EXEGESIS AND EISEGESIS

Here are two seminary terms that every believer ought to get familiar with: exegesis and eisegesis.

Maybe it will explain what has been bugging you about the sermons you've been hearing. 

EXEGESIS

Exegesis is interpreting a passage of Scripture based on careful discernment of what the author set out to communicate. 

Exegesis is the foundation for solid biblical preaching. It is what your pastor should do on a daily basis whenever his or her Bible is opened for study. 

Put simply, exegesis is drawing meaning out of the text. Listening to what it wants to teach. The sermon is simply the vehicle for passing THAT along. 

EISEGESIS

Eisegesis is when the "interpreter" comes to the text with an idea already formed, looking for a passage able to carry that idea. 

The preacher may need to twist or inflate or shrink a particular passage to be able to fit the idea inside. 

The opportunity to flash a verse or two on the screen in seeming support of the sermon's thesis is all that matters come Sunday morning. 

The context of the verse is ignored. The sermon might be slick - depending on the rhetorical skills of the preacher - but it is predestined to mediocrity. 

Or worse.

We should demand careful exegesis from our preachers. We should discourage eisegesis.

But we don't.

If the difference between exegesis and eisegesis is still a bit foggy, come back tomorrow when I will provide a textbook example of eisegesis - courtesy of a rising star of the mega-church scene who is also a "New York Times Bestselling Author".