Biblical

Interpretation

BTh 3 Class 2021-22 First Semester

What is Interpretation or/and
Hermeneutics?
● One of the definitions of hermeneutics is “the practice
of biblical interpretation.”
● In contrary some also say that Hermeneutics provides
the conceptual framework for interpreting.
● However, there is no unanimity concerning the
meaning of the term interpretation.
● Osborne sees interpretation as involving a uniting of
the interpreter’s horizon with the horizon of the text.
● Interpretation and Hermeneutics are often
interchangeably used.

Etymology:
● Hermeneutics is derived from the Greek hermeneus,
meaning interpreter.
● Verb hermeneuein, noun hermeneia: meaning
‘express’, ‘explain’, ‘interpret’ or ‘bring to understanding’.
● Hermeneus comes from Hermes who was the
messenger of the gods and patron of eloquence in
Greek mythology.
● Hermes transmitted and interpreted the
communications of gods to their fortunate or
unfortunate recipients.
● In simple terms, hermeneutics is concerned with divine
truth and with process and art of making that truth
clear and precise so that it can be understood.
● Therefore, hermeneutics can be defined as the
science and art of interpretation, especially of
ancient writings which are held to contain divine
truth.
● Interpretation or hermeneutics is neither an art nor
a science; it is both a science and an art.
● Hermeneutics is the investigation and determination
of the rules and principles which guide the
interpretation of Scripture (Daniel J Adams).
● For us, hermeneutics is the theory or methodology
applied to understand the Scripture.
● In other words, Hermeneutics is basic to any
understanding of Scripture which seeks to seriously
understand the message of the scriptural writers in
the light of our situation today.
● Hermeneutics explores how we read, understand,
and handle texts, especially those written in another
time or in a context of life different from our own -
Anthony C. Thiselton
● Hermeneutics is not isolated from other fields of
biblical study. It is related to study of the canon,
textual criticism, historical criticism, exegesis, and
biblical and systematic theology (Henry A. Virkler).
● Greek understanding (Background): people of
ancient times stood nearer to the source of truth
(than those living in a later age), and thus they were
in a position to receive and hand down the pure
truth.
● It was crucial that their words are correctly
interpreted.
● Hence, the origin of the discipline of hermeneutics.
● This assumption was taken over by the early church.
● It fit well with the message of faith once delivered to
the saints, and sacred history written down in
Scripture by the prophets and the apostles.
● ‘Nearness to God’ on the part of the author of the
book was one of the tests applied in deciding the
canon.
● It became vital to the early Christians to discover and
apply the correct principles for the interpretation of
the Scripture, and so did hermeneutics.
● Up until 19th century hermeneutics was regularly defined
as “rules for the interpretation of Scripture.”
● For many hermeneutics was almost like ‘rules for going
about exegesis’ in a responsible way.
● It was only in the 19th century with Schleiermacher and
especially in the later 20th century with Hans-Georg
Gadamer did the notion emerge that hermeneutics was an
art.
● Schleiermacher wrote in 1819, “Hermeneutics is
part of the art of thinking, and is therefore
philosophical.”
● Gadamer disengages the subject from formulating
purely rationalist procedures of “method” observing,
“Hermeneutics is above all a practice, the art of
understanding… In it what one has to exercise above
all is the ear”
● Hermeneutics is a science because it provides a logical,
orderly classification of the laws of interpretation.
● Hermeneutics is an art for it is an acquired skill
demanding both imagination and an ability to apply the
laws to selected passages or books. That can never be
merely learned in the classroom but must result from
extensive practice in the field.
● “As science it enunciates principles ... and
classifies the facts and results.
● As an art, it teaches what application these
principles should have… showing their practical
value in the elucidation of more difficult
scriptures” (Milton Terry, 1890).
● Hermeneutics when utilized to interpret Scripture is a
spiritual act, depending upon the leading of the Holy Spirit.
● Modern scholars often ignore the sacred dimension and
approach the Bible purely as literature, considering the
sacred dimension to be almost a genre.
● Human efforts can never properly divide the true message of
the Word of God. So, we must depend on God and not just
hermeneutical principles when studying the Bible.
Type of Hermeneutics:
a. General hermeneutics
b. Special Hermeneutics
General hermeneutics is concerned with generalities such
as context, language, history and culture. Paul’s view on
slavery or women or any matter is shaped by his world,
which is totally different from that of today’s.
● Special hermeneutics deal with specifics such as
figures of speech, symbols, poetry, prophecy,
typology, doctrinal teachings and various literary
forms.
● Psalms are poetry, Exodus is history, Jesus using
figure of speech when he speaks of destroying the
temple and building it in three days.
Three Levels of Biblical Interpretation
1. Third person approach asking “what it meant”
(exegesis)
2. First person approach querying “what it
means for me” (devotional)
3. Second person approach seeking “how to
share with you what it means to me” (sermonic)
● All the three are essential to a wholistic methodology.
● To ignore the first is to enter into a subjective world without
controls, so that anyone’s opinion is as good as another
person’s.
● To ignore the second is to remove the very basis of Scripture,
an individual’s encounter with the divine, which demands a
changed life.
● To ignore the third is to remove the other biblical imperative
that the divine revelation must be shared as the good news, not
kept to oneself for personal gratification.
● Hermeneutics is important because it enables
one to move from text to context, to allow the
God-inspired meaning of the Word to speak
today with as fresh and dynamic a relevance as
it had in its original setting.
● Only a carefully defined hermeneutic can keep
one wedded to the text!
2. What is Exegesis? (Applied
Hermeneutics)
● Exegesis is the actual process of interpretation.
For e.g. a pastor in preparing a sermon uses the
Hebrew or Greek text in determining the
meaning of the passage.
● Exegesis means to “draw out of” a text what it means,
in contrast to eisegesis, to “read into” a text what one
wants it to mean. The process is complex and forms
the heart of hermeneutical theory, which seeks first to
determine the author’s intended meaning and then to
apply it to one’s life.
● This is a single task, and the two aspects – meaning
and significance – cannot be separated.
● Anchor Bible Dictionary:
● Exegesis is the process of careful, analytical study of
biblical passages undertaken in order to produce
useful interpretations of those passages. Ideally,
exegesis involves the analysis of the biblical text in
the language of its original or earliest available form.
●
● Exegesis rests upon the foundation of
hermeneutics.
● One’s theological position –
fundamentalist, conservative,
neo-orthodox, or liberal – will color
one’s exegesis.
● Exegesis proper could be subdivided into
linguistic and cultural aspects.
● The former is concerned with the alignment
of terms or concepts that together form the
propositional statements (Hb, Gk, Aramaic)
● The latter relates to the historical and
sociological background behind those
statements (geography, history, etc)
3. Biblical Interpretation and Exegesis
● Biblical hermeneutics investigates more specifically
how we read and understand
● Exegesis is the process of examining a text to ascertain
what its first readers would have understood it to mean.
● It includes the varied set of activities which the
hermeneut performs upon a text in order to make
meaningful inferences for today.
● Hermeneutics refers to the category of rules,
principles and methods that would be applied to
understand the meaning of the text,
whereas,
● Exegesis refers to the systematic application of the
hermeneutical principles to find out the author’s
intention and meaning of the text - David Joy.
● Interpretation is the task of explaining or
drawing out the implications of that
understanding for contemporary readers and
hearers.
● Thus, the transformation of these inferences
into application or significance for the
hermeneut’s world is interpretation.
●● A passage from the Bible that captures a full
event or narrative is called a pericope, that is
taken seriously in Exegesis.
● So, we study: Textual criticism, Grammatical
analysis (Verb system, Noun System,
Prepositions, Particles and Clauses),
Compositional history, Genre and structure,
Literary Context, etc
 4. Hermeneutical Circle,
Hermeneutical Spiral,
Hermeneutical Horizons, and
Fusion of Horizons
● Hermeneutical Circle is a relation between the
reader and the text (Gadamer) or reader and
author (Hirch).
● It is a process of interpretation in which we
continually move between smaller and larger units
of meaning in order to determine the meaning of
both
● As you read a sentence you begin to do preliminary
interpretation of the words. From that interpretation
you construct the meaning of the sentence as a
whole. With that interpretation of the sentence, you
look back whether your original interpretation of the
words makes sense, and if not, you revise the
interpretation of your sentence based on your new
interpretation of the words. And you continue
revising your interpretation until you are satisfied
with your final interpretation.
● We continually revise our smaller parts of meaning
based on the current interpretation of the whole,
which in turn, leads us to new and improved
interpretation of the larger units of meaning
themselves.
● Because we move back and forth, we kind of create
a circle or circles of interpretation. Hence,
hermeneutical circle.
● The circle is endless
● While applying hermeneutical circle brings us
closer to the right interpretation,
but,
● we can never know for sure that we have arrived
at the original meaning.
 We can assert that there is at the very least an apparent
circle when it comes to understanding the part and the whole
of a sentence.
In contrary to the hermeneutical circle, there is
hermeneutical spiral according to which, there is a
“progressiveness in the process of our understanding” in the
understanding of the part and the understanding of the
whole that can be described as a spiral.
Each decision we make is provisional and we must
establish a continual dialogue between tradition and
biblical text in the spiral upward to truth (Grant R.
Osborne)
So, biblical interpretation entails a spiral from text to
context that entails an open-ended approach, as
opposed to a vicious circle, which leads to a closed
ended approach
Hermeneutical Horizon and Fusion of Horizons:
● The range of vision that includes everything that can
be seen from a particular vintage point is the horizon
● The horizon of the text (author) and the horizon of
the modern reader/ hearer.
● Richard Palmer: Meaning depends on “a relationship to the
listener’s own projects and intentions. . . . An object does not
have significance outside of a relationship to someone.”
● “Explanatory interpretation makes us aware that explanation
is contextual, is ‘horizonal’.
● It must be made within a horizon of already granted meanings
and intentions. This area of assumed understanding is called
pre-understanding” (Vorverstandnis).
● Understanding takes place when the interpreter’s horizons
engage with those of the text
● Gadamer: For understanding to take place there must also
occur what he calls a “fusion of horizons”
(Horizontverschmelzung)
● The nature of the hermeneutical problem is shaped by the
fact that both the text and the interpreter are conditioned by
their given place in history (geography, culture, gender
language, education, etc).
● For understanding to take place, two sets of variables must be
brought into relation with each other
● In other words, there is an undeniable fact that if a text is
to be understood there must occur an engagement
between two sets of horizons, namely those of the
ancient text and those of the modern reader or hearer
● The hearer must be able to relate his own horizons to
those of the text.
● See the figure in the next slide!
 ● Gadamer says that in hermeneutics the modem
interpreter must also try to become aware of the
distinctiveness of his own horizons, as against those of
the text.
● “Every encounter with tradition that takes place within
historical consciousness involves the experience of the
tensions between the text and the present. The
hermeneutic task consists of not covering up this tension
by attempting a naive assimilation but consciously
bringing it out.”
The Major challenge:
● The problem is that everything becomes dominated by
the interpreter’s own pre-understanding and the
ancient text becomes merely a projection of his own
ideas or preconceptions.
● It undermines the fact that oftentimes the text itself
interprets the text.