Patterson’s 10 Rules of Biblical Interpretation or Why You are Having Trouble Understanding the Bible

Rule #1: You don’t interpret the Bible, the Bible interprets you.

Rule #2: If there is something you read in the Bible that you don’t agree with, you must change, not the Bible.

Rule #3: There is only one meaning to Scripture that matters and that is God’s intended meaning. Our job is to find out what He meant to communicate. Anything else is superfluous and a waste of time.

Rule #4: You cannot truly understand the Bible apart from the Holy Spirit, yet anyone can understand what the Bible says.

Rule #5: While there is only one meaning to Scripture, there are as many applications as there are people.

Rule #6: First obey what you read in Scripture, then you will understand. Obeying the clear parts of Scripture prepares you to understand the difficult passages.

Rule #7: The Bible is the only self-attesting Book that is the self-revelation of the self-existing triune God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is the mediator between God and man and many Scriptures speak of Him. Yet, the Bible also reveals the Unity of God, the Fatherhood of God, and that God is the Holy Spirit. It is a mistake to interpret the Bible as only revealing or speaking about the Second Person of the Trinity.

Rule #8: God uses different literary devices and genres. If you don’t understand this, you will remain confused as to what the meaning is.

Rule #9: There is always a structure in writing. Try to understand the skeleton of how a passage is put together and you then will grasp the whole.

Rule #10: The Bible is not made up of two Books, one old and one new, nor is it 66 Books. It is One Book that reveals all that we need for faith and practice. If you read it as two Books or 66 Books, you will not understand it. And just as you can’t understand a book by reading one sentence or one chapter, so you will not understand the Scriptures as you should unless and until you read it in its entirety.