Interpretation of Old Testament/Hebrew Bible: Reference Tools

The information provided in this section supplements the information on exegesis made available by Biblical Studies department of PTS. 

Exegesis is the critical explanation or interpretation of a Scriptural text. In fields outside of theology, exegesis is often known as "close reading."

An exegete (one who practices exegesis), should be concerned with questions that illuminate the text's meaning, both for past and contemporary readers.

In short, exegesis is concerned with three "worlds," or "realms," of the text: the World behind the Text, the World within the Text, and the World in front of the Text. Think of these worlds as making a circle that can be returned to time and time again. As the exegetical process becomes more familiar and you become more comfortable with the cycle, you can start at any one of these places. For those just beginning exegesis, it is suggested that one start with questions related to the World behind the Text, move to the World within the Text, and end with the World in Front of the Text. 

The World behind the Text is concerned with understanding, as best as possible, the people, world, religions, and practices, who created the biblical text. Exegesis ought to always begin by asking historical questions about the text. For instance, an exegete might be interested in historical details such as ancient slavery or the iconography of cows (Ex 32) in ancient Near Eastern religions when reading Exodus. 

The World within the Text focuses on the world that the text itself creates. In this movement, exegetes ask literary questions regarding the form, genre, and poetics of the text. The exegete should also ask theological questions such as: "what does the text say that God is," "what claims does the text make about humanity," and "how does the text claim the world is ordered?" This second step may find that the world within the text is at odds or in agreement with the historical realities behind the text. It may also hold the historical world and the textual world in tension with one another. For instance, Exodus acknowledges that Pharaoh was powerful, a historical reality, but it claims that he was not as powerful as Israel's God, a theological claim!

The World in Front of the Text attempts to understand how the historical realities behind the text and the claims within the text relate to contemporary people, churches, and synagogues. During this step, the exegete brings her theology into conversation with the historical realities and claims of the text. 

This guide introduces you to basic definitions and goals of exegesis as well as many tools, materials, books, journals, and the Society of Biblical Literature's online resource, Bible Odyssey, to aid your exegetical projects. 

Primary Concerns: The World behind the Text is primarily with the historical context and realities in which the Bible was written. Broadly speaking the Hebrew Bible has its home within the ancient Near East and the New Testament comes from the Greco-Roman world. When writing an exegesis paper for a seminary professor, or when exegeting a text for a sermon or Bible study curriculum, you will undoubtedly need to address historical aspects of the text. You will want to consider the world, geography, history, politics, society, and religion in which the author worked. Some important questions to ask include: How does the Hebrew Bible relate to the Ancient Near East? Is the Bible historical? How does the Bible relate to history?

History:  In matters of history, biblical scholars and exegetes are dependent on the work of ancient historians, archeologists, and philologists. Resources that can help you answer historical questions include Anchor Bible Dictionary, HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, and The Eerdman's Dictionary to Early Judaism. 

Geography: Geography is an often overlooked aspect of biblical studies, but knowledge of the environs of Israel/Palestine can help to understand the political and social realities that a biblical author experienced. Bible Atlases and Study Bible maps can be really helpful in understanding the social and political context of the ancient world. Pay special attention to the regions governed by superpowers such as Assyria, Egypt, Persia, and Rome.

Comparative Texts and Images: One of the most important tools for exegesis is the comparison of the biblical text with other texts from the ancient Near East and Greco-Roman worlds. By comparing texts, exegetes can learn more about the forms, genres, stories, poems, and styles that informed the biblical writers. Texts aren't the only useful materials, however. Ancient art and images can also be extremely useful. 

Primary Concerns: The World within the Text is primarily concerned with word choice and textual, literary, and theological questions. 

Textual questions: Textual questions examine the very nature of the text itself. Such questions may be redaction focused (that is, how was the particular text in question edited to fit with other texts around it?), narrative focused (how does the narrative structure work?), genre focused (what type of writing is the text?), or form focused (what form does the text take?). Some important questions to guide the process include: How was the Bible formed? How was the Bible written and transmitted? What are the earliest versions of the Bible? What are Source, Redaction, and Form criticisms?

Word analysis: Word analysis seeks to understand the words used in a text by seeking to understanding them in their original context and the meaning within the biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek). First, attention is paid to the immediate context, then to the larger structural/narrative context, and finally to usage throughout the Hebrew Bible or New Testament.

Theological background of the text: Theological questions analyze the explicit and implicit beliefs expressed in the text. The role of the exegete in this step is to "listen" carefully to the text and to pay close attention to what the text says. Sometimes, the text's theology may strike the reader as odd or even contradictory to their own beliefs. To best study these questions, one should turn to tools and books that best describes the religio-historical realities at work in the text before one attempts to synthesize a proscribe a theology from the text. 

Primary Concerns: The World in front of the Text refers to the world of the reader and contemporary hearers of the text. Only after the exegete has considered the World behind the Text and the World within the Text, should they turn to World in front of the Text. 

The World in front of the Text is where the reader/interpreter's theology meets the theology within the text. This meeting may be one of full acceptance of the Bible's theology, or it may be one that wrestles with the difficult words and the strange world of the Bible. In any case, the World in Front of the Text is concerned with bridging the context of the Bible to the context of contemporary people and their worlds. 

Contextual Readings: All readings are necessarily contextual. In recent years, marginalized individuals and groups have produced a vast literature of readings from a variety of locations and experiences beyond the dominant viewpoint in biblical studies which has often been produced by white, male, Europeans and Euro-Americans. The voices of women, African Americans, Asian Americans, LGBTQ people, and those from the "Developing World" continue to be instrumental to and illustrative of the ways that contemporary theologians read and proclaim the Bible. The resources in this section are only partial and meant to start every exegete on the path of interpreting for their contexts. 

Theology: Questions regarding biblical theology can be difficult, but not impossible to pose. One of the most important aspects that the exegete must consider is where their theology ends and the Bible's theology begins. Some approaches to biblical theology take the notion of "canon" as a central starting point for understanding where and how theology and the Bible meet. These resources are meant to be distinct from some of the more descriptive studies of the religion and theology within the Bible by considering broad theological approaches and readings of the Bible.

Preaching: Exegesis is always done best with an objective in mind. A very common purpose for exegesis is the sermon. Preaching the Bible, especially the Old Testament in a Christian context, is an art form. Luckily there are several useful resources and some of the best interpreters of the Bible written with the preacher in mind. The resources in this section are meant to explore the role of the Bible in preaching, preaching difficult texts, and the theology of the preaching moment.