Hermeneutics & Exegesis: Chicken & Egg

The Chicken and the Egg

1)  You use your overall theological/philosophical/methodological interpretive framework (hermeneutic) to interpret words and passages (exegesis).
You interpret words and passages (exegesis) to create your overall interpretive framework (hermeneutic).

We all do it.  We need to realize we do it.  It’s healthy to know how we do it.

2)  For instance… if you believe in Absolute Pure Free Will as the basis for a true love relationship with all the inherent risks and rewards that are built around true freedom and not some false sense of freedom where everything is actually predetermined -hermeneutic- then this effects how you interpret specific words and passages -exegesis- about how God is in control of everything.
How God dealt with Pharaoh.  How Jesus uses parables to conceal and/or reveal.  How God saves individuals by Grace alone.  How God brings the Apocalypse about.

3)  Hermeneutics:  your framework over the entire Bible.
Exegesis:  your parsing and defining words and passages of the Bible.

You do both… wow…you do theology.  (Theos-God… logos-words.)  You think and speak words about God.  Good job!

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