Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Exegesis or Eisegesis

Two Greek words that are important in the study of any book of the Bible and are especially important for the book of Hebrews.
Exegesis means "to lead out" while eisegesis means "to read into". When we read and study the book of Hebrews it is easy for us to read into the text what we believe rather than allowing the Scripture to say what it means.
Exegesis is an attempt to discover the meaning of the text objectively, starting with the text and moving out from there. Eisegesis is to import as subjective, preconceived meaning into the text. I think this is why there is so much confusion around the warnings in the book of Hebrews. We want it to say what we believe but whatever you believe it challenges your beliefs.

No comments: