Faith & RitualGreek → English
Exegesis
/ˌɛksɪˈdʒiːsɪs/noun
Close interpretation of a text, especially scripture.
The Greek roots
ἐξ
ex
out of
ἡγέομαι
hēgéomai
to lead the way
Literally: “a leading out”
The story of the word
In Athens an exegete was an official who explained sacred law, omens and rules of purification to citizens who needed a ruling. The word means leading out, and biblical scholarship borrowed it in the 1600s for drawing meaning out of a text rather than putting meaning into it. Its shadow term, eisegesis, a much later coinage, names the second habit.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1610s
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
hegemonyexegeteeisegesis
In a sentence
His exegesis of the parable ran to forty pages and three languages.
The seminar was billed as exegesis and turned into an argument about translation.