Exegesis (Part 2): Here are Easy Steps to Understand any Bible Verse!

In our first part of read and interpret the Bible, we agreed that both exegesis and hermeneutics are required to completely understand and apply God’s word. In today’s article, we will explore how exactly exegesis should be done, simply.

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As we earlier said, this is the study of Biblical meaning to the original authors, audiences, and in their times. In other words, it is historical (and theological or religious) implications of what God said to them in those days.

As agreed by almost all theologians and Biblical scholars (Fee and Stuart, John Piper, Baker Illustrated Bible Handbook, Graig S. Keener, and others), to do exegesis is simply to understand the Biblical context and content. Again, this should be common sense. Content is the message, and context is its time or situation!

In other words, before we can apply God’s word to our own contexts and situations, we need to take into account the original context and content. But let’s go slowly. What is content? What is context?

Exegesis: What is Biblical context?

According to Baker Illustrated Bible handbook, there are two types of contexts; literary and historical-cultural contexts.

The literary context considers the genre or type of the writings (for example, the law, narratives, Psalms, Proverbs, epistles, or letters), and the immediate surrounding context (below and above the verse or verses of interest). It is not necessarily the literal meaning of the words in the text, but the confession that, actually, words have meaning in sentences and not in isolation.

Of course, there is when a single word in isolation has the whole meaning but we need to be slow with this approach for it can often mislead and divert us from the core message; we may find time to come back to it.

READ THIS TOO: How to read and interpret God’s word Part 1

Fee and Stuart explain the literal context in these words:  

‘This is the crucial task in exegesis, and fortunately it is something one can do well without necessarily having to consult the ‘experts’. Essentially literary context means that words only have meaning in sentences, and for the most part biblical sentences only have meaning in relation to preceding and succeeding sentences” (Page 11).

These authors go ahead and help us to understand the relevant questions we could ask to get the most out of this exegesis without necessarily consulting other books or people.

The most important questions to ask, over and over of every sentence and every paragraph are: What’s the point? We must try to trace the author’s train of thought. What is the author saying and why does he or she say it right here? Having made that point, What is he or she saying next, and why? (Fee & Stuart, Page 11).

Historical-cultural context is simply the background (political, social, topographical and geographical, economic, cultural, etc.) of the author, his relationship with the audience, the audience’s times and situation, and all sorts of background information that relates to the text.

It is here that we dig deeper into the lives of the authors, social, economic, religious, and cultural practices of his (author) audience or himself, the religious or theological events in those times, the challenges, opportunities, and ceremonies of those days, and why such word (God’s word) was delivered at that time through some means or people and not others.

The ‘entrepreneur’ in me is tempting me to say it is the SWOT analysis of the times! 

While it looks intimidating, we can even do this minus secondary help (some Bible writings or books are detailed enough). However, to get the most out of it, we may need secondary literature (like Biblical encyclopedias, dictionaries, commentaries, and many other tools as God’s grace allows).

We shall probably find time to discuss important and trustworthy tools a Christian interested in understanding and applying the Bible could use.

NB: In the scholarly world, context is usually divided into five types; authorial, socio-historical, philosophical, literary, and critical contexts. See details here.

Exegesis: What is Biblical content?

Concerning content, it is about going to the real text, and make sense of the message. This may involve consulting different translations, using commentaries, and going over the words and verse (s) again and again (noting emphasis, figure of speech, commands, conditional clauses, purpose of the text, contrasts, results, consequences, text tone, important conjunctions, key nouns and verbs, answers to questions, and much more).

To make sense of this content-related context, let us again borrow their (Fee and Stuart) example: When Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:16:

“Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer” (NASB), one should want to know, Who is “according to the flesh,” Christ or the one knowing him? It makes a considerable difference in meaning to learn that “we” know Christ no longer “from a worldly point of view” is what Paul intends, not that we know Christ no longer “in His earthly life.” (Page 12)  

Baker Illustrated Bible handbook emphasizes that, in light of everything, ‘make a past-tense statement summarizing what the text meant for the Biblical audience’ (page 884). In other words, content is about the meaning of words you have read or you intend to study. And this meaning resonates well with its historical time.

It’s on this I would love to say that sometimes the meaning can be totally bizarre and weird depending on what is now and what was then in terms of context. However, importantly, you don’t have to twist the meaning to fit in your context. Just let the meaning or the true message be!

Just keep in mind that words make true meaning (content), mostly, when in sentences (literary context) and in consideration of their audience and their times (cultural-historical context) and not on their own.

Exegesis: Summary

As we wind up on this second part of read and interpret the Bible, let us summarize it all.

A true Christian and Biblical scholar should be concerned with both exegesis (what the text means to the original audience ‘then and there’) and then hermeneutics (what the text means to us ‘now and here’).

This is because Bible is both an everlasting God’s word to all generations and a historical message that was delivered through people to people over a time.

To understand what the Biblical text meant to its original authors and audiences (exegesis) is possible if we consider the context and the content. Context is both literal and cultural-historical and content is simply the careful examination and understanding of the message or words as they appear in their sentences and different genres of Biblical books.

In others words, the steps to practicing exegesis are: 1. Read the text; 2. Establish the context; 3. Establish the content; 4. That’s all. Thank God.

In our next part, we will explore how to do hermeneutics. For now, God bless you