John, I ask you this. How do we rightly interpret any given passage of Scripture?
Insofar as presuppositions – I hold to a "literal" method of interpretation which asserts that the biblical text is to be interpreted according to the plain meaning conveyed by its grammatical construction and historical context.
I have adopted the process(es) that I’ve learned from the works I’ve suggested elsewhere (New Testament Exegesis by Gordon Fee; The Hermeneutical Spiral by Grant Osborne; and Grasping God’s Word by Duvall and Hays). So for a source or fuller explanation of my method you may want to consult these references.
NOTE: When I’m teaching how to study one’s Bible I tweak Fee’s guidelines (as they will not be making a provisional translation but they will be dealing with the text and possible meanings).
My process is, briefly, as follows:
Pray.
At this time DO NOT open a commentary.
Read the entire book from which the passage you want to explore comes. Do not negate context. Pray. Read the passage again. Pray again.
Survey the historical context in general. Consider the original audience and how they are similar and how they are different from us. Confirm the limits of the passage and become acquainted with your pericope.
Make a provisional translation, examine this translation and make a provisional list of exegetical difficulties. Read the text through in several translations to include competing translations (especially competing translations).
Analyze sentence structures and syntactical relationships. Make a sentence flow and a sentence diagram (I prefer vertically if examining larger passages, indenting to show any shifts). Establish the text (what words did the author use, and in what word order) and analyze the grammar. Analyze significant words (if doing this on a word doc I use text colors draw out significant words). BUT do not get carried away with word studies.
The first thing you want to do in a sentence diagram is to distinguish between major and minor clauses. Clauses are those parts of the sentence that contain a subject and a predicate. The difference between a major and minor clause is that a major clause can stand alone while a minor clause cannot.
Research the historical and cultural background. Pay attention to how the original audience would have understood the authors words and how the words have been understood throughout history.
In a very short (and incomplete) summary that is a glimpse of my process and what I teach others.
I can't, however, teach you biblical literacy online and in a discussion forum. I recommend the references provided.
Good luck.