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What is exegesis?

Hint: A Fancy Word for Studying the Bible

If you ever pick up a book about studying the Bible, you are likely to encounter the word ‘exegesis.’ It’s a technical word for the process of studying the Bible.

You may be wondering, “Why do we need a fancy word for studying the Bible?”

I’m glad you asked. The definition of the term ‘exegesis’ brings clarity to the task of understanding the Bible in a way that the phrase “Bible Study” doesn’t. In this post, I’ll explain the meaning of ‘exegesis’ and how it clarifies that task of studying the Bible.

The first time I encountered the word “exegesis” happened in an undergraduate class about studying the Bible. I remember being confused by the word and wondering why we needed a whole class on the process of studying the Bible. Up to that point, I simply opened my Bible with a pen or highlighter in my hand and started reading. I tried to be a good reader, but that was the extent of my process.

A lot has changed for me over the years. I quickly discovered the importance of studying the Bible well and became so passionate about it that I pursued an academic career in biblical studies. It’s safe to say that I am thoroughly convinced that exegesis is essential for understanding the Bible. Unfortunately, most people are like my 18 year old self: completely unaware of exegesis and its importance. If that’s you, consider this post your introduction to the topic.

Let’s begin with the definition of exegesis.

The Definition of Exegesis

The term exegesis comes from a Greek word that means “to lead out” (exēgesthai). The idea is that proper study of the Bible always proceeds from the details of the text and not from our agendas.

If exegesis begins with the details of the text, we should be clear about what that means.

As Christians, we have a practical goal for studying the Bible: we want to understand what it means for us today. However, before we can understand what the Bible means for us today, we must discover what it meant to its earliest readers. The only way we can understand what it meant is by paying careful attention to the text’s details. To say it another way: we must begin with exegesis if we want to apply the Bible to our lives.

So, we may define exegesis as follows:

the process of examining the details of a biblical passage so we can understand what it meant to its earliest readers.

With this definition in mind, let me explain how exegesis clarifies the task of studying the Bible.

How Exegesis Clarifies The Task of Bible Study

If you are like my 18 year old self, your process of studying the Bible is likely not that different from your process of reading the Bible. You sit down with a Bible, some pens or highlighters, and perhaps a notebook. You read a portion of scripture, pray, and start journaling your thoughts. This approach resembles devotional methods that Christians have for a long time. It offers many spiritual benefits and doesn’t need to be abandoned.

However, that approach to studying the Bible should be rooted in a solid understanding of the whole Bible and Christian theology. Otherwise, our devotional thoughts can quickly develop into ways of thinking about the Bible, God, or the Christian faith that are quite wrong. Understanding and practicing exegesis can benefit our devotional reading of Scripture because it clarifies the task of Bible study in two ways.

1) Exegesis focuses our attention on the details.

A devotional approach to studying the Bible will often focus on the portions of Scripture that are particularly inspirational or motivational. We are often drawn to the “quotable” portions of Scripture. Unfortunately, this often detracts from our attention to the details of a passage.

An exegetical approach to Scripture, challenges us to carefully consider all the details of the text. Though we will still find certain passages more inspirational than others, the exegetical method insists that we pay attention to both the inspiring and uninspiring portions.

When we pay attention to the details of the text, we will be asking questions about the content of the passage.

Examining the content of the passage means considering how the words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs work together to form an understandable message. For example, individual Psalms frequently shift pronouns from first person (I, me, we) to second person (you, your) or third person (he, she, they, them). If you want to understand a psalm, you will need to know to whom each pronoun refers.

Additionally, when we examine the content of a passage we will need to ask questions about its literary context.

The literary context refers to the larger section of scripture in which your passage occurs. For example, the first half of Paul’s letters usually deal with theological issues and the second half usually address ethical matters. When we are performing exegesis on a passage in Ephesians, we need to determine how it relates to the larger argument of the letter (i.e., the literary context). Also, we need to understand how the passage fits in with the larger context of the whole Bible (i.e., canonical context).

2) Exegesis focuses our attention on the historical context.

An exegetical approach to scripture challenges us to consider the historical situation in which the passage was written. As I said before, if we want to know what the Bible means we need to explore what it meant first. Knowing what it meant requires us to ask historical questions.

The historical context refers “the time and culture of the author and his readers” (Fee, 26). Therefore, if we want to understand the historical context of a passage, we need to examine the geographical, political, social, and economic factors at play for both the author and his audience. For example, we need to understand how each of the Old Testament prophets relate to the Babylonian exile. The message of each book will make more sense if we know whether it was composed before, during, or after the nation’s most traumatic experience.

Exploring the historical context will illuminate all sorts of details in the text. The authors and editors of the Bible assumed their readers knew the customs (i.e., marriage rituals in Genesis) and figures of speech (i.e., pick anything in Revelation) they used. Unfortunately, the time and cultural distances between ourselves and the Bible’s earliest audiences means that we need to do some solid historical reconstruction to understand the ancient customs and figures of speech.