Walton, Bailey, and Williford’s point is an important one. But how can teachers be certain they are teaching what the author intended? The answer to that question is found in the process of Bible study. Through careful exegesis (reading the meaning out of the passage) using some foundational rules of hermeneutics (the rules of Bible interpretation), the student and teacher of the Bible can indeed come to an understanding of the biblical author’s central principle. That principle can then be applied in appropriate ways today.
