The role of religion and, concomitantly, faith and spiritual devotion, is an integral part of a human life, to say the least of it. Every person bestowed a gift of living the world was created by God. We owe our lives to the Holy Father and we live them to praise the kindness of our Lord. The Bible, which is the most meaningful book for every Christian, is a unique collection of texts which came from the God and are meant to lead us along the right path all through our lives. Reading the Bible is an obligation of every Christian, as it makes them realize that their lives should be sacrificed for permanent service to their Father as well as be aware that many traps and sins are waiting for them to challenge their true faith.
Interpretation of the Bible is a very important field of study. The Bible manifests a close bond between the God and human beings; it is the way a man can get closer to his Holy Father through the reading of sacred texts, understanding them and learning a valuable lesson from them. In this vein, the notions of hermeneutics and exegesis are relevant to the topic. In general, hermeneutics is defined in terms of interpretational strategies that a person has to adopt to understand a text. In contrast, exegesis means interpretation in action, i.e. working with the text and getting the meaning out of it. Corley, Lemke and Lovejoy (2002) concluded the difference between them in such a way that hermeneutics is understood as the theory of interpretation, while exegesis implies the practice of interpretation. Moreover, Porter (1997) noted that “hermeneutics has classically referred to the science of formulating guidelines, laws, and methods for interpreting an original author’s meaning” (p. 5), while “exegesis is concerned with the actual interpretation and understanding of the text” (p. 6).
I think that our presuppositions sometimes play the part in causing differences in the way we perceive the Bible. The most common background to give multiple interpretations to the text is the difference in cultural perspectives or societal values. However, it is important to remember that the Holy text is written in the way that it guarantees the same understanding of God’s knowledge to all the Christians regardless of their gender, nationality or age.
References
Corley, B., Lemke, S. W., & Lovejoy, G. I. (Eds.). (2002). Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Introduction to Interpreting Scripture (2nd ed.). Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Publishing Group.
Porter, S. E. (1997). A Handbook to the Exegesis of the New Testament. Leiden, the Netherlands: BRILL.
