Exegesis draws the meaning out of the text.
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,
a worker who has no need to be ashamed,
rightly handling the word of truth.
The meaning is led out, not read in.
Exegesis is the work of drawing out what the author wrote. The word means to lead out. Eisegesis is the opposite habit, reading a meaning in. Hermeneutics is the set of principles. Exegesis is the use of those principles on a passage. Rightly handling the word of truth is the charge. The church does not get to make a text say what the sentences will not bear. Jesus opened the Scriptures. He did not replace them.
- Words, grammar, context, and the author’s aim come before a system. The system may be true and still be a poor reading of this verse.
- Orthodoxy is right belief. Exegesis is how the belief stays tied to the words.
- A view of the millennium or of grace is not exegesis until it has been drawn from the texts it claims.
Lead the meaning out. Do not push a meaning in. Rightly handle the word. That is the work.
Rightly handling the word of truth.
Exegesis leads the meaning out.
Eisegesis reads a meaning in.
The text comes before the system.
- Exegesis draws out the intended meaning of a passage.
- Eisegesis reads a preferred meaning in.
- Hermeneutics is the method. Exegesis is the work on the text.
- Rightly handling the word is the apostolic charge.
- Context, words, and aim come before a doctrinal system.
- Jesus opened the Scriptures. He did not set them aside.
- The Direction – Out of the text, not into it.
- The Words – Grammar and the sentence as written.
- The Context – The book, the audience, the aim.
- The Handling – Rightly handling the word of truth.
- The Opposite – Eisegesis.
- The Principles – Hermeneutics.
- 2 Timothy 2:15 – “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”
- Luke 24:27 – “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
- Acts 17:11 – “They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”
Rightly handling the word of truth.
Exegesis leads the meaning out of the text.
They examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
Do not push a meaning in. Draw out what was written. The system may wait. The sentence may not.
Entry compiled for the JESUSaves.com Bible Glossary. Optimized for wiki.js Visual Editor.