Principle 13
HERMENEUTICS
PRINCIPLE 13
Allow for the Fuller Meaning of Scripture
Have you ever thought, “is there ever a ‘deeper meaning’ to the text in Scripture?”
Were the human authors always aware of everything they were writing, or did the process of inspiration sometimes allow them to write “over their heads”? Does our literal, straightforward interpretation exhaust the text of all its meaning, or is there sometimes an expanded, or fuller, meaning to the text of Scripture?
Let’s look at 1 Peter 1:10-12:
“This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward. They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you…”
This Scripture confirms that a “Fuller Meaning of Scripture” is a biblical principle. We see it in the Bible itself. 1 Peter 1:10-12 indicates that the Old Testament authors wrote about some things that they themselves did not fully understand. The prophets probably had more insight than we realize, but they didn’t completely comprehend all that they wrote. So, we must also allow for the fuller meaning of Scripture.
We shouldn’t think of the fuller meaning of Scripture as a second meaning or new meaning that changes the original meaning of the text. The original meaning remains unchanged. The fuller meaning is an expanded meaning - a meaning that became apparent with further revelation from God.
A mature oak tree and an acorn look very different, yet they’re not different in essence. Leaves, bark, sap, and everything else are contained in the acorn. It’s just a matter of time before the fuller sense of the tree is revealed. In the same way, through the process of inspiration, God sovereignly led the human authors of Scripture to write in such a way that all the depth and beauty of the fuller meaning was present in seed form from the start.
The concept of the fuller meaning of Scripture, however, can also lead to problems. Who determines when God intended a deeper meaning of a text of Scripture? Dangerous consequences can result from Christians incorrectly go too far in reading an expanded meaning into some Scriptures. Because of this danger, some believers reject the idea of a fuller meaning of Scripture. 1Peter 1:10-12, however, shows that it’s right to allow for the fuller meaning of Scripture, with caution. The fuller meaning must always agree with the clear meaning in the rest of Scripture. Let’s look at some specific examples of this principle.
Prophecy
Predictive Prophecy
Many Old Testament prophecies are easy for us to interpret, since they’ve already been fulfilled. But when the Old Testament authors wrote these prophecies, they did not fully understand their implications, or how they would be fulfilled.
Genesis 3:15
“And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
This is the first promise of the coming Messiah in the Bible. When Moses recorded this prophecy, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he probably didn’t understand its reference to the coming Messiah who would defeat Satan by being crucified on a Roman cross. The teaching of the New Testament is needed to fully understand the meaning of this prophecy.
Isaiah 9:6
“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
When Isaiah wrote this prophecy, he probably didn’t realize that the Holy Spirit was leading him to write it in such a way that the full deity and full humanity of the Messiah would be revealed. The child would be born, emphasizing His full humanity, and the Son (of God) would be given, emphasizing His full deity.
Daniel 12:8-9
“I heard what he said, but I did not understand what he meant. So I asked, “How will all this finally end, my lord?” But he said, “Go now, Daniel, for what I have said is kept secret and sealed until the time of the end.”
Here, Daniel asked for the meaning of the vision he had received, and he was told that the meaning was sealed up until the end times. Although Daniel wrote the vision he had received, he did not completely understand it. The fuller meaning awaited future interpretation.
Types
We discussed the significance of Old Testament types in Principle 12. Types are actually a form of prophecy. The biblical authors didn’t understand that types were included in their inspired accounts and records. For example, when Moses lifted up a bronze serpent on a pole in the wilderness, he and the other Old Testament believers didn’t realize that this represented Christ, who would be lifted up as the sin-bearer on the cross. In view of what Jesus says in John 3, we must allow for the fuller meaning of Scripture when interpreting Numbers 21.
Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28
Isaiah 14 is a denunciation of the king of Babylon. Ezekiel 28 is the inspired record of the fall of the king of Tyre. Both of these texts go beyond these human kings to reveal that the evil source of power behind them was Satan. So the fuller meaning of these texts is that these ancient kings are types of Satan.
Messianic Psalms
Messianic psalms are psalms that give us insight into the character, experiences, emotions, and attitude of the Messiah. The messianic psalms can be subdivided as:
Pure Prophetic
Pretty prophetic psalms are prophecies about the coming Messiah that have nothing to do with the experiences of the psalmist. Psalm 110, written by David, prophesied about the coming Messiah and had nothing to do with David’s experiences. This psalm is one of the most quoted psalms in the New Testament.
Typical Prophetic
Typical prophetic psalms address the Messiah and the personal experiences of the psalmist. When David wrote Psalm 69, he was experiencing rejection, as we see especially in verse 4. But we know that this verse is also messianic because it’s quoted in reference to Christ in John 15:25. But look at verse 5. “O God, You know my foolishness; and my sins are not hidden from You” (emphasis added). This part of the psalm is certainly not messianic; it refers to David only. So we see that some of this psalm looks beyond the experiences of David to Jesus, while other parts of the psalm refer only to David’s experiences.
Some psalms are a combination of both pure prophetic and typical prophetic. Psalm 16 is a good example of this type of psalm.
We see that with all of these messianic psalms, we need the New Testament to properly interpret them. We must allow for the fuller meaning of these messianic psalms.
NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECY
Is it possible that some of the New Testament authors didn’t fully understand their prophecies when they wrote them? Yes, as we see in these following examples:
2 Peter 3:10-12
“The day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along. On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.”
This passage vividly describes the coming of the day of the Lord. What does the prediction that “the elements themselves will disappear in fire” mean? Does it mean the elements will change in their atomic structure and new elements will be formed? Is it speaking about radioactive decay? We can't be sure, and likely Peter didn’t fully understand it either. We’ll know some day - and we can be sure that the Holy Spirit led Peter to use those exact words to accurately describe the events.
Revelation 13:17-18
“And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name. Wisdom is needed here. Let the one with understanding solve the meaning of the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666.”
John’s Revelation speaks of the “mark of the beast” and the number “666.” How is the number 666 associated with this end-times character? Does it mean his name will be a numerical acrostic? Does it mean he will have some sort of barcode associated with his name? Again, we don’t know, and the apostle John probably didn’t fully understand the meaning of the number either. But true believers in the coming tribulation period will understand the meaning of this number. The fuller meaning of Scripture will be understood at that time.
Arrangement of Scripture
Another area of fuller meaning is the divine “arrangement” of Scripture.
The Gospels
A classic example would be the Gospels. Jesus Christ is presented as the King by Matthew, the Perfect Servant by Mark, the Son of Man by Luke, and the Son of God by John. This arrangement was superintended by the divine Author, the Holy Spirit. The inspired writers were probably unaware of this divine arrangement as they were writing.
The Feasts of Israel in Leviticus 23
Another example would be the annual Feasts of Israel, which not only commemorated events in Israel’s history, but also portrayed Israel’s future in perfect chronological order. The order in which the following feast were celebrated was no coincidence:
Passover (portraying Christ’s death)
The Feast of First-fruits (portraying Christ’s resurrection)
Pentecost (portraying coming of the Holy Spirit)
How much more will the fuller meaning of Scripture be realized in the future with these events!
The regathering of Israel (represented by the Feast of Trumpets)
Israel’s coming national repentance (portrayed in the Day of Atonement)
Israel’s place of blessing in Christ’s future earthly kingdom (seen in the Feast of Tabernacles)
The Sacrificial Lamb
As we trace the theme of the sacrificial lamb in Scripture, we find:
a sacrificial lamb for the individual in Genesis 4
a sacrificial lamb for the family in Exodus 12
a sacrificial lamb for the nation in Leviticus 16
The foundation is laid for the climax of the theme in John 1, where we see the Sacrificial Lamb for the world! What treasures of the Word we would miss if we did not allow for the fuller meaning of Scripture!
Scientific Statements
The overall purpose of the Bible is not to teach science, although Scripture does address science. However, because the Bible is the Word of God, any scientific statement that is made in the Bible will be scientifically accurate. This is true, even when the human authors did not fully understand their scientific statements. Keep in mind that most scientific statements in Scripture were written from the perspective of how things appeared to be at the time they were written.
Ecclesiastes 1:5
“The sun rises and the sun sets, then hurries around to rise again.”
This verse says the sun rises and sets. We know that the sun does not actually rise and set—rather, the earth rotates around the sun. But Ecclesiastes 1:5 is not scientifically incorrect. Even today’s ultra-scientific weather reports give the times of the “sunrise” and “sunset.”
Isaiah 40:22
“God sits above the circle of the earth. The people below seem like grasshoppers to Him! He spreads out the heavens like a curtain and makes His tent from them.”
This verse describes God sitting above the circle of the earth. Was Isaiah thinking (from his perspective) that the sky forms a circular bowl over the earth? Or was he writing scientifically “over his head,” and indicating in this statement that the earth is a sphere, even though this was unknown at the time? We can’t be sure.
Ecclesiastes 1:6-7
“The wind blows south, and then turns north. Around and around it goes, blowing in circles. Rivers run into the sea, but the sea is never full. Then the water returns again to the rivers and flows out again to the sea.”
Did Solomon, the author of Ecclesiastes, understand the great wind circuits that we now understand? Probably not. Did he know of the earth’s hydrological cycle? Probably not. But we see that the verses are scientifically accurate, in the light of today’s scientific knowledge of the natural world.
We should be careful not to read too much scientific knowledge into Scripture, although some passages contain knowledge that was beyond the biblical writer.