hermeneutics

catholic hermeneutics

• basses its teaching on tradition

• meaning that they can interpret the bible in new ways if they stay within the traditional teachings.

• e.g. Raymond E brown interprets the fourth gospel as an allegory for the Johannine community’s expulsion from the synagogues.

Traditional hermeneutics s

• protestant churches base their teachings on ‘sola scriptura’ (only scripture) on the word of the bible.

• meaning protestant interpreters are more likely to treat the bible literally and regard the four gospel-writers as independent eyewitnesses (not redactors)

• e.g. Morna Hooker’s rejection of Wrede’s theory of the messianic secret in Mark

liberal hermeneutics

• they are sceptical about the supernatural elements in the bible and interpret miracles naturalistically.

• they are less likely to view the gospel-writers as eyewitness and more likely to view them as redactors who have brought together different sources or constructed a narrative.

• e.g. Rudolf Bultmann idea that the bible should be demythologized to reveal its real teaching.

four principles of hermeneutics

• the literal principle

• the historical principle

• the grammatical principle

• the synthetic principle

literal principle

unless the bible’s text is clearly meant to be a figure of speech or a poetic metaphor should be taken literally.

this principle opposes the tendency of liberal critics to ‘spiritualize’ the text by claiming it allegorical.

historical principle

some bible passages need an understanding of the historical context they take place in.

grammatical principle

some bible passages require an understanding of the languages they were originally written in or which Jesus and his disciples spoke.

synthetic principle

the bible is best viewed as consistent and passages should be explained by reference to other passages.

traditional critics try to harmonise the bible, treating the gospels as if they were independent eyewitnesses describing the same events from different perspectives.

exegesis

the term used to describe the specific act of interpreting a passage’s meaning (taking out)

when putting hermeneutics into practice.

Eisegesis

which is where you impose your own personal views onto a biblical text (drawing in)