Scripture Interprets Scripture
Bible Answers Built on Scripture
Letting Scripture interpret Scripture.
Explore Bible questions answered from the text itself. Reusable Scripture Blocks help you examine what is written, what it says, and how the whole of Scripture constrains the conclusion.
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Start with a question, a passage, or a subject you want to understand.
The governing principle
How Scripture Interprets Scripture
SIS is built on the conviction that Scripture should interpret Scripture. Conclusions about Scripture should be constrained by Scripture. We assemble the relevant biblical evidence first and allow that evidence to shape the answer.
- Scripture interprets Scripture. Let God’s Word explain and constrain our understanding of God’s Word.
- Any, only, all relevant Scripture. Consider the whole biblical witness to the question.
- Don’t weight one Scripture over another. Do not use a preferred passage to set aside what another passage establishes.
Examine the biblical case for Scripture interpreting Scripture · Learn the Bible Study Framework
The interpretive process
The PEN Hermeneutic
Possibility → Elimination → Necessity
Possibility
Consider what a passage might mean.
Elimination
Eliminate interpretations that conflict with what Scripture establishes elsewhere.
Necessity
Call a conclusion necessary only when the biblical evidence actually requires it.
Possibility is not necessity. Eliminating one possibility does not automatically establish another. If a viable alternative remains, the conclusion is not necessary. State conclusions only at the size Scripture gives them.
Read the three-part PEN Editorial series · Explore Questions that illustrate PEN
How an SIS Answer Is Built
- 1. Question
Identify what needs to be answered.
- 2. Scripture Blocks
Assemble the relevant biblical evidence.
- 3. Application to the Question
Explain how each passage bears on this question.
- 4. Answer
Summarize what the evidence establishes.
The Answer is the concise conclusion, not the entire study. Beneath it, you can inspect the Scripture Blocks and their application for yourself.
What is written? → What does it say? → What is its immediate context?
A Scripture Block is authored once and reused wherever that passage applies. Extended Context provides additional study where needed.
A Connected Library of Biblical Evidence
Follow a Question to its passages—or begin with a passage and discover the Questions it helps answer.
by Testament
- Old (308)
- New (804)
by Genre
- Law (75)
- History (43)
- Poetry (68)
- Prophecy (122)
- Gospels (224)
- Epistles (580)
by Citation
- Acts 2:37-39 (18)
by Book
- Acts (92)
Browse the Bible Verse Reference and full library statistics
Explore Bible Questions
Choose a theme to explore the Questions gathered around it.
The PEN Editorial series
From “Might Mean” to “Must Mean”
Three published Editorials explain the process, its limits, and its relationship to Command, Example, and Necessary Inference. Editorials provide longer explanation and argument; Questions bring the evidence together in concise answers.
Recently Answered Questions
Go deeper with connected studies
What Is Truth?
Some subjects need more than a single Question. Truth Series connect related Questions into a broader study, keeping the biblical evidence within reach.
Examine the Evidence for Yourself
We don’t ask readers to accept a conclusion simply because we reached it. Examine the Scripture Blocks that produced it. If relevant Scripture has been overlooked, contribute it. Scripture remains the authority by which the conclusion is tested.
