From time to time, evangelicals use the expression sensus plenior, meaning the “full sense” of Scripture. While we affirm the importance of the literal sense or the original meaning of a biblical passage, we also realize that later portions of the Bible often refer to earlier portions of Scriptures in ways that do not simply repeat the literal or original sense. Instead, they discerned a fuller sense, a sensus plenior, for these Old Testament passages.

We’ll define the “full value” of a biblical text as:

The total significance of a text, consisting of its original meaning, all its biblical elaborations, and all its legitimate applications.

The “original meaning” is the literal sense of Scripture, which is the most fundamental aspect of the text. “Biblical elaborations” are:

Places where one part of Scripture directly or indirectly comments on an aspect of the meaning of another passage in Scripture.

Because all Scripture is inspired and infallible, these elaborations always accord with and confirm original meaning. Sometimes, an elaboration is stated as a repetition of a facet of the original meaning. For example, the commandment against murder is first recorded in Exodus 20:13, which says, “You shall not murder.” In Deuteronomy 5:17, Scripture again says, “You shall not murder.”

This repetition confirmed the commandment and reminded God’s people of the terms of his covenant. Of course, even when an elaboration is stated in the form of a repetition, it never merely repeats what was said before. The context of the elaboration always adds something to its meaning.

At other times, a biblical elaboration may be stated as a clarification of things that weren’t entirely apparent or well understood. We find a clarification of the commandment against murder in Numbers 35. In that chapter, Moses distinguished between murder and accidental manslaughter. Listen to what Moses wrote in Numbers 35:20-25:

If anyone with malice aforethought shoves another or throws something at him intentionally so that he dies or if in hostility he hits him with his fist so that he dies, that person shall be put to death; he is a murderer... But if without hostility someone suddenly shoves another or throws something at him unintentionally or, without seeing him, drops a stone on him that could kill him, and he dies, then … the assembly must protect the one accused of murder.

This clarification provides information that was crucial to understanding the commandment against murder. It makes it clear that not every unlawful instance of killing a human being is also an instance of murder and that accidents shouldn’t be punished in the same way that murder is punished.

And at still other times, a biblical elaboration can be an expansion of the meaning of a particular passage. Listen to what Jesus taught about the commandment against murder in Matthew 5:21-22:

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.” But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.

This elaboration was an expansion of the original meaning of the commandment because it brought additional information from other passages to bear on the commandment in ways that revealed the original intention of the commandment within the broader context of God’s revelation.

Original meaning and biblical elaborations are inspired and hold full authority over all believers in every age. But our applications are not inspired by God. We make mistakes, and our applications are always subject to modification and improvement. Even so, to the extent that our applications are true to Scripture, they’re part of God’s intended use for the Bible, and therefore part of the Bible’s full value.

As we can see, the full value of the simple command “do not murder” can be extremely complex and multifaceted. Jesus and Paul applied this commandment not only to the unjust taking of human life, but also to all that is similar to murder in kind if not in degree, such as hatred and insults. Applications like these are based on the original meaning of the prohibition against murder, as well as on its biblical elaborations, and they’re appropriate in our contemporary situations. For these reasons, they’re part of the full value of Scripture.