Hermeneutics Exam 1 notes

Grammatical Historical interpretation

The method whose goal is primarily to discern the meaning intended by the author and understood by the original recipients. It does this by paying close attention to both the language and the cultural-historical setting or occasion in which the text was written. 

targum

Aramaic for “translation” or “interpretation,” refers to the synagogue practice of, after reading the text in Hebrew, translating, interpreting, and paraphrasing it for the community.

Pesher

A modern term for certain Qumran texts (that would have been understood as Haggadic or non-legal Midrash) that applied prophetic texts of the Hebrew Bible to their contemporary situation in detail.

Midrash

Scriptural interpretation that took the form of commentary on a particular text (Halakhah for legal and Haggadah for non-legal texts), often seeking deeper meanings on the basis of comparison with other texts.

Allegorical Interpretation

A hermeneutic practice that looks for spiritual or mystical meaning in the text beyond the literal sense that the historical author intended.

Typological interpretation

A hermeneutic practice that understands characters, offices, or events in light of their correspondence to other characters, offices, or events in redemptive history.

Traditional Interpretation

A hermeneutic practice that submits its understanding of a text to the agreed-upon meaning of that text within a community over time.

Historical-critical method

The investigation of the origin and meaning of the text by means of universally-accessible reason alone, founded on the basis of naturalistic (non-theistic) assumptions about causation, history, and humanity.

Source criticism

The historical-critical method that seeks to identify written documents that were incorporated into the composite final form of the text.

Redaction criticism

The historical-critical method that examines the motivations, intentions, and theology behind the editor (“redactor”) of the composite final form of the text.

Form criticism

The historical-critical method that seeks to identify patterns in the oral sources behind the text and situate those patterns of speech in their original life situation

Canonical approach

The hermeneutic approach that focuses on the shape and function of the final text that was received as authoritative (“canonized”) by the faith community, seeking to understand its meaning in the context of the larger collection (“canon”) of received texts.

Literary criticism

An approach that seeks to understand the Bible in its final form without reference to its history or origin, using the same contemporary theories and approaches that are typically used to understand other works of literature.

Narratice criticism

An approach that analyzes the story elements (plot, character, conflict, narrator, etc.) that are on the surface structure of the text

Poststructuralism

The literary and philosophical movement that departs from the structuralist commitment to finding meaning in a system of relations and difference and instead denies any possibility of arriving at stable meaning, because it recognizes this system as an endless chain of signifiers (signs pointing to something else).

Reader-response criticism

A pluralistic approach to literature that focuses on how meaning is generated by the reader(s) and the process of reading rather than the author or the text itself.

Deconstruction

Derived from poststructuralism, this approach seeks to decenter or unmask problematic binaries in thought and text (e.g., signified/signifier, utterance/language, speech/writing, presence/absence, author/text), showing that what is thought to be the foundational or stabilizing element actually depends for its identity or meaning on the opposite that it marginalizes or suppresses.

Liberation hemeneutics

An approach that reads Scripture self-consciously in solidarity with the poor, marginalized, or oppressed communities, privileging those readings that critique and challenge oppressive and exploitative systems in order to liberate the victims of such systems.

Hermeneutics

the study of the activity of interpretation; in theory, disciplines that analyze interpretation; in practice, either bringing meaning to one’s context or whole movement of interpreting and applying text. (Brown, 10)

Exegisis

careful study to determine as best as possible author’s meaning in the original context of writing (focus on “then” of text instead of “now” of contextualized meaning) (Brown, 12–13)

Genre

classification of a passage or book “as a specific kind of literature,” e.g. narrative, poetry, epistle, legal texts, apocalyptic literature, each of which has “conventions and contours” (Brown, 13–14)

Literary context

“written material immediately surrounding” a passage, and “wider section in which that passage is located” (Brown, 14)

social setting

cultural and historical context, social world of the Bible (Brown, 15)

contextualization

hearing Scripture’s meaning speak in new contexts, theoretically separated from interpretation yet not separable in practice (Brown, 15–16)

Meaning

the communicative intention of the author, inscribed in the text, and addressed to the intended audience for the purposes of engagement (Brown, 12)

Communicative intention

What the author wishes to communicate by means of a speech-act.

Speech-act theory

An approach that examines how verbal utterances not only say things but also do things.

Locution

What is said when one speaks (the utterance itself)

Illocution

The action taken in speaking an utterance, what is verbally-accomplished, the “speech-act” itself, or the “force” of the locution

Perlocution

The response evoked by speech from hearers, or the consequence of an utterance.

Relevance theory

The theory (in cognitive linguistics) that hearers infer more than what is provided in linguistic features of an utterance by combining the linguistic data of the utterance with implications and assumptions until arriving at an interpretation that satisfies the expectation of relevance.

Utterance

A speech-act with a context, including both the linguistic expression (“sentence,” linguistic data) and the shared context.

Explicatures

logical forms of the utterance, including the fact of its being communicated.

Implicated premises

assumptions from the context that lead to a relevant interpretation of the utterance.

Implicated conclusions

conclusions from the context that achieve relevance for the utterance

Presupposition

Views or concepts that are shared by speaker and hearer that make communication work—cultural encyclopedia

Narrative theory

Analysis of texts that contain or consist of stories

Implied reader

the textually constructed reader presupposed by the narrative, who serves as a model of how the author hopes the reader will respond

Implied author

the textually constructed or textually presented author

Point of View

the “perspective of the implied author, shared both explicitly and implicitly in the text” (Brown, 31)

Narrative theology

The view that Scripture’s story is normative for shaping Christian theology and practice.

Sense

the mental content that is expressed in an utterance

Referent

what the utterance points to outside of its linguistic context

Language

linguistic system of a speech community that supplies the range of what words and utterances may mean

utterance

a speech act within ints context or speech situation

semantic range

possibilities for meaning of a word, phrase, or sentence

word

linguistic sign that has a range of various senses, some of which may correspond to different concepts

concept

mental representation that may have a number of words or word senses associated with it

cultural context

particular society’s ways of understanding and living

Audiance context

shared experience and knowledge of the original target audience

dynamic context

sifting, evolving relationship between author and audiance

primary sources

texts and inscriptions from the ancient Near Eastern world, Jewish world of the first. century and the Greco-Roman world of the first century

secondary sources

describe and synthesize primary sources

Divinatory Method

the attempt to understand the text as well as or even better than the author by taking on the position of author and resonate with his or her self-consciousness

Friedrich Schleiermacher

founder of Divinatory Method

Semantic autonomy

the view that the meaning of the text is somewhat independent of the author’s intent, so meaning is polyvalent and the text provides limits but not determination of meaning

Paul Ricoeur

Founder of Semantic autonomy

Hermeneutic circle

the concept that reader’s presuppositions are brought to the text but also challenged by the text, forming a circle of dialogue and mutual challenge between the text and reader

Martin Heidegger

founder of hemeneutic circle

Fusion of horizons

given that the text and reader each has a distinct “horizon” (viewpoint plus what is in view from that viewpoint), understanding occurs when the horizon of the text and the horizon of the reader can meet and connect

Hans-Georg Gadamer

founder of fusion of Horizons

Interpretive communities

in the view that readers create meaning from unstable texts, these communities control the readers (who control the texts) and thereby avoid pure subjectivism in interpretation

Stanley Fish

founder of interpretive communities