow Scripture to study you!

6.  Communication:  How can I share what I've discovered to others? This is done in three ways:

• Preaching and Teaching: 
• Proclaiming the message in order to win a decision for Christ from the lost of the world.
• Structuring and managing a learning experience in such a way that people are led to discover what a Passage teaches and are led to an appropriate respond to its message!
• Sermon/Lesson Outline: Interpretation, illustration, application and transition; conduct this process for every paragraph in the passage. You should always be able to include and/or point back to the Key Center somewhere in the transition.  You should always be able to reinforce the Key Center as the overall theme!   

1.  Exegesis:  Copy and paste a brief interpretation along with all pertinent data from the situation and purpose clues.  Also, copy and paste all the observations of your paragraph justification, word study summaries and supplementary studies as they relate to your interpretation of this particular paragraph. Rewrite all data into a cohesive flow of thought.  Include commentary quotations at your discretion. 
2. Illustration:  Use stories, word pictures, life experiences, and creativity. Visual aids are highly recommended. It is strongly recommended to use Old Testament narratives when illustrating what is taught in the New Testament.
3. Application:  This should relate the teaching of the passage to felt human need and not a need the audience is perceived to have by the teacher. This is to address any of the three major domains of human personality (cognitive, affective or psychomotor), but must be stated in observable, behavioral terms.  They should be stated in terms of what the expected response of the congregation should be. 
4. Transition: Creating the bridge with this paragraph to the next paragraph should not be any longer than three sentences. Find creative ways to draw them into the next biblical truth and usher them into the next level of the passage. Something that grabs or hooks them into what you are saying. Always be able to point directly to the Key Center of the passage, every time
5. Symmetrical Pattern:  Make paragraph titles with reoccurring words or phrases that are consistent with both the train of the thought, paragraph points, and the Key Center.

Two objectives for the lesson

• For Christians – The expected response of those in the congregation to the truth in the passage should be made clear i.e. what is the Key Center. 
• For Non-Christians the objective is to define the expected response to the truth of the passage. Be very consciences to not personalize the text as related to Bible interpretational fallacies.  Directly link the situation of what is happening in the text with what’s happening ‘here in now’. Bring the ‘then and there’ to ‘here and now’.