Have you ever heard it said, “The Bible can be made to say just about anything one wants it to say? It’s all in how you interpret it.” Well, that’s true enough. And the Bible has suffered some of the most bazaar interpretations over the years that one could possibly imagine, everything from snake handling to proxy-water baptism for dead people claims authority from the Bible. But are these things actually found in the Bible? Yes, they are. Well, then, shouldn’t we be doing them, some would ask? And, if not, why not? So very much confusion about interpreting the Bible could be dispelled if only people, and preachers in particular, would avail themselves of the greatest Guide given for the interpretation of Scripture. And, precisely, what might that be? That would be the rule given by Miles Coverdale in the year 1535, nearly 80 years before the King James Bible was issued.
Miles Coverdale was responsible for providing the first complete printed English Bible. It bore his name, the Coverdale Bible. Along with the printing of it in English, he provided these priceless words for interpreting the Bible; here they are…please listen up, “It shall greatly help ye to understand Scripture if thou mark not only what is spoken or written, but of whom, and to whom, with what words, at what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstances, considering what goeth before and what followeth after.” How simple! Yet, how profound. If only today’s Christians would seriously implement this advice in our teaching and preaching of the Bible many divisions and differences that separate Christians would melt into oblivion. One is hard-pressed to find a formula for interpreting the Bible that is more beneficial than this. And, as one who has been a student of Scripture for over fifty years, nothing we have ever read or heard from any source has so dramatically impacted my study of Scripture and the conclusions reached more than this principle by Miles Coverdale.
If we believe the Bible to be planet earth’s greatest treasure, Miles Coverdale has been the greatest tool for mining the treasure. Yet, sadly, we find repeated looks of puzzlement on the faces of people we talk to about Miles Coverdale. This needs to be changed, and there’s no better place to start than right here, right now. The Bible deserves the application of Miles Coverdale’s rules to it for interpretation.
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