One of the biggest challenges when expositing the Old Testament compared to the New Testament is something most of us don’t immediately recognize: our own internal bias.

For many Christians, the Old Testament feels intimidating or confusing. I used to avoid it myself. Some of that comes from difficult passages. Some of it comes from past misinterpretations we’ve heard in sermons or conversations. And sometimes it comes from the way certain texts get framed culturally today.

Without proper understanding, it can be easy to read the Old Testament and walk away with the impression that God is harsh, angry, or unloving.

Once that assumption settles in, exposition can start moving in the wrong direction. It often takes one of two forms. Either the expositor approaches the text assuming God’s unjust, or they approach the text trying to prove that He’s not. In both cases, interpretation begins from bias instead of from the text itself.

Even now, with the tools and training I have, this is something I regularly pray about. I ask God to help me not misinterpret His Word or approach Scripture with assumptions that distort what He’s actually revealed.

The Problem of Reading the Old Testament Through a Modern Lens

One of the principles John Walton highlights in Chapter 5 of Wisdom for Faithful Reading speaks directly to this challenge. Walton reminds readers that Scripture was written within a specific language and culture. Because of that, we have to recognize the danger of reading ancient texts through modern assumptions.

As Walton explains, interpreters “need to be alert to the dangers of reading Scripture through our contemporary language and culture.”¹

This matters more than many people realize. Modern readers often assume that words, phrases, and cultural practices in the Bible function the same way they do today. But the biblical world operated with different assumptions, different idioms, and different cultural frameworks.

When we read the Old Testament without accounting for that cultural distance, misunderstandings are almost inevitable. Scripture ends up being interpreted through modern cultural debates instead of through the historical setting it was written in.

Studying the historical and cultural context of the text helps correct this. It allows us to see the passage through the perspective of the original audience and the author who wrote it. That doesn’t necessarily make every difficult passage easy, but it does make the text far clearer.

Sometimes even recognizing that a phrase meant something different in the ancient world can completely change the way a passage is understood.

Seeking the Author’s Intended Meaning

Walton also emphasizes another key principle in Old Testament interpretation: identifying the author’s literary intentions.

He writes that “interpretation should be supported with evidence that can identify the author’s literary intentions.”²

This principle guards against another common problem. When readers approach Scripture with strong assumptions, they often read their own meaning into the text instead of asking what the author intended to communicate.

Faithful exposition requires the opposite approach. Instead of imposing our ideas onto the passage, we need to ask what the original author was trying to say to the original audience.

That shift changes the entire process of interpretation. It forces the expositor to slow down, examine the evidence in the text, and understand the message within its historical and literary context.

When we approach Scripture this way, it becomes much easier to separate our own assumptions from what the text is actually communicating.

Faithful Exposition Requires Humility

Ultimately, one of the greatest challenges in expositing the Old Testament isn’t the text itself. It’s our tendency to bring assumptions into the text.

The principles Walton outlines help address this by reminding interpreters to step outside their modern frameworks and engage Scripture within its original context.

When we study the language, culture, and literary intention of the biblical authors, we’re far more likely to arrive at a faithful interpretation. And when we approach Scripture with humility instead of assumptions, we give the text the space to speak for itself.

Footnotes

1. John H. Walton, Wisdom for Faithful Reading: Principles and Practices for Old Testament Interpretation (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2023), 17.
2. Ibid.

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