Exegesis vs Hexegesis
Exegesis is to “lead out” the original meaning of a Biblical text. It’s a way of bringing out the original intent of the author by studying not only the background of the writer, the background of the recipient but also the situation or the occasion that gave rise for its writing. The the text is carefully analyzed by considering its genre, context, grammar and syntax to find out what it is actually meant to those who first received it.
Eisegesis, in contrast, is “reading into” the text what we, the modern readers, assume it is actually saying. It’s a subjective method of interpretation and it is the real culprit why Christians don’t agree in many things.
Here are some of the factors that contribute to eisegesis:
- Laziness – when the reader is just too lazy to study, and so he gets satisfied with littlest information he has on the subject. Some are even more lazier that they don’t even bother to read the verses before and the verses after.
- Experience – when the reader’s own experience on the same subject makes him the expert interpreter and since he’s also lazy to study, he reads his own experience INTO the text and feels happy about it.
- Tradition – regardless whether the orginal source of the interpretation was just a product of laziness, experience, or both, this faulty interpretation gets passed on from generation to generation. And since the next generation is also lazy, they just receive it without question. (Feel free to call this Lazy-gesis!)
Hexegesis –?Don’t be surprised this ain’t new, although you will not find it in the dictionaries out there, it is closely related to eisegesis. They are actually are cousins but those who resort to this method is ingenious. It’s a mystical or esoterical approach to Bible interpretation. First you convince yourself to be guided by a supernatural force that makes you as authoritative as the Scripture itself. Then you commit an intellectual suicide by emptying any rational thought that you have and, viola! Whatever idea you come up with as long as people will buy it, you’ll do fine. Examples?
- Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea (Rev 7:2 NIV). Hexegesis: The angel is Felix Y. Manalo. The East or Far East is the Philippines. The four other angels are Wilson, Lloyd George, Clemenceau and Orlando. Date of fulfillment: year 1914.
- It will be a unique day, without daytime or nighttime-a day known to the LORD. When evening comes, there will be light. On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea and half to the western sea, in summer and in winter (Zec 14:7-8 NIV). Hexegesis: The Mt. of Olives is actually Mt. Apo in Davao. Date of fulfillment: April 13, 2005 is the birth of the Kingdom Nation; the beginning of the Kingdom Age of Apollo C. Quiboloy.
- Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy (Dan 9:24 NIV). Hexegesis: Seventy times seven years is equivalent to 490 years, starting from the time the Roman Catholic cross was erected by the Spaniards in Cebu. Date of fulfillment: year 2010.
I hope you will find this comparison a bit helpful in your efforts to study and apply what you are reading in the Bible.
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