How did JESUS interpret the Bible?

 

HOW DID JESUS INTERPRET THE BIBLE?

John 13:16: “Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master…”

Pastor Terry L. Reese, 6/20/25

 

Our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrably accepted the complete authority, prophetic certainty, infallibility, and utter inerrancy of Scripture. Further, He fully embraced the literal-historical-grammatical hermeneutic with regard to His interpretive method.

 

Matt. 5:17-18: “…not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”

Here, He teaches that inspiration extends throughout the Scripture—even unto every letter and word—and that its fulfillment is inevitable.

 

John 10:35: “…the Scripture cannot be broken…”

Here, He states the Scripture cannot be “broken:” i.e., annulled, set aside, disproven, or proven erroneous.

 

Matt. 26:54: How, then, would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say this must happen?"

At His arrest, Jesus states unto Peter that with regard to Biblical prophecy, there is an iron predestination involved that demands that the Scripture MUST be fulfilled; also note v. 31: He states that Zech. 13:7 MUST be fulfilled!

 

John 17:17: “Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth.”

Jesus makes it plain that constant indoctrination and ingestion of the powerful, supernaturally-laden Word of Truth is the Divinely appointed agent unto practical sanctification, and the key to personal holiness.  

 

Matt. 22:29: “You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.”

Our Lord affirms inerrancy: if the Sadducees would simply have understood and affirmed the Word, they would not have erred!

 

He interpreted Gen. 1-11—a section that is invariably dismissed by the world as mythological or merely symbolic—as constituting straightforward literal history, without a hint of allegorization; e.g., Mark 10:6 (principles for marriage are based upon a literal Adam & Eve, who lived, according to the literal Mosaic time-frame, at the “beginning of creation”), Luke 11:50-51 (a literal Abel, who lived at the “foundation of the world”), Matt. 24:37-39 (a literal Noah’s Flood, likened to His own future and literal Second Coming).

 

In short, no honest person can escape it: He handled the Scripture like a Biblical Fundamentalist!  

 

Further, He regarded Himself as the core and center of Old Testament prophecy and teaching (Luke 24:27; John 5:39, 46)--another important principle of Biblical hermeneutics (i.e., the Scripture is Christocentric)!  

Lastly, He modeled the example of SOLA SCRIPTURA (2 Tim. 3:16-17): the Bible stands alone as the uniquely authoritative, infallible, and all-sufficient source of Authority. "IT IS WRITTEN" (e.g., Matt. 4:1-11) was His constant and final court of appeal. This stands in contrast to rabbis, who constantly appealed to the rabbinic tradition of the Mishna (i.e., extra-biblical Jewish oral tradition).

 

If He is the Master and we are His Disciples (i.e., those who learn from the Master, and then proceed to follow the Master’s footsteps), then we MUST follow Him in this!