Biblical Interpretation: Exegesis & Hermeneutics

Key Terms

• Exegesis: Interpreting scripture to discover its meaning.
• Eisegesis: Imposing one's interpretation on scripture.
• Hermeneutics: Studying the interpretation of written texts, including scripture.

Bible as Inspired

• Bible as inerrant is word-for-word true without error.
• This view opposes form and redaction criticisms.
• It seeks to harmonize the Gospels, reflecting a fundamentalist approach.
• God worked through the authors, inspiring them through the Holy Spirit from within their contexts.
• Open to source, this view embraces form, redaction, and historical criticism.
• It involves unpacking the allegorical meaning and understanding the overall message, aligning with dialectical theology, modern Catholicism, and mainstream Protestant churches.
• The Bible is a moral guide that includes errors and biases.
• While not supernaturally inspired, it remains a source of moral inspiration from a liberal perspective.

Medieval Understanding of Interpreting the Bible as Scripture: Aquinas

• Aquinas read the text directly.
• Litera: A deeper meaning of the text
• Moral start with the literal but build further, ie how can this influence my life
• Allegorical: (That would do for the syllabus, but there is also
• Anagogical - eternal significance and afterlife)

Impact of the Enlightenment

• Rise of reason and the power of science empiricism
• God is seen as non-interventionist (deism).
• Skepticism rejects miracles (Hume).

Reactions to the Enlightenment

• Fundamentalism views the Bible as inerrant
• Rejects science and Enlightenment insights if they conflict with the Bible.
• Some attempt to reconcile scripture with modern thought, seeking harmony between reason and revelation.
• Schleiermacher studied the act of interpreting scripture itself and not taken at face value.
• He recognized different approaches to interpreting texts.
• Alister McGrath identified four post-Enlightenment approaches to interpreting the Bible based on reason and Enlightenment insights:
• Rational
• Historical (also historical-critical or higher criticism)
• Sociological approach includes studying Jesus within his context (Geza Vermes).
• Literary approach known as narrative criticism.
• Liberalism fully embraces insights of the Enlightenment and argues revelation should be read with reason.

Other Considerations

• Anything not scientifically provable should be discounted from the Bible.
• Science is considered more reliable than the scriptures.
• The quest for the historical Jesus suggests the "Christ of faith" differs from the historical "Jesus of history."
• For example, Jesus did not claim to be the Messiah, which is the Messianic Secret (Wrede).

Dialectical Approach: Scripture as Facilitating Encounter with Jesus

• Barth views the Bible as God's revelation leading to faith.
• Jesus is the inerrant Word of God, with the Bible as a witness, not to be confused with Jesus.
• The Bible can contain errors and human elements.
• Encounter with Jesus is more important than factual accuracy.
• Bible facilitating encounter with Jesus, moves beyond anthropocentrism and rationalism.
• It can be seen as circular.
• Bultmann sees the Bible as containing but not being the Word of God.
• Focuses on the Gospel proclamation (kerygma).
• Encourages removing mythological elements for modern readers to understand the text and answer existential questions, giving the Bible value.