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Course 4 · Lesson 4.1

Exegesis and eisegesis with worked examples

10 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 4 outline

Module 1: How the Canon Formed

  1. What a canon is, and what canonical means
  2. The Old Testament canon: Law, Prophets and Writings
  3. The New Testament canon: from gospels and letters to a list
  4. Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant canons compared

Module 2: The Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint

  1. The Hebrew Bible and the work of the Masoretes
  2. Origin and character of the Septuagint
  3. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the state of the Old Testament text
  4. How New Testament writers quote the Old Testament

Module 3: Transmission of the New Testament Text

  1. Copying by hand: papyri, codices and scribes
  2. Manuscript traditions: Alexandrian, Western and Byzantine texts
  3. Kinds of variants and how they arise
  4. The principles of textual criticism
  5. Reading a critical apparatus and a translation footnote

Module 4: Reading Responsibly: Exegesis and Method

  1. Exegesis and eisegesis with worked examples
  2. Source, form and redaction criticism: what each asks
  3. Strengths and limits of the historical method
  4. Literary and canonical reading

Module 5: Meaning Beyond the Surface: Typology, Allegory and Genre

  1. Typology in the New Testament and the fathers
  2. Allegory and its critics: Alexandria and Antioch
  3. Reading by genre: narrative, law, poetry, prophecy, gospel and letter
  4. Setting, authorship and audience as questions to ask of any passage

Module 6: Christian Approaches to Interpretation

  1. The fourfold sense of Scripture in the medieval church
  2. Reformation principles: Scripture, clarity and the grammatical and historical sense
  3. Orthodox and Catholic approaches: Scripture within Tradition
  4. Historical scholarship and theological interpretation in conversation

Module 7: Writing an Exegesis

  1. Choosing a passage and framing a question
  2. Observation and context: what the text says and where it stands
  3. Using commentaries and reference works without being led by them
  4. Writing up, checking conclusions and revising

All courses

Program / Course 4: Biblical Studies and Hermeneutics / Lesson 4.1

What you will learn

  • Define exegesis and eisegesis and explain why the difference is one of method.
  • Apply a short set of checks to a familiar verse.
  • Explain why no reader comes to a text without assumptions.
  • State how Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions each guard against misreading.

The big idea

Exegesis means drawing out of a text what it says, by attending to its words, context, genre and setting. Eisegesis means reading into a text ideas that come from the reader instead. The distinction is about method and not about whether a reader has beliefs. Everyone brings assumptions to a text. The aim is to let the passage correct those assumptions and not simply confirm them. A handful of habits, practiced slowly, make the difference between the two visible.

Key terms

Exegesis
From Greek words meaning to lead out. The careful drawing out of the meaning of a text in its original setting.
Eisegesis
From Greek words meaning to lead into. Reading into a text a meaning that comes from the reader.
Hermeneutics
The study of the principles of interpretation. Exegesis applies them to a particular passage.
Context
What surrounds a passage: nearby verses, the whole book, the historical setting and the type of writing.
Proof text
A verse taken alone to support a claim, often without regard for its setting.
Presupposition
A belief or assumption a reader holds before reading, which shapes what he or she expects to find.
Analogy of Scripture
The principle that Scripture should be read in agreement with the rest of Scripture, so that a clear passage helps with an unclear one.

Background

The words exegesis and eisegesis are often used as labels of praise and blame. Exegesis is what a careful reader does, and eisegesis is what a careless reader does. The reality is subtler. Every reader brings a language, a history and a set of beliefs. A Christian reads the Bible as Scripture, and a historian reads it as an ancient text. Neither starts blank. The question is whether the reader lets the text push back.

Contemporary study of hermeneutics, summarized in the philosophical reference work on the subject assigned for this course, makes the same point. Interpretation is a conversation between the reader and the text. The reader’s questions open the text, but the text can answer in ways that surprise. A good interpreter keeps the conversation going and stays ready to change his mind.

In practice, most failures of interpretation come from a few habits: ignoring the context, using a verse as a slogan, forcing a modern question on an ancient text, and choosing a meaning because it is comforting. The steps below are a short remedy.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Read the passage in its setting

Read the verses before and after, and then the whole chapter or book. Ask who is speaking, to whom, and about what. Note the kind of writing: a letter, a story, a poem, a law. Meaning lives in sentences and paragraphs, not in isolated words. A verse that sounds like a general promise may turn out to be an answer to a particular problem.

Step 2: Ask what it meant to the first hearers

Before asking what a passage means for you, ask what it meant for them. What did the words mean in their language? What customs, places and events does the passage assume? An interpretation that the first hearers could not have understood is suspect. This does not mean the passage can say nothing new to later readers. It means the later meaning should grow from the first, not replace it.

Step 3: Test your reading against the rest of Scripture

Check whether your reading agrees with what the same author says elsewhere, and with the whole of the Bible. Protestants call this the analogy of Scripture. Catholic teaching adds that Scripture is to be read in the light of the living tradition of the church, and Orthodox teaching reads it with the fathers and the worship of the church. In all three, a reading that stands against the plain teaching of the whole is a sign to stop and check.

Step 4: Work three examples

Philippians 4:13 says in the King James Version, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” It is often used for success in sport or work. In context, Paul has just written, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Philippians 4:11), and speaks of being full and being hungry (Philippians 4:12). The strength Paul describes is strength to endure both plenty and need. Using the verse as a promise of victory is a stretch. Applying it as a promise of strength in hardship is closer.

Jeremiah 29:11 speaks of thoughts of peace and of giving an expected end. The verse is addressed to exiles in Babylon, in a letter that tells them to build houses, plant gardens and seek the welfare of the city, and that the exile will last seventy years (Jeremiah 29:5-10). The promise is to a particular people in a particular situation. Christians can still draw encouragement from it, but a good exegete notes that it is not a guarantee of an easy life for every reader.

Matthew 18:20 says, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” The passage is about settling a dispute in the church, and about the authority of the gathered community. It is often used for small prayer gatherings. Such a use can be reasonable, but the passage’s own focus is the church acting together on a matter of discipline.

  1. Who is speaking, to whom, and why?
  2. What do the verses before and after say?
  3. What kind of writing is this?
  4. What would the first hearers have understood?
  5. What do I want this passage to say, and am I letting that choose my reading?
  6. Does my reading agree with the rest of Scripture and the teaching I have received?

Examples

Exegesis in a sentence

A reader of Philippians 4:13 notes that the verse stands in a paragraph about contentment in poverty and plenty, and concludes that Paul is claiming strength to bear any circumstance. The reader reaches the conclusion by reading the text in its context.

Eisegesis in a sentence

A reader who takes Jeremiah 29:11 as a promise of personal prosperity, without noticing that it is addressed to exiles told to remain for seventy years, is bringing a conclusion to the text. The reader may be sincere. The method is the problem.

A harder case

A reader who finds in the story of David and Goliath a lesson about facing the giants in one’s life is reading as an application. Whether that is eisegesis depends on how the reader treats the story. If the reader first attends to what the story says about Israel, David and the Lord, and then draws a lesson from that, the application grows from the text. If the reader uses the story only as an image for a private struggle, it begins to drift.

Different perspectives

Protestant

Protestants stress reading by the grammatical and historical sense and comparing Scripture with Scripture. The Westminster Confession says that the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself, so that a doubtful place is to be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.

Catholic

The Second Vatican Council’s constitution on revelation teaches that interpreters must attend to the literary forms and the intention of the human authors, and also read Scripture with attention to the unity of the whole, the living tradition of the church and the analogy of faith.

Orthodox

Orthodox writers stress reading Scripture within the church and with the fathers, so that interpretation is guarded by the continuity of the church’s life. They also use historical and linguistic study, but hold that the Spirit who inspired the text guides its right understanding in the church.

Philosophical hermeneutics

Thinkers in this field, such as Hans-Georg Gadamer, argue that no reader is free of prejudgments. The task is to become aware of them and to let the text question them. This view is a caution against claiming a purely neutral reading.

Why it matters

Much of the confusion in popular religion comes from verses used far from their setting. Learning to tell exegesis from eisegesis protects you from being misled by others and from misleading yourself. It also makes Scripture more interesting, because a text read in its own setting often says things the reader did not expect.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Exegesis means reading with no assumptions.

Correction: No one reads without assumptions. Exegesis means being honest about them and letting the text challenge them.

Misunderstanding: Applying a verse to my life is always eisegesis.

Correction: Application is part of reading Scripture. It becomes eisegesis when it replaces what the text says with something it does not say.

Misunderstanding: Only experts can do exegesis.

Correction: The basic habits of reading in context, asking who and why, and comparing with other passages are open to everyone. Experts add languages and tools.

Misunderstanding: A traditional reading is automatically eisegesis.

Correction: A reading handed down by a community may be sound or unsound. It should be tested against the text, as the early church and the Reformers each insisted in their own way.

Knowledge check

What is the difference between exegesis and eisegesis?

Exegesis draws out of the text what it says, attending to words, context, genre and setting. Eisegesis reads into the text something that comes from the reader. The difference is one of method and does not mean that anyone reads without assumptions.

Explain how context changes the reading of Philippians 4:13.

The verse follows Paul’s statement that he has learned to be content in every state, whether full or hungry. In that context it speaks of strength to endure both plenty and need, not of guaranteed success in an ambition.

Why do the three traditions add something to reading in context?

Protestants add the analogy of Scripture, comparing a passage with the rest of the Bible. Catholics add the living tradition of the church and the analogy of faith. Orthodox read with the fathers in the life of the church. Each is a check against private misreading.

Why is it unhelpful to say that anyone can read without assumptions?

Every reader has a language, background and beliefs that shape what he or she notices. Pretending to be neutral hides these assumptions. Honest interpretation names them and lets the text challenge them.

Think it through

  1. Which verse have you heard used in a way that now seems far from its context?
  2. What assumptions do you bring to the Bible, and where did they come from?
  3. How could you check your reading of a passage against the experience of other readers?
  4. Is it possible to pray with a passage while also studying it? How would you keep the two from damaging each other?

Independent assignment

Test a familiar verse

Choose a verse you know well and often hear quoted. In your notebook, write what you have usually taken it to mean. Then read the whole chapter and write down the speaker, audience, genre and main point. Compare the two readings in 300 to 450 words, and mark any place where your earlier reading went beyond the text. Do not send this anywhere.

Further study