Hermeneutics
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
Hermeneutics is the science or practice of understanding text (theory of interpretation). Although there are secular applications, the term was used originally to stand for the field of Biblical interpretation. The philosophy or methodology assumes the Bible remains as written, but that its interpretation changes between historical periods, across cultures, etc. It is a qualitative research tradition that uses these diverse experiences of people as a tool for understanding the social, cultural, political, and historical context in which interpretations occurs.
The Oxford Companion to the Bible defines hermeneutics as “inquires into the conditions under which the interpretation of biblical texts may be judged possible, faithful, accurate, responsible, or productive in relation to some specified goal.”
It deals with issues, such as whether the Bible should be viewed as history or mythological. It may include the process of exegesis but is broader in scope as it entails a study of biblical texts in order to understand not only the historical aspects of the writings but also the significance of these documents for the present.
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Methods
Exegesis
- Main Article: Exegesis
Exegesis (also known as the Historical-grammatical method) is a critical interpretation of any text, especially of religious texts such as the Bible or Qur'an. More specifically it is an extensive investigation of the original meaning of a text in its historical and literary contexts. A person skilled in the science of exegesis is known as an exegete. The opposite of this would be eisegesis.
An important principle of exegesis is determining the meaning an author wished to convey to the audience. It is quite right to use the historian's principle of giving more historical weight to those who have more historical immediacy in order to determine the likely views of the original readership. It is notable that the young age view was held by the early church as well as early Jewish religious leaders.
Eisegesis
- Main Article: Eisegesis
Eisegesis means "reading in" and refers to the practice of reading your own ideas into the text. It is an error, in that it does not allow the Bible to speak to you on its own terms, but only through the filter of your preconceived ideas and even worldview. Platonist philosophy may have influenced people to adopt the practice of allegorical interpretation and abandon the more historical/grammatical approach of exegesis.
Historical vs. Mythological
History and mythology bear distinct literary characteristics. These include:
| History | Mythology |
|---|---|
| Recounting of events in dry, factual, linear manner | Exaggeration, hyperbole, and emotional appeals |
| Provides specific timeframes for events | Absence of timeframes |
| Provides details such as genealogies and geography | Absence of such details |
| Describes people in objective fashion; no hero-worship | Creates "heroes" and "villains" |
| Earliest known form written | Earliest known form oral |
Issues
Time frames
Genesis provides specific dates and time frames for the major events, particularly those related to the flood. For example:
13Now it came about in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the water was dried up from the earth. Then Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the surface of the ground was dried up. 14In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. Genesis 8:13-14
On the other hand, the author is unaware of a single mythological account from another ancient culture which records its events in such a detailed time frame.
Genealogies and geography
Genesis provides genealogies for the line from Adam to Noah giving the year each had the next child in the line and the year they died. For example:
12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13 And after he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 Altogether, Kenan lived 910 years, and then he died. Genesis 5:12-14
Genesis also provides a remarkable degree of geographic detail. For example:
10Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. 11The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there. 13The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. 14The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria And the fourth river is the Euphrates. Genesis 2:10-14
Some other ancient historical and mythological accounts do indeed provide rudimentary genealogies and basic geography. However, none do it in such striking detail, with such objective style. The description of Eden reads like a dry geography text, not a mass-market novel.
Objective description of characters
There are no heroes in the Old Testament.
- Noah was both "righteous in his generation" and a sloppy drunk;
- Abraham was both praised by God as "a man of faith" and a coward who lied out of fear;
- Moses was chosen to lead his people from Egypt, but was also meek, shy, and had a bad temper which ultimately kept him out of the promised land;
- David was a "Man after God's own heart," an adulterer, and a murderer;
- Solomon was the wisest man of his day, but married pagan wives and allowed them to set up temples opposed to God.
The objective style in which these men are described is inconsistent with hero-myths. Hero-myths build up characters into such flawless beings that they become flat and unbelievable to the modern mind. The Bible, on the other hand, describes its characters in such rich detail, both good and bad, that the characters strike us as real.
Earliest known form
The earliest known form of Genesis is written. There is no evidence that it arose from oral traditions. Some academics assume that there was one, but they do this without evidence to support their claim. Genesis has been held out as being based on documents written by Moses himself. Other apocryphal accounts like the Book of Jubilees which are totally factually consistent with Genesis (and stop before Moses's death, unlike Genesis) explicitly claim to have been written by Moses.
This contrasts sharply with Greek mythology, which was collected from oral traditions by Greek historians and mythographers like Herodotus seeking to record their country's beliefs, as well as poets and dramatists whose manifest purpose was to entertain and inspire, rather than to provide historical annals.
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Categories: Bible | History | Mythology
