Interpreter

An interpreter in Scripture is a person who makes known the meaning of something that cannot be understood on its own — a dream, a sign, or speech in a language the hearers do not know — and the Bible consistently presents that capacity as given by God rather than produced by the interpreter's own skill. Linguistically, the Hebrew noun for a dream's interpretation (pitron) runs through the Joseph narrative in Genesis 40–41, and the Aramaic cognate (peshar) recurs in Daniel 2 and 4–5; both carry the sense of a solution or explanation rather than a translation.

The text says that when Pharaoh asked Joseph to interpret his dream, Joseph answered, "It isn't in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace" (Genesis 41:16). Daniel strikes the same posture before Nebuchadnezzar: "there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets" (Daniel 2:28), and the interpretation was given "not... for any wisdom that I have more than any living" (Daniel 2:30). Both men are outsiders — a prisoner and an exile — while the established wise men of Egypt and Babylon fail, and both credit the disclosure to God, who "gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who have understanding" and "reveals the deep and secret things" (Daniel 2:21–22). Daniel and his companions first seek mercy concerning the secret (Daniel 2:18) and then thank God for making it known (Daniel 2:23), so that interpretation in these chapters is closer to received revelation than to technique. Scripture repeatedly locates the knowledge of hidden things with God himself; the account of the Babylonian envoys who came to inquire about the wonder done in the land notes that God left Hezekiah to test him, "that he might know all that was in his heart" (2 Chronicles 32:31).

In the New Testament the term shifts to the public assembly. "Interpretation of languages" appears among the gifts of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:10), and Paul's questions "Do all speak with various languages? Do all interpret?" (1 Corinthians 12:30) presuppose that this gift, like the others, is distributed selectively. Its purpose is stated directly: the one who speaks in a language should interpret "that the assembly may be built up" (1 Corinthians 14:5), and in the ordering of worship an interpretation is one of the contributions offered so that "all things be done to build each other up" (1 Corinthians 14:26). The interpreter here serves the congregation's edification, not his own standing.

Christian traditions differ over where interpretation belongs. In Pentecostal and charismatic teaching, the interpretation of tongues is a gift still given and normally accompanies a public message in tongues, subject to testing. Cessationist traditions hold that the revelatory gifts, including tongues and their interpretation, ceased with the apostolic era, and that interpretation now means the church's ordinary labour of translation, exegesis, and preaching. Catholic and Orthodox teaching locates authoritative interpretation of Scripture in the church's teaching office and the consensus of the fathers, while Protestant traditions emphasise the Spirit-illumined reading of Scripture by ordinary believers under its own clarity. Across these differences, the traditions broadly agree on the point the biblical texts press: an interpreter does not invent the meaning but reports what has been given.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.