1. Hermeneutics explores how we read, understand, and interpret texts, especially those from different time periods or cultural contexts. Biblical hermeneutics specifically examines how we read and apply biblical texts. 2. Various critical methods have been used to study the Bible, including source criticism to identify sources, form criticism to examine oral transmission, and redaction criticism to analyze composition. These approaches have strengths in historical analysis but weaknesses in locating meaning. 3. Inductive Bible study aims to be flexible, adaptable, and let the text set the agenda rather than imposing preconceptions, in order to best understand the text in its own literary and historical context.

1. Exegesis and Hermeneutics:
Critical Approaches to the
Biblical Text
The Light Project
Session 2

2. What exactly is ‘hermeneutics’?
How can we define it?
Hermen
who?

3. Hermeneutics explores how we
read, understand, and handle
texts, especially those written in
another time or in a context of life
different than our own. Biblical
hermeneutics investigates more
specifically how we read,
understand, apply, and respond to
biblical texts.
(Thiselton, Hermeneutics: an Introduction, 2009: 1).

4. Is hermeneutics to be thought of as
applying formulaic ‘rules’ of
interpretation to the Bible?
What does this notion of ‘rules’
do for those Christians who
are committed to a notion of
an inerrant (error-free) biblical
text, yet who admit that
Christians are fallible
humans?

5. • When you read the NT, what exactly
are you trying to accomplish?
• Do those answers change if for
example you are:
– Studying to prepare for a sermon or a
Bible study lesson?
– Doing devotional reading alone?
– Writing an exegetical essay on a biblical
passage?
– Studying the life and ministry of Paul?

6. • Is it possible (or even preferable) to attempt to read
the Bible entirely objectively?
• When you read the NT do you think you bring
various expectations (or pre-understandings) to the
text?
• How do you think people in different eras have read
and understood the Bible?
• For example:
– Medieval
– Reformation
– Victorian
– Postmodern
• How has our reading of the Bible changed in the last
200+ years?
• In terms of approaches to the Bible, what shifts
have occurred that explains these changes?

7. Critical Methods of
Interpretation
• Luke 1.1-4 is a good example of the
different stages of work, sources and
types of biblical criticism that have
been employed in the writing of the
Gospels.
• What does this text reveal regarding
how the gospel writers used various
sources?

8. “Since many have undertaken to set
down an orderly account of the
events that have been fulfilled
among us, just as they were handed
on to us by those who from the
beginning were eyewitnesses and
servants of the word, I too decided,
after investigating everything
carefully from the very first, to
write an orderly account for you,
most excellent Theophilus, so that
you may know the truth concerning
the things about which you have been
instructed” (NRSV).

9. 1. Written sources—“others” who wrote about
Jesus, “setting down an orderly account.”
In the case of the Synoptic Gospels, did the
authors share a written source or utilize
multiple sources? Did the authors copy
each other?
• Source criticism attempts to identify the
written sources that were used to put the
Gospels together, and looks at the
historical contexts from which these
sources came (which may have been quite
a long time before).

10. 2. Eyewitness testimony—the oldest sources;
some of the evangelists were
‘eyewitnesses’ and ‘servants of the word.’
At the very least, the authors had access to
stories about Christ—from eyewitnesses—
if they were not the primary sources
themselves.
• Form criticism is the critical approach
that attempts to answer the question: how
were the various stories from eyewitness
(oral) accounts were passed on and
shaped in the time period prior to when the
Gospels were written down?

11. 3. Authorial research and editing—the author
himself researches materials, checking
both oral and written sources; then he
organizes the source material into a
sequence and puts his own unique
authorial stamp on them (an ‘orderly
account’). Also we see the theology of the
author at work (‘so that you may know the
truth.’)
• Redaction criticism is the critical
approach that investigates these
processes of composition, writing and
editing, and also the theology of the
author.

12. What do you think might be the
strengths and weaknesses of
these critical approaches?
• Source criticism
• Form criticism
• Redaction criticism

13. In light of these issues raised by critical
methodologies, we have to raise the
question when studying the biblical
text: where does meaning lie?

14. 1) Should we focus on the historical
world of the author, or on
reconstructing the events described in
the text? Is the text a ‘window to the
ancient world’?

16. 2) Should we focus on the final canonical
form of the text itself? But—is there
any place for historical
reconstruction?
3) Should we focus on the interaction
between the reader and the text? Is
the text a ‘mirror’?

17. •Rhetorical Criticism
•Narrative Criticism
•Feminist Readings
•Source Criticism •Marxist Readings
Scripture •Ethnic Groups
•Form Criticism
•Redaction Criticism •Reader-Response
Criticism
Meaning located in Meaning located in the final Meaning located in
the historical world form of the text the interaction in
or context behind front of the text with
the text the reader

18. The New Testament Letters
• Letters from an individual to a church (most
of Paul’s letters; 2 John)
• Letters from an individual to another
individual (1-2 Timothy; Titus; 3 John)
• Circular letters to be read in several
churches (Gal; Eph; James; 1-2 Pet; Jude)
• Documents sent like a letter but lacking key
elements of other letters (such as the
identification of the sender; Hebrews; 1
John)
• An apocalypse distributed as a letter
(Revelation)
• Two letters included within Acts (15:23-29;
23:26-30)
(Travis, Marshall and Paul, 23).

19. NT Epistle Letter Format
• Opening—sender’s name, recipients, and a
greeting (1 Cor. 1.1-3; Col. 1.1-2)
• Prayer of thanksgiving—a short prayer
giving thanks to God for his faithfulness
and/or that of the church (1 Cor. 1.4-9; Col.
1.3-12)
• Body—the largest section of the letter that
conveys its central message. Typically
these divide up into two major sections:
– Exposition—theological and doctrinal teachings
(Rom. 1-11; Col. 1.13-29)
– Exhortation—ethical exhortations based on the
exposition; addressed to individual believers,
families, slaves etc. (Rom. 12-16; Eph. 5-6)

20. • Closing—this may include several
elements:
– Greetings—from believers/author to other
believers (Rom. 16.3-16)
– Travel Log—discussion of future travel
plans (1 Cor. 16.5-9)
– Final blessing—a ‘parting shot’ of blessing
(Rom. 16. 25-27)
– Note from Paul—he takes responsibility
for the letter though he may not have
penned it (1 Cor. 16.21; Gal. 6.11)
– Final liturgical note—to be read to
church(es) (1 Cor. 16.20b, 22).

21. Inductive Bible Study Methods
Ideally our approach would like to have at
least three facets:
1. Flexible—rather than rigid; we have not
arrived; recognizes the perspectival
nature of Bible study in what we as readers
bring to the text.
2. Adaptable—open to new changes in biblical
studies, etc.
3. Inductive—lets the text set the agenda (as
much as is possible); construct a series of
questions to ask of the text rather than
imposing an agenda upon the text.

22. Identifying these factors is a key to
approaching the text inductively. Why
is this important?
“How we read any piece of literature
depends completely on what kind of
literature it is that we think we are
reading…The effectiveness of the
message of a biblical book will
depend, in part, on which type of
literature the author selects in order to
communicate.”
(Lubeck, Read the Bible for a Change, 12, 14).