Dungan - Hermeneutics

D. R. Dungan's Hermeneutics: A Text-Book: Chapter I.
the Lord, and that the truth was to be had by the same methods of study that were applied to any other
branches of knowledge.
Ezra vii. 10: "For Ezra had set his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, and to teach in Israel
statutes and judgments."
Deut. xxix. 29: "The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but the things that are revealed
belong unto us and to our children forever, that. we may do all the words of this law." Nehemiah viii. 1-8
shows how they had to learn [4] the law, Ezra reads the law from morning till noon, and is assisted by
chosen men, who go among the people and explain to them the meaning of any words which they did not
understand.
From Psa. i. 1, 2; xix. 7; cxix. 39-105 we shall get David's idea of coming to the knowledge of the
will of the Lord. They must read that word, study it day and night, get all its precepts in the mind in this
way, and then may they assure themselves that they have more knowledge than the ancients--than all
their teachers.
Jesus makes Abraham say to the rich man, respecting his five brothers: "They have Moses and the
prophets; . . . if they hear not Moses and the prophets neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the
dead" (Luke xvi. 29-31).
Paul holds this view of the question. He says to Timothy, that although he has known the Holy
Scriptures from his childhood, which were able to make him wise unto salvation, he must study to show
himself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly setting forth the word of
truth. Hence he must give attention to reading, to, exhortation, to teaching.
SEC. 3. A CORRECT HERMENEUTICS WOULD GO FAR TOWARD HEALING THE DIVISIONS OF THE
CHURCH.
(1.) A wrong interpretation is not the only cause of divisions.--That the followers of Christ should be
one, does not admit of a doubt. Jesus prayed for the unity of all those who should believe on him through
the word of the apostles. The apostles condemned divisions on all occasions; even in an incipient form,
they were regarded as being carnal, and proceeding from hearts not [5] in unison with the will of Christ.
Men who were division-makers were regarded as unworthy of a place in the church, and after the first
and second admonitions were to be avoided. They were spoken of as not serving the Lord Jesus, but their
own passions. But while we regard carnality, in the form of unsanctified ambition, as the great cause of
the divisions that now serve to mar the beauty of Zion and destroy the peace and power of the kingdom
of Christ, it is not the only cause.
(2.) Selfish ambition can not be removed by rules of interpretation.--Even in the days of the apostles,
in the presence of divine inspiration, in the presence of the divine authority which had been committed to
the chosen twelve, ambitious men rose up to draw away disciples after them, ready to make merchandise
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