Veritatis Gaudium: Multidisciplinary Journal of Postgraduate Studies

One aspect of biblical studies that has been demanding attention is the various misinterpretations and misinformation about the New Testament. This is because many people tend to ascribe meaning to the texts rather than depending on the intended meanings of the authors of the texts. As a result, this work intends to provide a well-informed platform for reading and interpreting the text of the New Testament amid numerous alternative interpretations. Using the historical and descriptive methods, this work argues that reading and interpretation of the Bible, which deals with deciphering the mind of the author for the original audience in a modern world, can be possible if the appropriate methodologies are applied. It is also argued that devoting time to understanding the spiritual meaning behind the encoded words forms the absolute basis for understanding the entire message. While there is a need for the retelling of biblical stories, making them contemporarily relevant becomes the absolute task of the reader and interpreter. This paper also discovers that there are several interpretations of the texts of the New Testament by incompetent hands who lack adequate qualifications, and there is a need for the Bible to be properly read and interpreted to see what it meant to the original readers and then what it means to us today in view of contemporary misinterpretations.

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