Course
Biblical Hermeneutics for Beginners
Learn how to interpret Scripture with greater care, clarity, and theological responsibility through a disciplined introduction to the principles of biblical interpretation.
Overview
Interpret with greater care
Biblical Hermeneutics for Beginners introduces the foundational principles that guide thoughtful interpretation of the Bible, helping learners understand how meaning emerges through language, historical setting, literary context, genre, authorial purpose, and the broader canonical witness of Scripture. The course explains why interpretation matters and how readers inevitably bring assumptions to the text, often without recognizing them.
Designed for serious independent learners with no prior training in hermeneutics, this course makes an academically complex discipline accessible without reducing its depth. Students will learn how responsible methods help prevent common errors such as proof-texting, ignoring context, or imposing modern ideas onto ancient writings, while developing a more patient and disciplined approach to reading Scripture.
What you will study
A framework for faithful reading
Students will explore the challenges of interpreting texts from ancient cultures and languages, consider the relationship between exegesis and application, and examine how the Christian theological tradition has approached Scripture over time. By the end of the course, learners will have a stronger framework for evaluating interpretations, engaging difficult passages, recognizing genre, and reading the Bible with greater attentiveness to its historical setting, literary character, theological significance, and place within the unified story of Scripture.
Historical context
Literary genre
Exegesis and application
Theological coherence