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I've been in ministry and academia for over thirty years, both as a pastor, graduate student, faculty, and a D1 coach.  I've spent time in several universities, both Christian and secular.  My Christian experience taught me the fundamentally important lesson of having a high view of Scripture.  Treat it as God's Word.  My secular years taught me a lesson just as valuable, and one I don't find consistently in Christian contexts: be bound to the text.

In my secular experience, being bound to the text meant you shouldn't bring prior commitments to the biblical text you are studying.  Theological ideas about how the text came about or how it might be understood to achieve a theological outcome should be left behind.  The text is all that matters.  Theological commitments are irrelevant and, in fact, impediments to understanding.

This is, of course, what one would expect in a secular institution.  They aren't seminaries.  However, there is a bit of a flaw in this understanding.  Objectively is a myth. No one can jettison all preconceptions about something, no matter what the context.  The secular scholar has presuppositions of his or her own that crouch in the mind, ready to influence interpretation. I knew that, so I took that part with a grain of salt. But the lesson wasn't lost.  The text is all that matters, so we must let the text take us wherever it leads.

Ironically, despite the pervading belief in inspiration, I don't see this principle consistently practiced among Christians who study the Word.  True, any given denomination has, and needs to have certain theological commitments, but those theological commitments should not be the basis for judging the Biblical text.  The reader should have well-informed exegetical arguments for their positions but they should remain honest with the text.  They should admit that, given other interpretations of Hebrew or Greek grammar and word usage here and there, the conclusions drawn from a passage could be different.  To hide those possibilities or manipulate the text to your "obvious" conclusions is dishonest.

So it should be with personal Bible study.  The text is what is inspired, and nothing else.  Loyalty to God's Word means letting it be your master.  By definition, your interpretation or belief cannot be biblical if it does not derive directly from the text.