What is Hermeneutics?

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Question
Where did the idea of hermeneutics come from?
Answer
What is hermeneutics? It’s a common word in theological and biblical studies, but not a lot of people use it in their daily lives. The word “hermeneutics” comes from a family of Greek terms that includes the name “Hermes,” the mythological messenger of the gods, and is related to the verb hermeneuo, which means “interpret” or “explain.” So, in broad terms, when we refer to hermeneutics, we’re thinking of the interpretation or explanation of some kind of message or communication.

The father of modern hermeneutics was a man named Friedrich Schleiermacher, who lived from 1768-1834. In 1819, he spoke of the need for “general hermeneutics,” a unified theory for understanding all literature. He acknowledged that we should approach different subjects with their own special hermeneutics, but he argued that all hermeneutics should share a common method of interpretation. And by the end of the twentieth century, many fields of study used similar methods.

Today, hermeneutical discussions appear in philosophy, literature, the arts, psychology, sociology, and even fields like physics and biology. Many leading people in these fields have become aware of how much their disciplines involve interpreting the objects they study.

Biblical hermeneutics is the study of interpreting the meaning and significance of Scripture. So, if you’ve ever read the Scriptures, you’ve done biblical hermeneutics, at least informally. Scholars and theologians practice more formal hermeneutics as they explore issues associated with academic, scholarly interpretation of the Bible.

But whenever you study interpretation of any field, that is hermeneutics.

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