Hermeneutics And Exegesis Pdf

[Avenall Trejo]

Biblicalhermeneutics is the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation. The word most often refers to how to interpret the Bible or other sacred texts from other religions. This is not to be confused with exegesis. Where exegesis refers to the interpretation of a specific Biblical text, hermeneutics is deciding which principles we will use in order to interpret the text.

It will come as no surprise that agreeing on the importance and veracity of the Bible is only the first step in what can be a very long conversation. There are four major types of biblical hermeneutics that have arisen throughout history, although only the first is widely accepted today amongst evangelical churches.

Originally practiced by Jews who believed their laws, poems, and historical narratives had multiple layers of meanings, this approach supposes to reveal the ethics behind any text. One popular example is the Epistle of Barnabas, where the author believes the Old Testament food laws were misunderstood by the people of Israel. Rather than restricting diet, he believes the laws were meant to avoid behavior which was associated with these animals.

Closely associated with moral interpretation, this type of hermeneutics viewed the biblical narratives as having a secondary level of meaning. Most often this meant interpreting people and events as only foreshadowing people and events in the New Testament, usually Jesus and his actions. One such case would be Noah. Rather than focusing on whether or not a worldwide flood actually happened, viewing the story as an allegory allowed the readers to conclude what type of person God was seeking as followers.

Defined as mystical or spiritual, this approach sought to interpret Scripture in view of the life to come. Relying significantly on numerical values of Hebrew letters and words, the focus here was on Messianic prophecies and the study of the last days. Similar to moral and allegorical interpretation, importance was not given to the actual story but to a perceived deeper meaning behind the story.

While there are various branches of hermeneutics, we will be discussing the literal interpretation branch. We believe this allows us to understand both the original intent of the authors as well as discover how it applies to us. Here are four great rules for your personal study.

Do we mean to suggest that every story, poem, or verse only has significance as we consider the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? To be perfectly succinct, yes! The life and work of Jesus is the very center of all historical truth. The Old Testament prophesies the coming of Jesus and the New Testament teaches us about the extent of what Jesus did. Every story, every verse, and every detail involves real people relaying narrative and truth about God.

Start with prayer, end with prayer, and make sure prayer permeates every step along the way in your interpretation of the Bible. Since God will be most concerned with our application of the Bible, it follows God would be most interested in ensuring we utilize biblical hermeneutics correctly.

"Biblical hermeneutics" is specifically concerned with the philosophy and science of interpreting the Biblical text. So Biblical hermeneutics would cover all of the following sorts of inquiries and more:

Exegesis, as indicated by its etymology, is the act of critically interpreting a text in an attempt to "draw the meaning out" of the text. (This is in contrast to what has come to be know as eisegesis, where one reads his own meaning into the text.)

Basically the distinction boils down to this (as it pertains to the Bible*): Hermeneutics is the field of study concerned with how we interpret the Bible. Exegesis is the actual interpretation of the Bible by drawing the meaning out of the Biblical text.

The distinction is not quite as simple as "theory vs. application," though, since hermeneutics is not just concerned with the philosophy of exegesis, and exegesis is not merely the application of hermeneutical theory -- even if we restrict our comparison to Biblical hermeneutics and Biblical exegesis. Here are a couple of examples to illustrate this:

So we are sort of comparing apples to... ontology here. In a sense there is no overlap; The focus of exegesis is the text. The focus of hermeneutics is stuff like exegesis... why do we do it? how do we do it? how should we do it? As far as sequence, I suppose it could be argued that since exegesis is "critical" in nature, it implies some scientific method, which implies some prior hermeneutic. That is as far as I think we could go in relating the two sequentially, though.**

***Gordon Fee and Dougless Stewart, in How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth) say that exegesis is Step 1 and hermeneutics is Step 2 to emphasize that what we think about the text should be based on what the text actually says. (But they essentially had to redefined their terms in order to make this point.)*

By comparison, exegesis is the application of interpreting and translating text. There are no "exegesis techniques" (that would be hermeneutics). Instead, there are commentaries regarding the text, which are entire books of exegesis.

"What does 'water' mean in 5 Timothy 127:33?" - Exegesis

"What are the steps of Specific Infallibility Analysis?" - Hermeneutics

NOTE: both of those questions are totally made up, as should be obvious

The explanations already supplied approximate the theological reality. In practice there is sometimes confusion between hermeneutics and exegesis, since one cannot separate theory and practice, while doing (or especially when teaching) practice. I think it is also necessary to add that exegesis is a quasi-scientific approach to the Biblical text, to find the meaning intended by the human author in his historical and philosophical context. Hermeneutics, on the other hand, answers questions about the relevance of that basic message for our faith and practice today. Conservative Biblical hermeneutics considers the "authorship" of God and His broad and deep intentions for the readers, not only the basic exegetic meaning.

In classic linguistics, this actually illustrates what Exegesis is: a textually oriented "critical explanation or interpretation of a text, particularly a religious text", (Exegesis).

As Wikipedia notes, Eisegsis, from the Greek "INTO" makes inferences by bringing presuppositions INTO the text, like cultural factors, pragmatics, semiotics, etc. (Although many "Exegetes" bring cultural factors into the text, they argue that "Exegetical" purity has been maintained, *sigh ...)

We can "Inductively Infer" that Jesus Probably was a carpenter, if we also prove that there is an ancient authority which demonstrates that fathers taught their sons their trade, and sons were obliged to follow in their footsteps. (IF this authority actually exists, then this Eisegetical approach is valid--though I have never seen such an authority, let alone one that would apply in Jesus' peculiar circumstances.)

We know that there were "High Sabbaths", (like "Shabbat HaGadol"), days of the week which are considered Sabbaths, No Matter which day they are--Like the Passover Feast. If it falls on a Thursday, then Thursday is a Sabbath, like the very first Passover.

Additionally, in Jerusalem, as in Nazereth, it was noted that Jesus had been very educated, and none of them, including the people in his home town, knew Jesus well enough to know how he got so educated:

Matthew 13:54, NASB - He came to His hometown and began teaching them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?

An excerpt from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's famous Erasmuslecture of January 27, 1988. His conclusions concerning Biblical exegesisremain an important guide for the study of sacred Scripture: "Finally,the exegete must realize that he does not stand in some neutral area,above or outside history and the Church. Such a presumed immediacy regardingthe purely historical can only lead to dead ends. The first presupposition ofall exegesis is that it accepts the Bible as a book. In so doing, it hasalready chosen a place for itself which does not simply follow from the studyof literature. It has identified this particular literature as the product of acoherent history, and this history as the proper space for coming tounderstanding. If it wishes to be theology, it must take a further step. Itmust recognize that the faith of the Church is that form of"sympathia" without which the Bible remains a closed book. It mustcome to acknowledge this faith as a hermeneutic, the space forunderstanding, which does not do dogmatic violence to the Bible, but preciselyallows the solitary possibility for the Bible to be itself." [JosephRatzinger is now our beloved Pope Benedict XVI].

Modern hermeneutics includes both verbal and non-verbal communication,[7][8] as well as semiotics, presuppositions, and pre-understandings. Hermeneutics has been broadly applied in the humanities, especially in law, history and theology.

Hermeneutics was initially applied to the interpretation, or exegesis, of scripture, and has been later broadened to questions of general interpretation.[9] The terms hermeneutics and exegesis are sometimes used interchangeably. Hermeneutics is a wider discipline which includes written, verbal, and nonverbal[7][8] communication. Exegesis focuses primarily upon the word and grammar of texts.

Folk etymology places its origin with Hermes, the mythological Greek deity who was the 'messenger of the gods'.[13] Besides being a mediator among the gods and between the gods and men, he led souls to the underworld upon death.

Hermes was also considered to be the inventor of language and speech, an interpreter, a liar, a thief and a trickster.[13] These multiple roles made Hermes an ideal representative figure for hermeneutics. As Socrates noted, words have the power to reveal or conceal and can deliver messages in an ambiguous way.[13] The Greek view of language as consisting of signs that could lead to truth or to falsehood was the essence of Hermes, who was said to relish the uneasiness of those who received the messages he delivered.

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