EISEGESIS OR EXEGESIS
In Teaching the Bible as Literature
Hugo McCord
Eisegesis literally (from the Greek, eis, "into," and egeisthai, "to lead") is to lead into a passage the thinking of the instructor. It is defined
As an improper method of exposition by which the expounder introduces his own ideas into the interpretation of a text (WEBSTER’S NEW UNIVERSAL UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY, 2nd edition, 1979: Simon and Shuster, New York, N. Y. 10020).
Exegesis literally (from the Greek, ek, "out," and egeisthai, "to lead") is to lead out of a passage the thinking of the author. It is defined
as the exposition, critical analysis, or interpretation of a word, literary passage, etc., especially of the Bible (WEBSTER’S, ibid.).
Eisegesis is to teach that, since the Bible is of ancient vintage, it is based on out-grown cultural ideas, and therefore it is subject to modernization or total rejection. Eisegesis is to teach that truth is relative and that nothing in religion is permanently settled and fixed.
Exegesis theoretically and by definition is completely objective, an ideal firmly set in the heart and mind of the honest exegete. Every instructor (exegete) is liable to color his lectures with his own personal philosophy, whatever it is: nihilism, atheism, agnosticism, pantheism, monotheism, polytheism, ecumenism, humanism, hedonism, asceticism, spiritualism, divination, necromancy, egotism, secularism, ancestral worship. If the instructor is addicted to Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Brahmanism, Hinduism, Christianity, or Mohammedanism, he is liable to descend from pure exegesis to eisegesis, and the instructor will continually alert himself to that danger.
If the instructor has a working knowledge of (1) the geography and history of the Neat East (southwestern Asia and Egypt) and of the Roman Empire (27 B.C. - 395 A.D.), and of (2) Semitic languages (particularly Aramaic and classical Hebrew) and of koine Greek, and of (3) biblical archaeology, his exegesis will be much more accurate.