Hermeneutics

The Ethereal Mind biblical hermeneutics guide for maximizing the interpretation of Scripture.

Assume the Bible is infallible (John 10).
Assume the Bible is divinely revealed through inspired authors.
Ask the Holy Spirit for discernment and guidance, and expect God to follow through. Asking to understand his own Scripture is not a bad thing.
In his first temptation in Matthew, Jesus responded to the devil’s temptation by saying, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word from the mouth of God”. Notice that Jesus said “every word”. Yes, you read that correctly: every. word.
Thanks to Dr. Michael Heiser: “If a verse looks weird, then it is probably important.”
Thanks to Dr. Michael Heiser: “If textual variances occur for a given passage, choose the most difficult or most unique one. Hard, difficult readings are preferred because it is an argument for originality.”
Thanks to Chuck Missler: “Metaphors abound where mysteries reside”. In other words, don’t be too quick to use metaphors to resolve confusing passages as a cop out mechanism.
Let the Bible interpret the Bible. If one passage seems to contradict another passage, then assume your interpretation is incorrect and try to find a reconciliation.
Jesus, his crucifixion, and his resurrection can never be compromised. If it is compromised, then something went very wrong in your interpretation (Galatians 3).
It is helpful to look at the New Testament as the fullness of revelation from the Old Testament.
It is very helpful to look at the New Testament as a hindsight commentary of the Old Testament.
Use scholarly/secular resources wisely to help rebuild the context that biblical authors likely used. For example, using the Book of Enoch from the Second Temple Period to help exegete confusing New Testament passages is reasonable. Likewise, without archeology, history, or maps, I would not even know where certain places are in the Bible. The Bible did not provide those for me within the text, so that’s a hint to use other resources to rebuild context.
Look at Revelation as a crescendo, a final, PhD masterpiece of all of the biblical books before it. Expect Revelation to be steeped in Old Testament references.
Look at Old Testament prophetic references in the New Testament and see if they reveal a prophetic hermeneutic.
Don’t be afraid of the supernatural.
The biblical books were written for us but not to us.
Considering that the Scriptures are God-breathed, expect them to be somewhat dynamic. When God gives breath to things, those things move. See this hermeneutics stack exchange question.
Try reading Jesus’ words in the gospels in discourse-sized chunks (called Discourse Analysis). Read entire chunks together as discourses and see when a discourse ends with a narrative marker; this can add needed context for interpretation.
If, while exegeting Scripture, you forget to love God or to love your neighbor as yourself, then you have missed the entire point. Correct yourself and try again.