“This is a Bible verse that has confused me and at the same time made me feel like a lesser being. And I realize, I have so far chosen to ignore this verse instead of taking time to understand it correctly.” This was said by one of our students in DAI’s Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) program. I imagine most of us have shared this student’s frustration at one point or another in our engagement with the biblical text. There are just some passages that leave us in knots and deflate us to the point that we’re tempted to just let sleeping dogs lie.
If we have the right tools and a little guidance on how to use those tools, however, these challenging passages need not leave us petrified. Rather, we should be encouraged and empowered to approach even the most difficult texts with some degree of confidence. Although you may not have an advanced degree in theology or the biblical languages, you can make significant progress towards an interpretation that is faithful to its intended meaning.
A simple rule of thumb for faithfully interpreting Scripture is “Don’t put words in God’s mouth.” In other words, we want to be careful that we hear Scripture on its own terms. The process of achieving this is called exegesis, meaning “to lead out.” By asking questions about the text—genre, context, definitions, its place in the grand narrative—we attempt to listen and learn what God wants us to hear in a given passage. By adhering to an exegetical method, we submit ourselves to the constraints of the text, tethering us to the author’s objectives. The antithesis of exegesis is eisegesis, meaning “to lead in.” Rather than listening to the text, an eisegetical approach tells the passage what it should say. Instead of asking questions of the text, readers find answers in the text according to their own presuppositions, regardless of genre, context, definitions, or its place in the grand narrative.
Exegesis as Investigation, Conversation, Art
One of the standard textbooks on the task of exegesis over the past two decades is Michael J. Gorman’s Elements of Biblical Exegesis, now in its third edition.[1] Gorman describes exegesis as “the deliberate, word-by-word and phrase-by-phrase consideration of all the parts of a text in order to understand it as a whole” (p. 4). By no means does this imply that reading the Bible exegetically is the only way to read it. However, when the meaning of a verse or passage isn’t readily apparent or when we sense there’s more to a passage than first meets the eye, the next step is to engage in exegesis. Moreover, the work involved in exegesis serves as a check-and-balance against fanciful interpretations that run counter to the text’s original intent. For Gorman, exegesis is comprised of three components: investigation, conversation, and art.
Investigation is the process of discovery and involves asking questions. Questions may be related to genre, characters, setting, the occasion for writing, definitions of terms, grammatical or syntactic relationships, and more. Some of the answers to our questions might be obvious, others may be unknowable. In either case, it’s still worth asking the question. However, we shouldn’t be content to merely ask the questions; we next need to seek answers. We do so by situating the passage within its literary and canonical context, taking note of its genre, and paying attention to any clues that might provide some insights. Once we’ve completed our own investigation, we can now turn to the next component of the exegetical process.
Conversation recognizes that our engagement with a text doesn’t happen in a vacuum. A great chorus of voices has discussed, commented, and preached this passage for millennia. Those voices bring different perspectives and expertise to the conversation. We join the conversation first by reading and listening broadly to commentaries, sermons, books and articles, podcasts, Bible Project videos, and a variety of Bible translations, among others. But we have to be careful that we don’t become selective listeners. It’s easy to be tempted to limit the conversation to only familiar and favorable voices. There’s nothing wrong with having our favorite authors or speakers, but if theirs are the only voices we listen to, other important voices will be drowned out, producing an imbalance in our interpretation of Scripture. Thus, a key part of the conversation is to allow the chorus of voices to be in communication with each other. We need to allow these voices to inform and interact with each other so they better inform us.
Rather than merely turning to a commentary or study Bible for “the answer,” an exegetical approach involves checking several study Bibles, a commentary or two, and maybe a few online articles. Having done that, the interpreter can weigh the evidence and draw an informed conclusion. Oftentimes the conversation will, in turn, raise more questions and lead to greater depth of insight into the passage. Other times, a survey of trusted sources will make it clear that there may only be one viable interpretation.
The final component of exegesis is art. Gorman rightly stresses that the exegetical method isn’t rigidly mechanistic. It’s not like solving a calculus equation, where we solve for x. Rather, it can (and should) be a spiritual discipline that involves “not only principles, rules, hard work, and research skills, but also intuition, imagination, sensitivity, and even a bit of serendipity on occasion” (p. 6). Like any skill, though, exegesis takes practice, so that our efforts become more and more natural over time.
Let’s see what this process might look like when we apply it to a well-known verse from Jeremiah.
An Exercise in Exegesis: What is the Meaning of Jeremiah 29:11?
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (NIV)
Investigation
What is the genre?
- The genre of this portion of Jeremiah is a letter (Jer 29:1). Letters tend to encourage, exhort, edify, or chastise.
What is the occasion for writing?
- Jeremiah’s letter is composed of both instruction and admonishment. The prophet instructs the Judeans carried off into Babylonian exile how to make the best of a bad situation and admonishes them to turn back to the Lord.
- In chapter 28 Hananiah prophesied that the Babylonian incursion on Jerusalem would be over in two years (Jer 28:3). Hananiah proved to be a false prophet (Jer 28:15–17). The letter is confirmation that Jeremiah is a true prophet of the Lord and Judah needs to be careful to align the words of prophets with the word of the Lord.
What is the historical context?
- Jeremiah prophesied during the days of Jehoiakim until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah when Jerusalem was captured (Jer 1:3; 2 Kgs 24:18–25:2)
- Chapter 29 occurs during the reign of Zedekiah (Jer 28:1; 32:1)
- Babylon first captured Jerusalem three months after Jehoiachin began to reign (2 Kgs 24:8–12).
- Nebuchadnezzar made Zedekiah a Babylonian puppet king (2 Kgs 24:17).
- Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign (2 Kgs 24:18–25:2).
Who is the audience?
- The recipients of the letter were the Judeans from the first deportation now living in Babylon, specifically priests and prophets (Jer 29:1), artisans and smiths, and all but the poorest of the land (2 Kgs 24:14), including King Jehoiachin and his wife (2 Kgs 24:15).
What does it mean that the Lord knows?
- This suggests that the current situation is under the Lord’s watchful eye. He has not been caught off guard.
What is the meaning of plans?
- Plans usually entail intent. This suggests that the Lord is not only aware of the situation, but intended it, or at least brought it about.
What is the meaning of prosper?
- Prosper seems to imply good health, long life and material blessing.
What is the meaning of future and hope?
- Both terms indicate the Judeans won’t remain in exile, but will return to the land of Judea (Jer 29:14).
Conversation and Art
Various commentaries confirm my understanding of the historical context that I inferred from a closer reading of Jeremiah and 2 Kings. I also learned that the first deportation took place in 597 BC and the second deportation took place in 586 BC.
According to the NIV Study Bible, the letter was likely written in 597 BC. Harrison states the letter was sent in 594 BC but doesn’t indicate how he arrived at that date.[2] However, Huey notes that the exact date of the letter is unknown, but that it was probably written shortly after 597 BC.[3] Since there doesn’t seem to be any textual evidence to be precise on the date, Huey’s conclusion seems most reasonable and is the least speculative.
Huey observes that the verse begins with an emphatic pronoun, and reads “I, I know.” This explains why the NRSV says, “For I surely know.” Jeremiah is reminding his readers that nothing escapes God’s attention. Just because they are in exile doesn’t mean God has forgotten them.
The NIV Study Bible notes that the word translated as “prosper” is the Hebrew shalom. After a quick internet search, I found that shalom means “wholeness or completeness.”[4] Since the recipients of the letter were in exile, shalom might mean restoration. God’s plans, then, were not retributive, but restorative. The word also appears three times in Jer 29:7.
The NET Study Bible comments that “hope and a future” is an example of hendiadys, an expression where two words join by a conjunction convey a singular meaning.[5] This idea is picked up by the NRSV (“a future with hope”) and the CEB (“a future filled with hope”).
Conclusions
Jeremiah 29:11 is a popular verse , often found on t-shirts, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, day planners, and graduation cards. In these contexts, the sentiment is usually linked to a prosperity-minded message in which God wants the best for me and can’t wait to give it to me.
A careful, exegetical reading of Jeremiah 29:11 is much more profound.
In 597 Jerusalem was captured by Nebuchadnezzar. Jehoiachin and all the elites of Judah were taken to Babylon, and Zedekiah was made a puppet king. A false prophet told those remaining in Jerusalem that the exiles, including their king, would soon return to Jerusalem. Shortly thereafter, Jeremiah wrote a letter to the exiles. He told them to get comfortable living in Babylon: build homes, plant gardens, have children and grandchildren. And he said to pray for the shalom of Babylon. Furthermore, Jeremiah instructs them to stop listening to whatever makes them feel comfortable and instead to pay attention to the word of the Lord. However, in the midst of this darkest hour in Judah’s history, Jeremiah reminds the exiles that God has not abandoned them and that their exile is part of a grander scheme, namely to bring his covenant people back to repentance. God’s justice, at least in this case, is not retributive, but restorative. Unlike the empty promises of the false prophets, God’s guarantees are accompanied by a hopeful future, marked by his covenant people seeking God wholeheartedly.
Application
Jeremiah 29:11 does, in fact, offer us an encouraging word. It reminds us that God is sovereign and nothing lies outside the scope of his knowledge and control. We can be assured that whether our own sufferings are part of God’s plan or the result of a broken world, God won’t abandon us. Jer 29:11 informs us that the nature of God’s justice for his covenant people is intended to restore, not sever, that relationship. That is, God is not out to get us, but to get us back.
However, Jeremiah 29:11 can also serve as a stern warning. The first warning is that there are many false prophets vying for our attention. They promise us health and wealth, the best life possible, and that all things are going to result in our prosperity. These prophets peddle empty promises rather than hard truths. The good news, though, is that there’s a way to test these prophets: “when the word of that prophet comes true, then it will be known that the Lord has truly sent the prophet” (Jer 28:9). The second warning is that when we yield to the temptations of false teachings, we risk fracturing our covenant relationship with God. Even though God is longsuffering, it is within his purview to exact judgment. Even in such times, God’s judgment is done with the intent to restore the fractured relationship.
Conclusion
Most of us read the Bible for personal edification. We want to hear God speak and provide us with some encouragement and direction for our lives. However, if we don’t listen carefully, God’s words might get lost in translation. Rather than asking, “what does this passage mean to me?” we should begin with “what does this passage mean, period?” Most of the time the meaning is obvious. Sometimes it’s quite opaque. Still other times, our initial ideas are corrected after we look honestly and deeply into the text and other sources.
There are still some passages that leave even the experts bewildered or are subject to multiple reasonable interpretations. This doesn’t mean the exegetical process was fruitless. Rather, the exercise provides parameters whereby we can know what the text might say versus what it cannot say. The exegetical process gives us greater confidence in what God is saying to us in his word and it enriches our understanding of it. Both of these results are well worth the work involved to draw the meaning out of Scripture rather than read a meaning into it.
Notes:
[1] Michael J. Gorman, Elements of Biblical Exegesis: A Basic Guide for Students and Ministers, 3rd ed (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020).
[2] R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah and Lamentations: An Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 19 (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1973), 131.
[3] F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations, The New American Commentary 16 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 251.
[4] Leslie Allen, “Shalom as Wholeness: Embracing the Broad Biblical Message.” https://fullerstudio.fuller.edu/shalom-as-wholeness-embracing-the-broad-biblical-message/
[5] “The expression of an idea by the use of usually two independent words connected by and (such as nice and warm) instead of the usual combination of independent word and its modifier (such as nicely warm)”; https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hendiadys
