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"Every author writes immediately for his contemporaries." "That interpretation
should be preferred which accords best with the genius and language of the writer's
contemporaries"--Seiler (and another).
(2) The immediate context must be taken into account. Think of the translations of
such a word as pneuma. It is rendered in the A.V. "Ghost" (both small and capital "g"),
"life", "breath" (margin), "spirit" (both small and capital "s"), "spiritual gift",
"spiritually" and "wind".
Stoicheion means, in Peter's usage `the elements out of which the visible fabric of
creation is built' (II Pet. 3: 10, 12), whereas when used by Paul, the word means:
"those rudimentary first steps that belong to the dispensation of the law, or in the world,
as contrasted with the fullness found under grace."
(3) Antithesis and contrast are often deciding factors. We remember one friend who
had accepted the doctrine that God was the author of sin, maintaining in proof that there
was a passage that read:
"I make good and create evil."
He had unconsciously accommodated the Scripture to his own terrible doctrine. The
actual passage says:
"I make peace, and create evil" (Isa. 45: 7) not "I make good and create evil."
The Hebrew word translated `evil' is ra, and is rendered adversity, affliction, bad,
calamity, displeasure, distress, evil, grief, grievous, harm, heavy, hurt, hurtful, ill,
mischief, ill favoured, mischievous, misery, naught, naughty, noisome, sad, sorrow,
trouble, sore, wicked, wickedness, wickedly, worse, wretchedness and wrong.
Now while it may be true that the A.V. translators exercised a considerable latitude
in rendering the Hebrew and the Greek of the originals, such an array of renderings
cannot be dismissed without examination. We discover that evil may refer to moral evil
or it may refer to calamity and grief that follows judgment for sin. This being the case,
the matter is settled by contrast. If the word `good' is used in contrast, then evil will
most likely be moral, if `peace' be used in contrast, then evil will refer to some affliction.
Isa. 45: 7 does not countenance the idea that God is the author of moral evil, it teaches
that God is the One Who both awards peace and Who sends affliction according to His
righteous judgment of man.
We now consider in the next place the importance of investigating parallel passages.
(4) Parallel passages must be considered before deciding the meaning of any word
used in Scripture, and this comparison must cover the following seven subdivisions:
(a)
Parallel passages in the writings of the same author.
(b)
Parallel passages in the writings of other authors.
(c)
Obscure passages compared with simple and clear parallels.