📖 Biblical Definition
The Literal-Grammatical-Historical method reads Scripture according to (1) the literal sense intended by the human author, (2) the grammatical structures of the original languages, and (3) the historical situation of writer and original audience. The Reformers reasserted this method against medieval allegorizing; Reformed and most modern conservative biblical scholarship continues it. Literal here means ‘intended by the author’, not flat-footed; figurative speech is read figuratively, poetry as poetry, narrative as narrative.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
(Hermeneutical method.) The standard Reformation method: literal sense, grammatical structures, historical context.
expand to see more
Literal: the sense the author intended, in the genre he was using. Includes figurative speech, poetry, parable, prophecy — all read according to their own conventions.
Grammatical: the original languages' syntax, vocabulary, idiom. Historical: the original audience's situation, customs, culture. Together: read what the human author meant for the original audience, then ask how the divine intent extends through it.
📖 Key Scripture
2 Timothy 2:15 — "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
Nehemiah 8:8 — "So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading."
Acts 17:11 — "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so."
Luke 24:27 — "And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern reader-response hermeneutics often subordinates author-intent to reader-meaning; literal-grammatical-historical interpretation insists the text means what the author meant.
expand to see more
‘Literal’ in this method is often misunderstood. It does not mean ‘flat-footed’ (Christ's I-am-the-vine is figurative literal-grammatical-historical reading); it means ‘according to authorial intent in the genre’.
The method protects against two corruptions: pious allegorizing that finds whatever suits the reader, and skeptical higher-criticism that finds whatever the reader-decided assumptions allow. Both subordinate the text to the reader; literal-grammatical-historical reading lets the text mean what the text said.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Modern English compound; Reformation methodological recovery.
expand to see more
Latin litera (letter) plus Greek grammatikê (grammar) plus Latin historia (history).
Note: the method does not exclude typology or apostolic christological reading; it grounds them in the literal foundation.
Usage
"Read what the human author meant for the original audience."
"Then ask how the divine intent extends through it."
"‘Literal’ means according to authorial intent in the genre."