I got to thinking today... sometimes in the mornings before leaving as I feed my cat, I do something funny that could relate to hermeneutics. There is a right and wrong way to go about interpretation. Two simple terms for this are...
"Exegesis" - to "lead out" the meaning of a biblical text. This means to desire to draw the meaning of the Bible passage out.
"Eisegesis" - To read the meaning into a biblical text.
As I prepare for feeding my cat, he meows and rubs up against my leg. Often I'll say, "Aww, I love you too." You and I both know the cat isn't telling me how wonderful I am or how much he loves me... he's saying something like "food! food! I'm hungry!" While we don't know cat language, we CAN tell by looking at the context of the situation that the cat probably isn't saying that he loves me or speaking kind words of encouragement. For me to assume he was saying those things is obviously an example in Eisegesis... while my cat isn't a text.
Good news... on the way home from work today, I stopped by an old friend's house. We were friends for years before I was saved. Afterward there was a kind of falling out for obvious reasons. I decided to drop in and another of my old friends was there and He just recently got saved! him and his mom both! He said he was saved a while back but realized he really wasn't until just recently. He works for a small ministry locally. I also go to talk to his mom on the phone. She was excited to hear my voice and to know that I was going to Bible college.
He updated me on all the major things that have happened in his life and the things still to come. I praised God on the way home for the work He had done in this heart!
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