Eisegesis
Eisegesis literally means “reading meaning into,” respectively. Eisegesis is generally used to refer to the practice of imposing a preconceived or foreign meaning onto a text, even if that meaning could not have been originally intended at the time of its writing.
Exegesis, on the other hand, means “drawing meaning out of” and is the process of seeking to understand what a text means or communicates on its own.[1]
There are two basic steps in the interpretation of scripture. One must ask:
- (1) What did the passage mean for the person who first spoke these words or wrote them and for the people who first heard or read them?
- (2) What should the passage mean to a reader today?
The first task is to enter into the circumstances of the person who first wrote or heard or read the passage and then try to understand the meaning in the light of the whole Bible. The second is to try to make the meaning of the passage clear in the circumstances of the present day. Interpreters in every age have struggled to be faithful in these two steps.[2]