February 12, 2025
Exegesis
by parishioner Dick Fichter with assistance from Rev. Dina
Background
Last time we discussed the NRSV (New Revised Standard Version) of the Bible and how groups of scholars, clergy, laity, committees, etc. made the decisions to arrive at the content of the NRSV. This made me wonder:
What techniques did they use to make such determinations?
This led me to Britannica for the definition of two concepts which seemed appropriate as follows:
Exegesis and Hermeneutics
Exegesis (pronounced ek-suh-JEE-suhsis) is the critical interpretation of the biblical text to discover its intended meaning.
Both Jews and Christians have used various exegetical methods throughout their history, and doctrinal and polemical intentions.
Polemical intentions? That means strongly arguing for or against a belief or opinion which influences interpretative results. A given text may yield a number of different interpretations according to the exegetical presuppositions and techniques applied to it. The study of these methodological principles themselves constitutes the field of hermeneutics
Hermeneutics is the study of the general principles of biblical interpretation. The primary purpose of hermeneutics and the exegetical methods employed in interpretation is to make sense of the bible.
Exegetical Techniques
There are many exegetical techniques. And many techniques are related. They formed over centuries. The most common current techniques include:
Textual Criticism. Focuses on the original texts of the biblical books from the critical comparison of the various early materials available.
Literary Criticism. Has no singular description and has evolved over time. It today mostly considers narrative elements like literary genre: poetry (looking at meter, rhyme, parallelism) or narrative aspects (plot, theme, etc.). What it used to focus on: date, authorship, and the reader, shifted to historical criticism.
Historical Criticism. Places the biblical documents within their historical context and examines them in the light of contemporary documents. It looks at authorship, date of the writings, etc.
Form Criticism. An extension of literary criticism and has become the major exegetical method of the 20th and 21st centuries. Its basic assumption is that literary material, written or oral, assumes certain forms according to the function the material serves within the community that preserves it. The content of a given narrative is an indication both of its form—miracle story, controversy, or conversion story, for example—and of the narrative’s use within the life of the community. Often a narrative will serve a variety of functions within various life settings over a period of time, and its proper analysis will reveal the development of the narrative into its final form.
Source Criticism. Identifies and analyzes the various sources of the biblical texts. It may reveal oral traditions that lie behind them and trace their gradual development. It is closely related to redaction criticism.
Redaction Criticism. Examines the way the various pieces of the tradition have been assembled into the final literary composition by an author or editor. In other words, it focuses on the stages and processes, and the anticipated intent, where the written sources were combined with each other and/or edited to give the final form of the text.
Next time, we will consider the gospel of Mark and the alternate endings for Mark 16 in my NRSV which appears to me to be the results of exegesis.
