Topic Video: What is Hermeneutics?

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“Hermeneutics” is a common word in theological and biblical studies, but we don’t use it often in our daily lives. What does it really mean?

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“Hermeneutics” is a common word in theological and biblical studies, but we don’t use it often in our daily lives. Many of us will notice that the word “hermeneutics” includes the name “Hermes,” the mythological messenger of the gods. The word itself derives from a family of Greek words related to the verb hermeneuo, which means “interpret” or “explain.” So, broadly speaking, when we refer to hermeneutics, we have in mind the interpretation or explanation of some kind of message or communication.

It’s helpful to make a distinction and a comparison between general hermeneutics and biblical hermeneutics. The Bible has in common with general hermeneutics the ideas of: What does a verb do? What are parts of speech? What is grammar, syntax, and so forth? How do we determine what an author meant when he or she wrote those words? But one particular aspect of biblical hermeneutics that’s unique is that we try to seek to relate all the data of Scripture together under the assumption that they don’t contradict one another, but rather they speak — while of the variety of God's revelation — they also speak one in agreement with itself.
– Rev. Mike Glodo

If you’ve ever read the Scriptures, then you’ve involved yourself in biblical hermeneutics, at least informally. But we’ll move beyond informal hermeneutics and explore the kinds of issues that move to the foreground in academic, scholarly interpretation of the Bible.

We’ll speak of three main hermeneutical processes: preparation, investigation, and application. Let’s look first at preparation.

In a very important sense, preparation is inescapable because no one ever comes to the Bible as a tabula rasa — a blank slate. We all approach the Scriptures influenced by an assortment of concepts, behaviors and emotions. Whether we realize it or not, every time we begin to read the Bible, many influences have already prepared us for handling the Scriptures well, but other influences have created obstacles to sound biblical interpretation. For this reason, we give deliberate attention to preparing ourselves as well as we can for interpreting the Bible.

When we speak of investigation, we have in mind concentrating on the original meaning of a biblical passage. Essentially, when we investigate the Scriptures, we do our best to leave our modern world behind and grasp the meaning of portions of the Bible when they were first written. In the process of investigation, we focus on the original meaning intended by God and the Bible’s human authors, on the biblical documents themselves, and on Scriptures’ first audiences. In many respects, whenever we read Scripture, we can’t avoid dealing, to some extent, with original meaning.

For instance, if we explore the Bible in its original languages, we have to take into account the linguistic conventions of ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts. Even if we rely on a modern translation of the Bible, that translation is based on assessments of the ancient meanings of terms and grammatical expressions. In these and many other ways, the original meaning of a biblical passage is always crucial to its interpretation. So, we must also give a great deal of attention to the process of investigation.

Hermeneutical processes also entail the process of application. In simple terms, application amounts to appropriately connecting original meaning to contemporary audiences. Once we’ve understood the original meaning, we travel, as it were, through the millennia to our modern situation. In application, we reflect on the ways the Scriptures should apply to us as the people of God.

Preparation, investigation and application are highly interdependent processes. Of course, everyone has different inclinations and abilities, and as a result we tend to stress only one or two of these processes. But the interdependence of preparation, investigation and application reminds us to develop our skills in all three areas.