TH- 313 HERMENEUTICS

Every document, whether secular or sacred writings, for the purpose of understanding needs interpretation. The Bible is written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, reflecting several different historical and cultural settings; a basic requirement for the understanding of these documents is their grammatical and historical interpretation or exegesis bringing out of the test, the meaning their writers intended to convey and which their readers were expected to gather from it.

Interpreting the Bible in its grammatical–historical setting is different from exposition, which is done on the pulpit. Exposition aims to apply the test of the scripture and its meaning to the life the audience of today. But valid exposition must be firmly based on exegesis; the meaning of the text for the hearers of today must be related to its meaning for the hearers to whom it was first written.

Hermeneutics can then be defined as the study of principles of the interpretation, both the grammatical-historical interpretation and the practical application of that application in the pulpit.