As a divinity student in 1980 I came across the term ‘exegesis’ in reference to the exegesis of Scripture.  It means ‘drawing out’ the meaning of a written text and Scripture in particular.

I became aware of the opposite process – people reading into Scripture their own opinion and thus putting into Scripture something that was not there.  The danger of this is that it clothes the wrong idea with the full force and authority of Scripture. It is a very common problem, putting into Scripture what is not there, and it is much easier than exegesis, drawing out of Scripture the depth that is in it Ps 92:5.

For example: ‘A bishop must be … the husband of one wife’ 1Tim 3:2.  Instead of reading this in the light of polygamous practice, some have interpreted it as if it reads ‘only one wife during the whole of their lifetime’ so that people who have divorced and remarried are excluded from public office in the Christian church, interfering with the lives of multitudes of Christians.   There are other ideas read into this verse with similar unhappy results.

Another example is Mat 7:14 ‘ strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads to life, and few there be that find it.’  This is commonly read and preached as if it says: ‘there will always be few that find it.’  It does not say so.  This is reading one’s own ideas into the text rather than drawing out of the text its full and proper meaning.

This mistake was so common that I realised that I needed a term to describe it, so I coined the term ‘eisegesis’ in the mid-1980s – reading into the text ideas that were not there.

There are multitudes of examples.  The Thessalonians misunderstood Paul’s first epistle as if he had said that Christ would return soon, whereas he had said suddenly, so Paul corrects their mistake in his second epistle 2Th 2:2, a correction that multitudes of biblical documentary makers have still to notice.

Many people read ‘But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup’ 1Cor 11:28 as if it means ‘and therefore let him eat’, whereas the original Greek text shows that it means ‘and in this self-examining manner let him eat’.

Etymology

The Greek prepositions ex meaning ‘out of’ – and eis meaning ‘into’ – give us these two terms:

Exegesis: drawing out of (ex-) a text what is its full and proper meaning.

Eisegesis: reading into (eis-) a text one’s own ideas, prejudices, suppositions and interpretations, which may or may not be scriptural, and which may or may not be in the text.

The utility or usefulness of exegesis

If we continue to read into Scripture what we already know, we will not learn anything new.  But the value of exegesis is that one draws out of Scripture what one may not know – adding to one’s knowledge.

Thus Jesus said: ‘Every scribe who is instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like a man that is a householder, who brings out of his treasure things new and old’ Mat 13:52.

Only by exegesis can we draw new things out of Scripture.

Here is an example of eisegesis, that my readers may find difficult to believe, but which an Arminian preacher told me himself. Although Jesus said “I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, Who gave them to Me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand” Jn 10:28-29, yet this Arminian preacher claimed that people can jump out of the Father’s hand! This is Arminian theology being imposed upon the obvious teaching of Scripture and of Jesus Himself. This happens very frequently with many texts of Scripture. Instead of letting Scripture speak for itself with accurate exegesis, eisegesis imposes one’s own opinions on the interpretation of Scripture. This preacher circulates weekly emails about the Bible and has a weekly radio message broadcast in New Orleans, USA, to the present hour.

Updated:

23 Apr 2011: revisionist exegesis: an example with the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

19 Mar 2013: polemical exegesis.

19 Mar 2013: Christian exegesis and 31 Aug 2015.

19 Mar 2012: contextual exegesis.

28 Nov 2013: exegesis and sermon preparation.

14 Jan 2014: Exegesis and eisegesis.

2 Aug 2014 the use of exegesis in the Synoptic Solution to the Synoptic Problem.

30 Oct 2014: exegesis should change our thinking.

26 Aug 2015: metaphors and exegesis.

31 Aug 2015: mistakes in exegesis and eisegesis.

15 Jan 2016: code exegesis and 14 Oct 2019.

15 Jan 2016: biblical metaphors are not code exegesis.

8 Jul 2017: academic exegesis.

4 Nov 2017 eisegesis miscalls Demas’ leaving the apostle Paul.

16 Nov 2017: selective exegesis.

16 Nov 2017: assertion and repetition are not exegesis.

16 Apr 2018: Jesus’ exegesis.

26 Jul 2018: biblical exegesis of sex.

13 Aug 2018: ambiguity and exegesis.

3 Sep 2018: the joy of exegesis.

23 Sep 2019: learning basic exegesis.

8 Dec 2020: eclectic exegesis. The King James Version (KJV) is the best English-language version for devotional and initial Bible study for those who cannot use Hebrew and Greek for exact and complete exegesis.

17 Oct 2021: proper research leads to the discovery of things you did not know. This is what proper exegesis of Scripture does.

23 May 2022: incomplete exegesis – ‘the last day’, the subjects of baptism.

1 Jul 2022: eisegesis and interpretation of ‘facts’.

14 Dec 2022: the value of exegesis: the necessity of biblical exegesis to resolve differences between Christians. Determining the relevant passages for exegesis.

Still to be explained:

Emotional exegesis

Cultural exegesis – meanwhile see under Eclectic exegesis and here.

Sectarian exegesis

Celebrity exegesis

Rationalistic exegesis

Imitation exegesis

Specious exegesis

Metaphorical exegesis

Jewish exegesis, which relies on the Talmud more than the Hebrew Bible.

Roman Catholic exegesis, which relies on tradition and Roman authority rather than the Bible. An example is here.

Snatch exegesis, which snatches at whatever seems convenient and theologically correct without proper biblical exegesis.

Historical-grammatical exegesis is the standard basic building blocks for Bible exegesis that one will read about in any book on exegesis. It tends to be opposed to the historical-critical methodology associated with Higher Criticism, which treats the Bible like any other book and fails to acknowledge the principles of divine inspiration 2Tim 3:16 and divine preservation Ps 12:6-7 of the original biblical text. The modern academic aim of the historical-grammatical methodology is inadequate for Christian exegesis. The true Christian aim is not the penman’s understanding of what he wrote, but the depth of meaning intended by the Holy Spirit Who inspired the penman.