Hermeneutics is the study of the correct principles and methods of interpretation (especially interpretation of the Scriptures), and exegesis applies those principles and methods to study texts of scripture. Hermeneutics provides theoretical knowledge, and exegesis is the practical implementation of that knowledge; Hermeneutics gives the tools for discovering what the author intended to communicate (i.e., the text’s meaning), and exegesis uses those tools to get the job done.[i] When you engage in Bible study, as we will show you how to do in this book, and start using hermeneutics principles to draw out the author’s intended meaning from a text, you are doing exegesis.
Going to class and learning the principles of good agricultural practice is quite different from going to the field and applying those principles to grow crops and produce a harvest that people can eat. Learning how to make bread is different from actually applying that knowledge to bake bread. Learning how to play football is different from applying that knowledge while playing the game. In the same way, you acquire the knowledge of hermeneutics so that you can apply those principles while doing an exegesis of a Bible passage. Without good hermeneutics knowledge, your exegesis will be bad.
Also note that as used in this book, hermeneutics covers the entire spectrum of Bible study, while exegesis focuses on deciphering what the author intended to communicate to his readers when he wrote the text we are reading.
[i] Andrew D. Naselli, How to Understand and Apply the New Testament: Twelve Steps from Exegesis to Theology (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Publishing, 2017), 2. Wayne Grudem also describes the differences in a similar way in Systematic theology, saying, “The word hermeneutics (from the Greek word hermēneuō, “to interpret”) refers to the study of correct methods of interpretation (especially interpretation of Scripture).14 The word exegesis refers more to the actual practice of interpreting Scripture, not to theories and principles about how it should be done: exegesis is the process of interpreting a text of Scripture. Consequently, when one studies principles of interpretation, that is hermeneutics, but when one applies those principles and begins actually explaining a biblical text, he or she is doing exegesis.”
