Hot answers tagged hermeneutical-approaches
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“If their approach was the same I assume they would come to the same theological conclusions”
Texts that aren't dense legalese, e.g. books like the Bible which contain stories, parables, philosophies and statues, are necessarily rich with ambiguity and mystery. There is no way that a book like the Bible could unambiguously inform any ...
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Professor Bart D. Ehrman's Curriculum Vitae reveals an academic with impeccable credentials. Perhaps the most important line is:
Ph.D. Princeton Theological Seminary (magna cum laude), 1985
His doctoral adviser was none other than Bruce Metzger, who wrote the book on textual criticism of the New Testament. Ehrman doesn't simply ride on the coattails ...
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Hermeneutics
the study of the principles and methods of textual analysis and interpretation
Exegesis
the critical explanation and interpretation of a text
In common use you would employ hermeneutics to study the text before expounding on it through exegesis.
Wikipedia - Hermeneutics
Wikipedia - Exegesis
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After a chat discussion, this is my understanding:
Hermeneutics is the theories and methods for studying text. Exegesis is the interpretation of text.
The difference is in theory verses practice.
For example, hermeneutics has techniques available, such as contextual analysis, or lexical-syntatical analysis. Hermeneutics is the theory behind translating ...
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No answer would be complete without this quote from Raymond Brown:
The sensus plenior is that that additional, deeper meaning, intended by God but not clearly intended by the human author, which is seen to exist in the words of a biblical text (or group of texts, or even a whole book) when they are studied in the light of further revelation or ...
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First of all, the historical-grammatical approach requires certain assumptions, definitions and foundations. Some of the other frameworks will probably have very similar foundations.
As the original texts were written (primarily) in Hebrew and Greek, some level of meaning can be best derived from studying the text in those languages.
As a corollary, many ...
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Midrash is part of the rabbinic tradition and expounds on the torah text. It comes from the word dalet-reish-shin (d'rash), to "draw out".
There are two types of midrash, aggadah and halachic midrash. Aggadot are stories. Sometimes this type of midrash fills in gaps in the narrative, for example filling in dialogue between Avraham and God when God ...
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It simply means that the scriptures must harmonize. The orthodox Christian view of the Bible is that it is not in error and does not contradict itself. Therefore when trying to examine one passage we must approach it with an eye to what the whole Bible says about that topic. For example, let's take divorce.
Jesus said,
“Everyone who divorces his wife ...
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Close reading in context will uncover it at least some of the time. Instead of reading at face value you have to ask yourself questions like:
Would that person, in that time and place, say that sincerely?
What actions did the speaker or listeners take in response? For instance, did anybody follow a command?
What do we know about the historical norms ...
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This hermeneutic was developed in the early church, and primarily related to understanding the Hebrew Scriptures. Each passage in Scripture is understood to have four meanings:
Literal: What the passage says about past events
Allegorical: What the passage can tell us about Christ
Moral: What the passage can teach us about how to live
Anagogical: What the ...
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From the Wikipedia article linked, the Pesharim approach posits that besides the surface meaning of an inspired text, there is a hidden or secret meaning that can only be exposed by individuals who have the requisite knowledge to uncover that meaning. Often the technique repurposes prophesy to apply not to the historical setting in which it was written, but ...
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I don't think it's as simple as knowing when to take a verse literally or symbolically. I will attempt to propose a hermeneutical approach to the translation of the book of Revelation. I am going to approach the text from a Christian perspective (as this was the intended audience). I would not call these 'rules,' but rather 'principles' of interpretation ...
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Hillel's seven were later expanded by Rabbi Yishmael ben Elisha into thirteen, dropping one. I'll be drawing this list from the list on Wikipedia. I'll be drawing some examples from this answer on Mi Yodeya about R. Yishmael's list that in turn quotes from the Artscroll prayer book.1
Kal v'chomer: if a lenient case has a stringency, then surely a ...
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Common Philosophical Beginnings
A full answer will require us to take a historical detour to 15th century Europe. Until that time, hermeneutics followed fairly straightforwardly the traditions of the church handed down from one generation to the next. The guiding principle was apostolic succession so the first step to discovering what a passage in the ...
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Several techniques that people use to establish literary dependence include:
Identical passages of several words or more
Unusual or unexpected words matching (especially usages that are idiosyncratic to one of the authors)
Overal structure matching
Matches in narrative or parenthetical material (this precludes the possibility that both are just quoting the ...
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[Conversation] is a process of two people understanding each other. Thus it is a characteristic of every true conversation that each opens himself to the other person, truly accepts his point of view as worthy of consideration and gets inside the other to such an extent that he understands not a particular individual, but what he says. The thing that has ...
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Always remember that to effectively use the Quadriga, you must start with the literal (i.e. grammatical-historical methodology) first. If one cannot apply a literal method then you are automatically forced to use a spiritual (allegorical) methodology. The allegorical method is then further divided into topological and anagogical where a text not only gives a ...
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Lexical-syntactical analysis is the study of the meaning of individual words (lexicology) and the way those words are combined (syntax) in order to determine more accurately the author’s intended meaning.
Virkler & Ayayo, Hermeneutics: Principles and processes of Biblical interpretation, p. 98 (2nd ed. 2007).
Essentially, it's looking at the ...
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A Socio-cultural hermeneutical approach is the worst way to interpret scripture, since this approach is usually based on extra-biblical sources, and allows anyone to interpret any scripture any way they want. You can always find some instance of ancient culture that will allow you to interpret scripture in the way that bests suits you, also known as ...
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I think examples of types of interpretation answer the question best.
Literary Interpretation – 'How does this text fit within the text before and after?' 'What kind of language is used, literal, symbolic? This is used for all literature, spiritual or not.
Historical Interpretation – 'What did this mean to those people when they wrote it, and ...
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Most of the answers so far are getting all hung up over very specific examples of morphological analysis. It is by far better to start with the basic notion of "morphological analysis", then look at how each of these instances already mentioned meet the goals of morphological analysis.
Morphological analysis means exactly what the etymology suggests: it is ...
7
For a detailed explanation on Christo-centric preaching (and thereby indirectly the hermeutic), I highly, highly recommend Keller + Clowney's 16-part seminar they held on "Preaching Christ to a Postmodern world", available for free(!) on iTunes U. Here is the link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/itunes-u/preaching-christ-in-postmodern/id378879885
I'd agree ...
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The basic difference is Jesus Christ. That may sound trite or rude, but it needn't be. A Christian hermeneutic that is faithful to itself will base its reading of the Old Testament on the way Jesus and the Apostles used the Old Testament. This hermeneutic was rather shocking even to Jesus' disciples (i.e. Christians) even at that time (and I assume Jewish ...
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The church has made many attempts to rid itself of allegorical interpretation for a very good reason. It is based on Greek rhetorical invention, which has no means of validating, or preventing a free-for-all. The reason it has been unsuccessful is because there are so many hints that there is a deeper meaning or a parallel to the life of Christ. Why do so ...
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Hermeneutic Circle
Part of the problem that this question has suffered is known as the hermeneutic circle.
The idea is that we use the text of the Bible to determine our doctrine. However, in order to interpret the text of the Bible, we have to come from a doctrinal predisposition.
When we approach hermeneutics seeking to understand a particular ...
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Regula Fidei
Regula Fidei is Latin and means "Rule of Faith" or "Analogy of Faith".
Definition
For a quick definition:
the rule of faith means something extrinsic to our faith, and serving as its norm or measure
Catholic Encyclopedia
In essense, it's the ultimate authority that is used to measure the faith of a given doctrine or belief.
How do we ...
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Sensus plenior is used by different people in different ways. The most common meaning used in debates among Catholics and later among Evanglicals is the one offered by Raymond Brown:
The sensus plenior is that that additional, deeper meaning, intended
by God but not clearly intended by the human author, which is seen to
exist in the words of a ...
6
If you look at the articles on Wikipedia for Biblical hermeneutics, dispensationalism, and covenant theology you will see that they both are referred to as interpretive frameworks as well as theologies.
The hermeneutic circle entails that dispensationalism is both a theological framework and a hermeneutical approach. One's theology will affect the reading ...
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This answer addresses the five books of Moses (torah), not the whole of tanakh (and nothing from the additional Christian scriptures).
The most popular multi-author theory is the Documentary Hypothesis, which postulates four sources (not authors) -- J, E, P, and D -- and a redactor. Richard Friedman's book Who Wrote the Bible? is an accessible, ...
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To say that "God is the author" of the Bible is not entirely a correct statement of the Christian position. Christians do not believe that God dictated the words of the Bible, in the way that Islam believes about the Koran. The Catholic and Protestant positions are summarized here.
To induce a person to write is not to take on oneself the responsibility ...
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