Among basic Bible interpretation principles, the first one that I should mention, at least in passing, which hopefully most of us recognize, is the fear of the Lord. “The fear of the Lord,” Proverbs says, “is the beginning of wisdom,” or is the beginning of knowledge. If you care about understanding the text rightly—that’s an important prerequisite for approaching the text—rather than just twisting it to make it say what you want it to say or to back up what you want to believe.