Messiah Bible Institute seeks to promote originalist hermeneutics in Biblical Studies by providing free teaching online for interested students of the Bible.
We define “originalist hermeneutics” as:
- Seeking the original biblical author’s intended meaning rather than reader-response approaches;
- Grammatico-historical interpretation rather than imposing systems of theology upon the biblical text;
- Identifying the single meaning of a biblical text and applying it accurately to contemporary believers rather than confusing application with meaning;
- Understanding the progressive revelation of Scripture and thus the foundational nature of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Apostolic Scriptures [New Testament] must be interpreted through the lens of the Hebrew Bible; the New Testament does not alter the original meaning of the Hebrew Bible nor reinterpret it).
The primary instructor at MBI has earned the Master of Divinity (M.Div.), Master of Theology (Th.M.), and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Biblical Studies from fully (nationally and regionally) accredited conservative evangelical/fundamentalist seminaries in the United States. He has published an exegetical commentary on Galatians and has taught at multiple Bible colleges and seminaries throughout the US.
Messiah Bible Institute 