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of Scripture from the rest of the writing, are details that should commend themselves to
every unashamed workman. One more word from the O.T. and we pass to the New:
"The telling of the dream, and the interpretation thereof" (Judges 7: 15).
Here the word interpretation is sheber, which means "to break", the word is so
translated in Judges 7: 20 "brake their pitchers", and the true interpreter "breaks up"
the vehicle in which the revelation of truth is made, so that the meaning shall become as
clear as the lamps in the hand of Gideon's men when their pitchers were broken. Word
study and grammatical analysis are not to be pursued for their own sake, but for the light
contained within the earthen pitchers of human language.
Turning to the N.T. we find that there are two words that are translated "interpret":
Epilusis. "No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation" (II Pet. 1: 20).
This however is not referring strictly to the "interpretation" of the Scripture, but as to
how the Scriptures originally came into being. This is manifest by the sentence that
follows, prefaced as it is with the explanatory word "for".
"For prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by Holy Ghost" (II Pet. 1: 21).
Epilusis should be translated "unfolding". Like its cognate analusis to loose up or
analyze, and dialusis to dissipate or dispense, epilusis means to solve, loosen, unbind.
This word occurs in Mark 4: 34:
"But without a parable spake He not unto them: and when they were alone, He
expounded (epiluo) all things to His disciples."
Mark tells that the Lord expounded or solved the meaning of the parables, but
Matt. 13: shows us how He did so. The reader should ponder the Lord's explanation of
the Sower, and of the Tares, as examples of epilusis.
In the preceding articles of this series we have examined the meaning and usage of the
Greek word hermeneuo "to interpret", we can therefore devote the remaining articles of
this series to a consideration of the principles of interpretation, so far as they may be of
service to the unashamed workman in his endeavour to "preach the Word" and to "make
all men see what is the dispensation of the Mystery".