I don’t believe there is any single ‘right’ way to read or interpret the scriptures. Throughout my life, passages of scripture have meant different things to me at different times. You might have had the experience of reading a verse for the umpteenth time, only to have it jump out at you for the first time, and saying to yourself, ‘I’m sure that verse wasn’t there last time I read.’ It happens to me a lot.

The Jews had 4 ways to read the scriptures:

1. Peshat: the literal, simple level.

2. Remez: the allegorical level

3. Derash: the sermonic level – what the text means to individual people applying it in their lives

4. Sod: the mystical level

I often tell myself that I ‘should’ really spend more time examining the scriptures with each of these four ideas in mind. And when I listen to talks given by Robert Kay, for example, on understanding what it means to call upon the name of the Lord in Ether 3-4, it blows my mind at what there is to discover (see the video here). Robert is totally fascinating and I encourage you to give him a listen if you haven’t previously.

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