Tools for Bible Study

There is basically only one way in which we may in reverential intelligence discover the great truths of the Bible, and this is by careful exegesis. This word is a synonym for interpretation, but it is more. Properly understood, the word gives some direction in the aim of Bible study and also some direction in its method. Exegesis comes from the Greek for leading out. The point is that the reader of the Bible (and any other great literature) ought to seek two things: (1) to lead out of a passage the meaning which the original author (or spokesman) put in, and (2) lead out the meaning which the original readers of the book led out—if we can discover that meaning. (Of course, if the understanding of the passage by the original readers was perfect, the two points above are really one!) The opposite of exegesis is eisegesis, which means, lead in. And this is what we too often do with the Bible. We lead in to a text our own preconceived notion, doctrine, bias, slant, interpretation. We impose them upon the sacred text rather than properly deriving them from the text. We tell the author (of a biblical book) what we want him to say to us, rather than ask what he has to say. Leading in our own idea is eisegesis, and we ought to avoid it. Leading out the author’s idea is exegesis, and we ought to practice it.