MAD BAD Hermeneutical Terms

A while ago, I read a couple of books: “Evangelical Hermeneutics” by Robert L. Thomas and “Interpreting the Bible: An Overview of Hermeneutics” by Ernst R. Wendland.

Meh.

Robert Thomas’ book highlighted that the state of hermeneutics in Christian academia is a disaster. He said that hermeneutical authorities have taken it upon themselves to redefine every term so that nothing means what they used to mean. Definitions of words are all hotly contested now. Nobody knows what anything means anymore.

In fact, Thomas wrote that everything is so contested even the meaning of the word “meaning” is now uncertain.

That’s interesting. How would you define the word “meaning?”

Webster’s 1828 has 4 definitions, but primarily – signification. The significance of something. And we live in a time now in which we can easily look up the etymology of a word, or the lexicographical history of a word, and we can see that the word “meaning” goes back to roughly the 1300’s, and for hundreds of years until now, the meaning of the word “meaning” has consistently been signification or the significance of something. That which exists in the mind, a view or contemplation as a settled purpose. Or the intention, the aim, or purpose of a thing. The signification, the meaning of a thing. The sense of words or expressions, that which is to be understood, signification, that which the writer or speaker intends to express or communicate.

But the so-called hermeneutical authorities say, “Yeah, but in what sense do you mean ‘meaning?’ Do you mean the definition of something, the authorial intent of something, how you view something? YES. Webster covered all the bases. We don’t need to clarify in what sense we mean the word “meaning” every time we use that word because we usually get the sense by the context. Context clarifies the sense of a word.

Definitions of Important Words

Hermeneutics is not some new, modern word. You can still find it in Webster’s 1828. This comes from the late 1600’s from Greek hermēneutikos, which means “to interpret.” That phrase “to interpret” has consistently been the definition of hermeneutics for hundreds of years. This is the discipline, the methodology we use to interpret a text, in our case, the sacred text of the scriptures itself. This is how we study – the means by which we come to understand the meaning of verses and apply them to our lives.

Some of these hermeneutical books would make a distinction between General Hermeneutics and Special Hermeneutics. That’s a good idea, because general hermeneutics is about the rules and principles pertaining to the interpretation of ANY text, irrespective of literary genre. But we’re all practicing special hermeneutics because the Bible is no ordinary text.

Another big word to define is exegesis. This, too, is not some new, modern word. You can find it in Webster’s 1828. This also comes from the 1600’s from the Greek word exegesis, which means to explain, to draw out, to interpret.

Hermeneutics and exegesis are sometimes used interchangeably, although some point out there is a nuanced difference between the two words. Hermeneutics is about the interpretation. Exegesis is about the explanation. Hermeneutics is the mental processing of what you read. Exegesis is the written or verbal explaining of what you read.

At the same time, though, you cannot have proper exegesis without proper hermeneutics. A big part of the explanation of a text is the proper interpretation of that text. You cannot have proper exegesis without first utilizing proper hermeneutics.

Not only that but you cannot have proper exegesis and proper hermeneutics without a proper view of your Bible, which we covered in the last article, because how you view your Bible is going to determine how you’re going to interpret and explain your Bible.

One annoying aspect of these hermeneutical books was that some of these guys were just picking and choosing from different modern Bibles whatever translation of a verse that served best the points they wanted to make, which is a great example of garbage hermeneutics. This is why we made the case in the last article that Bibliology isn’t just revelation, inspiration, and illumination. It’s also preservation. Those first three aspects of Bibliology is irrelevant without preservation. We wouldn’t have a Bible if it wasn’t for preservation, and if we didn’t have a Bible, we wouldn’t know anything about revelation, inspiration, and illumination. These guys had no clue about preservation, and because they had a low view of Scripture. They questioned everything. “Should that text should exist in the Bible?” “What’s the better translation?”

All the while they’re undermining a believer’s confidence in God’s Word, which undermines a believer’s confidence in God Himself. If God can’t provide His people with a reliable text, what’s the point of anything?

There’s another word on this topic that’s important and sounds kinda like exegesis. That word is called eisegesis. This also came from the 1600’s, the combination of the Greek word eis which means “into” and exegesis, into explain or “to lead into.” In other words, this is the exact opposite of exegesis. Exegesis is to draw out, to explain, to offer the meaning of a text. Eisegesis is “to lead into.” Eisegesis is to interject your own ideas onto a text, making a text mean whatever it is you want it to mean. This is a big deal. This is a major problem everywhere. This is the prevailing method of interpretation in Christendom today.

This is also called subjectivism.

This is people coming together, sitting in a circle, looking at their different translations, reading a verse, and then going around the circle and asking everyone, “What does that verse mean to you?” It’s not about knowing where to find the Word of God today. It’s not about extracting from the text whatever it is that God wants you to know. This is about you imposing your own personal viewpoints onto a text that you don’t even trust.

And no one is allowed to call into question your own subjective interpretation. The Word of God has now become secondary to your feelings, your experiences, political viewpoints. This is about you making the text whatever it is you want it to be rather than having a text you can trust as the Word of God and coming to that text open to receiving all the things God wants you to understand, to know God’s will for your life now.

Subjectivism suggests a communication problem on God’s part. God is so ineffective at communicating and preserving that communication that we are now left to our own devices, to feel our way around in the dark, constantly guessing at God’s will for our lives. Well, if any of that is even remotely true, God isn’t God, and He cannot be trusted.

Plus, eisegesis leads to narcegesis. Narcegesis is a term that was created to describe the preaching of a mega church pastor by the name of Steven Furtick at Elevation Worship. Narcegesis is a combination of narcissism and eisegesis. In other words, he has like many pastors today abandoned all hermeneutics. He imposes whatever he wants onto the text, and he will take every text and every Bible story and twist it around to always be about him.

That’s what eisegesis leads to. Eisegesis leads to narcegesis. Because now it’s about you and not about God. Also, over the years, I’ve read about Christian colleges, Baptist seminaries, indoctrinating students with Marxism, critical race theory, social justice, all that garbage. And they’re teaching students to view the Scriptures through the prism of those political ideologies rather than allowing the Word of God itself to shape their worldview. It’s not just political ideologies that do this either. Some theologies do this, too, like Calvinism. Calvinism absolutely trains the mind to impose its theology onto the text rather than allow the text to correct their theology. Some of these Calvinists are hysterical about clinging to their theology despite what the Word is telling them.

The state of hermeneutics in academia and in Christendom is a complete disaster.

All of this was just meant to setup the first and only point I care to make in this article. When it comes to hermeneutics, the first question anyone should ask themselves is this – What saith Scripture? What does God Himself tell us in His Word about how we’re supposed to study His Word? Paul tells us in 2 Tim. 2:15 to study. What does it mean to study? What does that entail? I got the impression that some believers are struggling to understand their Bibles and so they turn to books about hermeneutics because they’re hoping that will somehow help them to understand their Bibles better when, the reality is, that what they need to do is, follow the instructions Paul gives all of us in 2 Tim. 2:15 – to rightly divide the Word of Truth.