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No.10.
What do we mean by "interpret"?
pp. 131 - 135
We have seen the importance of Interpretation in the quest of "meaning" and have
considered some phases and aspects of the term. There are, besides the words hermeneuo
and its compounds, other Hebrew and Greek words that must be considered before we are
ready to go forward with the study of Interpretation.
It is one thing to possess tools, it is another thing to know how to use them. No
amount of book learning will make a novice into a craftsman, and no rules that we can
give will make a believer into a trustworthy interpreter of God's Word. Yet the
craftsman learns certain rules, and the unashamed workman will appreciate help in the
great work of handling aright the Word of God.
What do we mean when we use the word "interpret"?
On one or two occasions it has been the writer's privilege to speak to gatherings of the
Lord's people in other countries, and to have the assistance of an interpreter. One such
person gracefully volunteered to interpret just whatever we chose to say, although he
himself did not believe all the things we said. With the best intentions in the world, his
mere literal interpretation failed. At another meeting of the same series another
enthusiastic believer, who did most heartily endorse our teaching regarding the Mystery,
undertook to be the interpreter, but his very zeal and anxiety that his hearers should not
miss the point, or that no feature should be withheld, made him not only interpret what
was actually said, but anticipate what might have been intended, and supplement by
comments of his own, so that the address had to stop while an agreement was come to as
to what was the correct role of an interpreter. We must never misinterpret the office of an
interpreter as one speaker did, and call it an "interrupter"! There are alas many, who in
the guise of translators or interpreters, obscure or distort the plain meaning of Holy Writ,
from whose baneful characteristics may the Lord deliver us. While the A.V. is itself a
human interpretation, and therefore must never be placed in the position that the inspired
originals alone occupy, we shall not go far astray at this point if we collect together the
different words found in the original that are translated interpret and interpretation in that
Version.
We have in Gen. 40: 22 the first occurrence of the word in the story of Joseph:
"He hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them."
The word used in this passage occurs fourteen times in Gen. 40: and 41:, and is
limited to the interpretation of dreams. We are not called upon to interpret dreams today,
and consequently need not linger over this phase of the subject.
The next reference, however, is of the utmost importance and has a direct bearing
upon our theme: