How not to interpret the Book of Daniel. Part 5

If you want to identify the fourth kingdom in the Book of Daniel with the Roman Empire, the following 'hermeneutical principles' might come in handy:

(1) First, there is absolutely no need to know the languages in which the Biblical texts are written in. Liberal scholars tend to know the Biblical languages, and, hey, we all know what that leads to.

(2) Second, you really do not need to have any formal training in Biblical or religious studies. True, if you want to say something about psychology or economics you should probably have some done some academic studies within this field, but when it comes to reading the Bible, there's no need for that! If you have to back up your interpretation, you just need to read what others have said (in English) and pick and choose what ever seems to support your interpretation. Use the following device: "N.N. made the following observation [which, of course, supports my argument]"...

(3) Do your research on the Internet – only if you do not find anything supporting your theory, you should try some of the commentaries.

(4) You should always be guided by the following religious bias: The Bible cannot be wrong in any way. Thus, if a natural reading supports an interpretation which may create problems, you should try twisting the words so that they could indicate something else.

(5) Finally, you should never forget: You may always manipulate any given (Biblical) text to meet a certain view of what we feel it should be. It is with this type of 'hermeneutic' that a guy like Nostradamus still remains popular to this day. So, if there in the text exists a problem for your interpretation, you can simply say it is a "future" event, or it is "metonymous", or "symbolic", or at least it is "spiritual", or "allegorical", and then you should be able to walk away and believe that you have the only correct interpretation.

;o)