RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Exegesis or HermeneutlcB
stands the object of the exposition to be the same as that of the original writing, and on the other side has the same point of view of the origin, purpose, and means of attaining the purpose as the author had. He stands for his hearers as did the author for his. This is the ideal, which in the i. Three nature of the case can be only par- Kinds of tially realized, since the gulf between Exegesis, the circumstances under which the text arose and those in which it exists for the exegete can not be entirely closed. Then too the matter of the individuality of the author complicates the problem, since psychological analogies are not sufficient ground for certainty in reconstruction. The realities of the original speech, the historical conditions, and the inner life of the text have to be brought home to the understanding. Of these the first two help to realize the sense, the third helps to the meaning; the first. two tell what was actually said and done, the third gives the purpose of saying or doing. Exegesis falls then into three parts: philological, revealing the structure and vocabulary of the language; historical, setting forth the text as the result of certain actual conditions of origin, contents, and purpose; and stylistic, building on the other two and leading to the valuation of the text. Other names employed to designate these stages or varieties are grammatical, psychological, and rhetorical exegesis.
Philological exegesis has a double problem, lexical and grammatical. It takes into account not only grammatical structure and etymology, but also transformations wrought in forms and meanings of words by the ordinary historical development of language and by new needs and relations. This involves the mastery of the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek as the original tongues, and may require also that of the languages of the versions. The Greek of the Septuagint comes into consideration as a lingua franca of 2. Philo- old times and as the language of the logical Bible of early Christianity. So the Exegesis, varieties of Greek in the New Testament, from the almost classic forms of the Lucan literature to the Hebraistic character of the Johannean writings demand notice (see Hellenistic Greek). The definition of the character of Biblical language in general and of New Testament Greek in particular under the influence of the dogmatic view-point has become the object of dissidence since the rearing of an independent philological science which reproduces rather the views of the early Fathers than the dogmatic learning of post-Reformation times. Origen notes the providential readiness of the Greek to receive the content of revelation in New Testament times, while Augustine speaks of the spiritual impress the language received, particularly under Paul. In general, a new eloquence was discerned in this tongue fitting it to act as the mediator of a new divine wisdom. This was a point which humanism missed, and strife was waged between the Hebraists and the purists until Winer protested against the boundless arbitrariness with which the New Testament Greek was handled. One of the questions remaining open
is how far insight into the words of Jesus can be promoted by translation into the Syro-Chaldaic spoken dialect of his times. There is needed in this department of study not only knowledge of language but the linguistic sense, something difficult to attain in the case of a dead tongue. To attain it necessitates not only knowledge of word meanings and of homonyms and synonyms and etymology, but insight into the national life. With this, extraordinary forms and hapax legomena and new forms give insight into historical conditions. And as a last aid in this matter comes philological conjecture on the basis of parallels and analogies. Historical exegesis arises from the fact that complete understanding of a document necessitates knowledge of the conditions under which it was written, taking into account the circumstances ofbotb? author and reader. The document must be put into its historical environment. But this involves not merely the problem of history but that of the psychology of the writer, as furnishing the index of his purpose and method. 3. Historical Fundamental in Biblical exegesis is Exegesis, the consideration of the epoch-making character of the writings. The more necessary then becomes knowledge of their origin, content, purpose, and influence in their total relations with the whole life of the age when they arose. All-important here is the view of the world and of all its' relationships set forth in the documents. And necessary too are estimates of the originality of the conceptions contained and their relationship to or departure from those current at the time. For the Old Testament the current conditions of the Semitic world were important; < for the New, the Old Testament religion, Judaism and Hellenism. Historical exegesis takes all such considerations into account, and attempts to understand the author through his work and his work through the author.
An important means to a historical understanding is the correct employment of analogy. The relation of representations in the Bible to extra- Biblical representations, their independent or derivative character, are matters of importance. Two coats of like cut may bespeak the same tailor, but do not imply similar disposition or accomplishments in the wearers. Paul's characterization of ethnic cults as demon-worship does not imply that he shared all the Jewish hatred
4. Employ- and misconception which this judgment of ment carried with it in the Jewish Analogy mind. So analogy does not imply and wholesale transference of identity.
Hypothesis. An assistant in this same direction is the use of hypothesis, especially in the case of a broken connection. It assumes a connection in the circumstances or in the train of thought which does not appear on the surface. A broken torso guides to a reconstruction only when there are certain traces of the original form. But in history the help of psychology is often available to fill in outlines only partly discernible. The " historical " explanation of the inner development of Jesus and the psychological deductions concerning the conversion of Paul are cases in
Exegesis or Hermeneutics