Rules of Interpretation and
Directions for Investigating the Scriptures
- First. Let the Bible define and explain its own terms,
figures and symbols.
- Second. Give every passage a literal construction,
unless its own connection and phraseology render such a course
absurd, by bringing it into collision with truths elsewhere established
by positive language.
- Third. The proper connection of any given passage is not
always that with which it stands immediately connected,
but those bearing on the same subject found recorded anywhere
in the Scriptures. Select all these texts from where they stand,
put them together and you will have all the truth revealed
on that subject.
- Fourth. All passages belonging to any particular subject
must contain one or more of the peculiar features of that subject,
by which it may be identified as belonging to that subject.
- Fifth. The truth in relation to any doctrine must be established
by those passages which speak of it in positive and unequivocal
language, and those texts belonging to the same subject but which
only admit of inferential testimony, no inference should be drawn
from them at variance with the truths already established by positive
texts.
- Sixth. No doctrine should be predicated upon mere
inference, neither upon one isolated text of Scripture. Any true
doctrine will be found interspersed through the whole Bible.
