The Bible is a strange place. Sure, we smile and recite, “For God so loved the world” (John 3:16 NRSV) and “The Lord is my shepherd” (Psalm 23:1), but what about, “No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted to the assembly of the Lord” (Deut 23:1 NRSV) or “I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves” (Gal 5:12)! Weird, indeed.

It takes skill to interpret these weird verses. Truth be told, it takes skill to interpret the ones we assume are simple to understand, too! That’s where Grasping God’s Word comes in. J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hayes have created a text book in simple language that introduces the reader to the basics of biblical interpretation.

The book isn’t perfect. My biggest frustration was the unexamined individualism of the authors. They assume the ideal reader will do the challenging work of interpretation alone. While having the text and tools to interpret the Bible is a blessing, we can’t forget that the Bible was written to a people, plural. It was intended to be heard together. The individualism of Grasping God’s Word is painfully ironic when set against chapter 7’s call to check our own biases.

My other difficulty with the text was the focus on creating a “principlizing bridge” between the world of the text and our world today. That is, you figure out what the text meant, extract an eternal principle, then apply that to our world today. This isn’t a bad method and it’s one that many new hermeneutics students need to learn. My problem is that it’s presented as the only method. In fact, the way this is presented one wonders why God didn’t just give us those eternal principles to begin with! The truth is, there is no world of forms where eternal principles live unsullied by the push and pull of the world—all language and communication is encultured, even the divine Word made flesh.

To sum up my thoughts on this book, it’s an excellent way to introduce people to the challenging skill of biblical interpretation. However, it’s not the final word. As these basic skills are developed, a more nuanced hermeneutic should be developed.

Duvall, J. Scott and J. Daniel Hayes. Grasping God’s Word: A Hand’s-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible. 4th edn. Zondervan Academic, 2020.