G. In modern classification, Hermeneutics " forms a branch of the same general study with Exegesis (q.v.), and, indeed, is often confounded with that science; but the distinction between the two branches is verj' mark- ed, and is, perhaps, suflScientlj' indicated by the et}'mol- ogy of the names themselves. To hermeneutics prop- erly belongs the ' interpretation' of the text — that is, the discovery of its true meaning ; the province of exegesis is the 'exposition' of the meaning so discovered, and the practical office of making it intelligible to others in its various bearings, scientilic, literal, doctrinal, and moral. Hence, altliough the laws of interpretation have many tilings ill rdiiimou willi thiisc of exposition, it maybe laid duwii that to tlic espcrial ]ir(i\'iiK-c of hermeneutics belongs all that regards the text and interpretation of the Holy Scripture ; the signification of words, the force and significance of idioms, the modification of the sense by the context, and the other details of philological and grammatical inquiry; the consideration of the charac- ter of the writer or the persons whom he addressed ; of the circumstances in which he wrote, and the object to which his work was directed ; the comparison ofjiaral- lel passages ; and other similar considerations. All these inquiries, although seemingly purely literary, are modi- fied by the views entertained as to the text of Holy Scripture, and especially on the question of its inspira- tion, and the nature and degree of such inspiration" (Chambers, Cyclopaedia).
II. History, Methods, and Litei-ature. — 1. From ancient times the Church, or rather ecclesiastical bodies and re- ligious denominations, have taken the same supernatu- ral view with reference to the Bible, as, before the Church, the Jews did with respect to the Old Testament. The Church and denominations have supposed that in the authors of Biblical books there did not exist a litera- ry activitj' of the same kind as induces men to write down what they have thought, but have always re- quired from their followers the belief that the Biblical authors wrote in a state of inspiration, that is to say, under a peculiar and direct influence of the divine Spir- it. Sometimes the Biblical authors were described to be merely external and mechanical instruments of God's revelation. But, however wide or however narrow the boundaries were within which the operation of God upon the -vvriters was confined by ecclesiastical supposi- tion, the origin of the Biblical books was always sup- posed to be essentially different from the origin of hu- man compositions; and this diff"erence demanded the application of peculiar rules in order to understand the Bible. There were required peculiar arts and kinds of information in order to discover the sense and contents of books which, on account of their extraordinary ori- gin, were inaccessilile by the ordinary way of logicel rules, and whose written words were only outward signs, behind which a higher and divine meaning was con- cealed. Consequently, the Church and denominations required i^r)yr]Tai, or interpreters, of the signs by means of which God had revealed his will. Thus necessarily arose again in the Christian Church the art of opening
INTERPRETATION
62G
INTERPRETATION
or interpreting the supernatural, wliich art had an ex- istence in earlier religions, but with this essential differ- ence, that the signs, by the opening of which supernat- ural truth was obtained, were now more simple, and of a more Liteliigible kind than in earlier religions. They were now written signs, which belonged to the sphere of speech and language, through which alone all modes of thinking obtain clearness, and can be readily commu- nicated to others. But the holy Scriptures, in which divine revelation was preserved, differ, by conveying di- vine tlioughts, from common language and writing, which convey only human thoughts. Hence it follow- ed that its sense was much deeper, and far exceeded the usual sjihcrc of human thoughts, so that the usual req- uisites for the right understanding of written documents appeared to be insufficient. According to this opinion, a lower and a hiffher sanse of the Bible were distiu- guislied. The low'er sense was that which could be elicited according to the rules of grammar ; the higher sense was considered to consist of deeper thoughts con- cealed under the grammatical meaning of the words. These deeper thoughts they endeavored to obtain in va- rious waj's, but not by grammatical research.
The Jews, in the days of Jesus, employed for this purpose especially the typico-allegorical interpretation. The Jews of Palestine endeavored by means of this mode of interpretation especially to elicit the secrets of futurity, which were said to be fully contained in the Old Testament. (See Wiihner, A ntiquitates Hebrmorum, Gottingas, 1743. i, 341 sq. ; Diipke. Itdwemutih der neu- testammtUrJin, Srhnfl.<i,II, r. I.ripzi- is-.>0,p.88 sq., 164 sq. ; Hirschfi-ld. I)(r (:fi.<t <h r 'I'nl minliachen Aiiskffunff df-r Bihi'f. Ueiiiu, 1.S4(J; compare Juvenal, ^'rt^ xiv, 103; Justin ^MartjT, Apol. i, p. 52, 61; Bretschneider, Jlisto- risr/i-i/oi/mafische Auslegung d. Nemn Testamentes, Leip- zig, 18U6, p. 35 sq.)
The Alexandrine Jews, on the contrary, endeavored to raise themselves from the simple sense of the words TO t\/vxikov, to a higher, more general, and spiritual sense, to ■kviviicitikov (see Diihne, Ge»rh'uhtViihv hur- stelliiiif/ d"r Jiidisch-A lexandiinisc/ie/i Rtli;ii<>iis-l'I,iln:<,,- phie, Halle, 1834, i, p. 52 sq. ; ii, 17, 195 sq., 2( »lt, 228, 24 1 ) . Similar jjrinciples were adopted by the authors of the New Testament (see De Wette, Uvher die Symholisch- Typische Lehrart in Briefe an die I/ebrcier, in the The- oloffische Zeitschrift, by Schleiermacher and De Wette, pt. iii; Tholuck,7?ei7o^e zum Commentai- iiher den Brief an die Ilehraer, 1840).