What is hermeneutics?
Hermeneutics is the study and practice of interpreting written texts. In Christian settings, the term commonly describes the principles used to understand the Bible.
The word is associated with the Greek tradition surrounding Hermes, a messenger figure connected with communication and explanation. Modern biblical hermeneutics, however, is a broad field shaped by theology, history, literary study, language and the assumptions readers bring to a text.
Interpretive methods are not always mutually exclusive. A reader may consider literary form, historical setting and theological meaning together. Different communities may also assign these elements different levels of authority.
Four broad approaches
Literal and theological reading
This approach treats a passage as divinely authoritative and gives close attention to its stated meaning. Readers may still account for genre, metaphor and context while differing over what “literal” requires.
Explore the Word of God approach →Historical reading
This method examines a passage as an ancient document, asking about language, authorship, audience, social setting and the circumstances in which the text developed.
Explore the historical approach →Midrashic reading
This approach considers interpretive traditions in which earlier sacred texts are revisited and applied to new questions. Its forms and meanings vary across Jewish and Christian scholarship.
Explore midrash →Folklore and oral tradition
This method studies patterns also found in oral literature, including repeated motifs, storytelling structures and the ways communities preserve and reshape narratives.
Explore the folklore approach →How to read the section
Begin with the general introduction to Bible interpretation. The supporting essays then examine each method, their historical development and examples of how one passage can receive more than one interpretation.
Selected sources
The archived essay drew on the following works. Bibliographic details are retained for research context; readers should verify editions and page references independently.
- Richard Muller, Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms: Drawn Principally from Protestant Scholastic Theology, Baker, 1985.
- Decrees of the Council of Trent, Session IV, together with the theological references cited by the original essay.
- John Shelby Spong, Resurrection: Myth or Reality?, HarperCollins, 1994, pp. 8–11.
- Alan Dundes, Holy Writ as Oral Lit: The Bible as Folklore, Rowman & Littlefield, 1999.
- Scot McKnight, “The Hermeneutics Quiz: Your Biblical Blind Spots and What You Tend Not to See,” Leadership Journal, 2008.
- Gregory J. Riley, The River of God: A New History of Christian Origins, HarperOne, 2003.