Welcome to session 2 of becoming a student of the Bible. We are going to briefly go over these few terms to help give ourselves language for Bible study in a Hermeneutics lens.
Check out our Complete Collection of Learning How to Study the Bible (Exegesis/Hermeneutics)
Eisegesis? Exegesis?
What does eisegesis mean?
Eisegesis means to interpret a text by reading into it with one’s own ideas, bias’, or presuppositions.
Bringing the world of (Insert your name) and the truth I believe and making scripture align with my belief system(truth) or what I think the text should say. Eisegesis is making the Bible mean what you want it to mean, in a sense limiting the transformative power of the Bible.
What does exegesis mean?
Exegesis means to interpret a text by exposition; letting the Word speak for itself, leaving one’s own ideas, bias’s, and presuppositions behind in such a way it does not influence the meaning of the text.
Leaving the world of (insert your name) and the truth I believe behind and allowing scripture to align me with the belief system it is, not what I think the text should say. Exegesis is allowing the Bible to mean what the authors intended it to mean, allowing the Bible to transform you, not the other way around.
What is truth?
What is truth? Where do you get your truth from? The world gets it from media, the news, movies, family, culture, and politicians. Truth in the world’s eyes is always changing and always evolving. Majority of people in the church get their truth solely from their pastor without ever picking up the Word of God for themselves, neglecting to position themselves to unpack scripture themselves.
“So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus
answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew?
Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My
kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might
not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”John 18:33-38 (ESV)
Who was Pontius Pilate?
A Roman Prefect (Govenor of Judea; high official or magistrate, having different functions) who gave the order for the crucifixion of Jesus. Pontius Pilate was a knight, and was favored by the ruler, Tiberius, who placed him in office. After the crucifixion,
resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, Pilate was later charged with cruelty and oppression for not correctly holding trials for those he sentenced to death and or punishment.
Sit back and think about the power that this man, that the Prefects had, power to decide the fate if someone would be crucified or if they could live. This man given that much power vocalized that he did NOT know what truth was… let that sink in.
What power do you have in your life? What influence do you have on others? What impact does your life have on those closest to you. Do you know what truth is? And will that Truth shape your life and daily decisions, big and the small?
What is truth? Where do you get your truth from?
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
John 8:31-37 (ESV)
What does truth do? It sets us free.
When I learned how to read scripture for the way the Author (The Lord) and authors intended into be, it literally set me free. I was no longer in the shadows of reading scripture in confusion and assumption, but deep guidance from the Holy Spirit.
Importance of Exegeses in light of Truth (Jesus)
The essence to developing an exegetical lens is the art of learning how to take off our bias and allow the scriptures to speak for itself. This is the art of inviting the Holy Spirit to teach us to come into alignment with what the scriptures say, not telling the scriptures to support what we already believe and know to be true.
For example, when it comes to what you believe about women in ministry, what we don’t want to do is decide what we believe about this subject before we know how to first rightly study and interpret the Word of God. If we are taking 1 Timothy 2, which is wildly one of the most misunderstood passages in relations to determining women’s roles in ministry.
If we take this passage and read it without proper hermeneutics (interpreting scripture) there is no way we can properly come to the right conclusion about how and if we are to apply this truth to our lives and to the church today. (Oh & hint hint, we have a Theology of Women in Ministry coming over the next few weeks too🤭. But as you know, I am not releasing that until after we properly have a basis for how to read scripture. *How* before the “What Now.”)
And that’s our goal: when it comes to rightly interpreting scripture, we are looking
for timeless truths that surpass all cultures and generations. but we will get into that in the next few sessions with specific methods on how to read the Bible (Hermeneutics/Inductive Bible Study). Session 3 will be live on Monday, August 26th @7am CT. 🙂
In Christ,
Cosette
Lovely read! Can’t wait for part 2
obsessed, I’ll be back for more
Janine Lambaren and are very excited. We are living together now that we are both ‘single’ and aged. 🤗 we…