Significance of Bible Study: Exegesis vs. Eisegesis

Introduction

Opener

Before we read the verse for today, let’s do some important quick steps…we are very fortunate to have the study materials we have today…shouldn’t stop us from digesting the text for yourself...

Main Point of the Text (MPT)

Author and Audience

Through study of 2 Timothy 1 we read that 2 Timothy is a letter written by Paul (2 Timothy 1:1), addressed to Timothy, of which, Paul considered his beloved son (2 Timothy 2:1).

Date

After reading through to 2 Timothy 4, we find that it was written by Paul shortly before his death as in 2 Timothy 4:6-8, Paul tells Timothy, “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

Since Paul died under Nero, ~A.D. 68, this would most likely mean that Paul’s letter was written between A.D. 64-67.

Before starting 2 Timothy, I would hope that the reader would have already read 1 Timothy. They would have worked on figuring out the date of 1 Timothy and if 1 Timothy was written sometime in the mid-60s, they would have known it would have come after.

Theme

As stated before, this letter was written shortly before Paul’s death and through a quick read of 2 Timothy before going to study it, a theme can be identified: Perseverance in the gospel in spite of suffering.

Paul clearly is calling Timothy to continue fighting the good fight as a quick breakdown of the book through the use of a Study Bible’s Outline, in particular the ESV Study Bible, and through studying the different pericopes (portion of the biblical text that is manageable size) reveal.

Let’s look at the Outline, we have the following:

Opening (1:1-2)

Exhortation to Endurance for the Gospel (1:3-2:13)

Thanksgiving for Timothy’s sincere faith (1:3-5)

A call to bold endurance in ministry, part 1 (1:6-14)

Examples, positive and negative (1:15-18)

A call to bold endurance in ministry, part 2 (2:1-13)

Dealing With False Teachers (2:14-3:9)

Timothy in contrast to the false teachers (2:14-26)

Description of the false teachers (3:1-9)

Exhortation to Timothy in Contrast to False Teachers (3:10-4:8)

Call to hold fast to Scripture and Paul’s example (3:10-4:8)

The ultimate charge (4:1-8)

Conclusion (4:9-22)

Purpose, Occasion, and Background

Since this letter came just before Paul’s death, we can infer that he most likely wrote this while in prison awaiting his death. Imagine his head space when writing.

Early on in the book, Paul writes, “You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes” (2 Timothy 1:15), letting Timothy know that some have turned away from him during his time of suffering.

That is why he wrote in 1 Timothy 1:5 that he was mindful of the sincere faith within Timothy (2 Timothy 1:5), as Timothy has remained faithful to him.

Since he is anticipating his death, as I mentioned from 2 Timothy 4, we can say that this is some sort of final letter, a final exhortation, to urge Timothy to stand firm and to make every effort to come to see him (2 Timothy 4:9).

Lastly, what really draws us in as the reader after learning all of this is that this is a very personal letter.

It’s reminds me of my last YES weekend as one of our pilgrims had just lost their grandfather before the weekend. Knowing that he was going to attend the YES weekend, his grandfather wrote him a letter. As we learned of this, we knew that it was important that during the time where the pilgrims were to read letters that we need might want to pay some extra attention to him while he was to read it.

This letter should evoke feelings such as that story does.

To think that, Paul knowing his time was close, thought of Timothy, someone he loved and thought of as a son, and Timothy, whom would receive this letter from someone he considered a father figure in his life, was going to read this. As we read this we should put ourselves in his position, understanding the meaning of this letter. I would expect that Timothy would have read this letter over and over again as he lived out the life that Paul urged him to live until his death where he died by the hands of idol worshippers trying to stop a procession in honor of the goddess Diana by preaching the gospel.

And so now, after knowing:

Author

Audience

Date

Theme

Purpose

Occasion

Background

Scripture Reading: 2 Timothy 2:15

We can finally read our verse and be able to understand it’s context, that in a section where Paul is contrasting Timothy to the false teachers, as we would have learned from the Outline and confirm through our reading of the entire letter, the pericope's title suggests that Timothy is to be that of “A Worker Approved by God”, as written in the ESV Study Bible or in the NASB 1995, the text we read from, “An Unashamed Workman”.

To do this Paul tells him that he should “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

Do you see now why careful study is important? Despite this being a topical sermon about Bible Study, specifically addressing exegesis vs. eisegesis, of which I will define for you in a moment, this, what I call exegesis, some might call research, of 2 Timothy 2:15 was needed to understand the context and meaning of this single verse, so that I may ensure that as it is used properly in proving that careful exegetical study of the Bible is what is expected of us as approved workers of God, because that is what the Apostle Paul expected of Timothy, of which was written to him in a letter to Timothy from Paul that God placed in His Word for us to read and understand.

Main Point of the Sermon (MPS)

That is how I come up with the MPS or Main Point of the Sermon: Careful exegetical study of the Bible is what is expected of us as approved workers of God.

I want to prove this by doing the following:

Answering the questions:

What is exegesis?

What is eisegesis?

Provide you example using a verse many have taken out of context, Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

But, before we do this, let us go to the Lord in prayer.

Prayer

Body

Point 1: Exegesis vs. Eisegesis

Explanation:

Both of these fall under Hermeneutics, otherwise known as the study of interpretation.

Hermeneutics plays a role in a number of disciplines, or areas of study, such as Theology, and is applied in order to interpret texts from different texts including, but not limited to wisdom texts, philosophical texts, and of course, as we will use it, biblical text.

In Hermeneutics, scholars seek to come up with different ways to interpret these texts and that is where we got exegesis and eisegesis.

Both of these words can be simply defined from the Greek words they are derived from:

The term exegesis is derived from the Greek word exegeisthai ("interpret, explain"), formed by combining ex ("from") and hegeisthai ("to guide, to lead"). It was said to be created in the 1600s.

And so through the combining of these words we get the definition of the term exegesis, to interpret or explain from the text, being guided or lead by the text.

The term eisegesis comes from combining the Greek eis (“in, into”) and the ending of exegesis. It was said to be created in the 1850s.

And so through the combing of these words we get the definition of the term eisegesis, to interpret or explain into the text, or in other words, to insert one’s own ideas into a text.

Immediately, I hope you can see the danger of eisegesis.

Using a biblical text without exegetically studying the text can radically change a texts meaning and produce error in one’s interpretation or use of the text.

To insert one’s own subjective thoughts into the interpretation of a text without taking the exegetical steps to ensure the texts has been interpreted correctly is very dangerous and as the years pass by, as we get further and further from when the Bible was written is it very important that we continue the use of exegesis in the church.

This includes being sure we have done the work needed before we go about interpreting a text, just as we did at the beginning of our sermon today by identifying the author and audience; knowing the date or time period the text was written; identifying the theme of the text; understanding the purpose for the text; knowing what occasion within the authors life inspired them to write the text; and understanding the context of the text by diving into the background of the text.

All of these can help us to interpret a text properly, thus allow us to use it properly concerning our real-life situations.

I hope by now you understand that bible study is more than just reading a text, offering some discussion questions, and then applying it, no, it goes much deeper than that and my hope today is to provide you with an example through Matthew 18:20.

Point 2: Example

Scripture: Matthew 18:20

Explanation:

Let’s first look at it the same as we did Timothy, the breakdown of Matthew:

Author and Audience

Through the reading of Matthew, we know that the name of the author is not included like it was in 2 Timothy, and this actually goes for all of the gospels.

According to the ESV Study Bible, one of the earliest and most important of these traditions comes from the second century in the writings of Papias, bishop of Hierapolis in Asia Minor (c. A.D. 135), and Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons in Gaul (c. 175).

It is because the men had either direct or indirect contact with the apostolic community that they would have cause them to attribute the book to Matthew.

Matthew was a tax collector, as told to us in Matthew 9:9 called by Jesus to be one of His 12 disciples.

We know that Matthew was called in Capernaum, meaning he was Jew, (Matthew 9:1) and we learn that he may have had two first names, being named Matthew Levi, due to Mark (Mark 2:14) and Luke (Luke 5:27) account referring to him as such.

Through his occupation he would have learned to write and read, which is even more reason to attribute the book to him.

Through careful reading of Matthew there is one thing that stands out from the other gospels which help to identify his intended audience.

More than any other gospel, Matthew quotes the OT to show how Jesus fulfilled the words of the Jewish prophets, intending to prove to the Jews that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah.

We can see an example of this at the very beginning of the gospel, unlike any of the other three, Matthew lays out the entire genealogy of Jesus from Abraham, through David, to Joseph and Mary, thus showing that Jesus came from the line of David as outlined through the Davidic Covenant, explained in 1 Chronicles 17:11, telling us that one day God will set up one of David’s descendants after him, who will be of his sons; and that He will establish His kingdom.

This tells us that he is writing to educated Jews, especially those who have educated themselves concerning the OT.

His gospel would be good for both educated Jews who have converted to Christianity and educated Jews who haven’t that may be searching for answers concerning Jesus as the Messiah.

Date

We can draw this conclusion from the date it was written, which was most likely during the early church period with him being one of the 12 apostles to help establish the early church, placing his writing sometime between A.D. 55-A.D. 65.

This was a time when most Christians consisted of Jewish converts and so Matthew’s focus on this group is understandable.

Theme

The theme was to tell the story of Jesus of Nazareth and to prove that he was the long awaited Messiah through the use of OT scripture, providing an account of Jesus’s life, and tying the two together.

This can be seen through the different outlines provided by multiple sources along with a quick study of the pericope titles given to us throughout the book.

I would go through it with you, but it would take much longer than 2 Timothy with Matthew being such a large book, so hopefully you can trust I did my research.

Purpose, Occasion, and Background

Most of what we have covered reveals the purpose, occasion, and background.

The purpose is the same as the theme, to identify Jesus as the messiah through the different OT prophecies he brought forth, showing that Jesus fulfilled them.

The occasion was the ascension of christ (Acts 1) and the establishment of the early church (Acts 2), where many Jews were being converted to Christianity while some looked for more evidence on why the Apostles believed Jesus to be the Messiah, thus Matthew’s gospel was needed to aid in their understanding.

The background behind why it was needed was simple, there were many who didn’t believe Jesus was the Messiah, of which, Matthew’s gospel would have offered the correct belief, that Jesus Christ of Nazareth was indeed the long-awaited Messiah and King.

With Matthew being a disciple of Jesus (Matthew 9:9), his eye-witness testimony was important for future nonbelievers to come to belief.

Application:

And now, after knowing all of this, let us, through exegesis, understand what the verse from Matthew 18:20 truly means.

Again, let me remind you of what it says, Matthew 18:20 reads, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

A quick look at the outline suggests that there are five discourses in Matthew, referring to specific teachings from Jesus:

Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5-7, included Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Golden Rule.

Mission Discourse: Matthew 10, Jesus sends his disciples out instructing them on preaching and ministry.

Parabolic Discourse: Matthew 13, contains several parables from Jesus.

Discourse on the Church: Matthew 18, focuses on the community life, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

Discourse on End Times: Matthew 24-25, Jesus discusses the signs of the end times, Second Coming, and judgement.

And so now, we know that we are dealing with direct teachings from Jesus that stand on their own.

We know that our Scripture for today comes from the Discourse on the Church.

Now it is important to understand the context by surveying Matthew 18, Matthew 18:1 tells us that at the time of Jesus speaking our Scripture from today that the disciples had came to Him.

Through the use of the pericope titles and by reading the text we learn of the breakdown of Matthew 18:

Rank in the Kingdom (Matthew 18:1-6): Jesus calls a child over, sitting him before His disciples, speaks to humbling oneself as of a child to enter the kingdom of heaven and warns of not causing a child to stumble.

Stumbling Blocks (Matthew 18:7-11): Jesus speaks to being a stumbling block to someone else and urges His disciples to go to extremes in order to avoid sin.

Ninety-nine Plus One (Matthew 18:12-14): Through the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus shows His disciples that His mission is to seek and save the lost.

Discipline and Prayer (Matthew 18:15-20): We will get to this in a moment...

Forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-35): Through the parable of the unforgiving servant, Jesus teaches that all who have been forgiven should extend forgiveness to others.

From this we can see that Matthew 18:15-20 is separate from the rest of the sections as we the can see that the first two sections go together and that the section we are dealing with today is sandwiched between two parables, so now we know that in order to understand Matthew 18:20 that we just need to pay attention to these 5 verses.

So, knowing that this section of Scripture is located in one of the five discourses, there a few things we know going into it:

The speaker is Jesus.

The audience is the disciples.

The date of the teaching was most likely ~A.D 27 - A.D. 29 since that was the years Jesus was teaching.

Before even reading the text, looking at the pericope title, we see the theme is about discipline and prayer.

The purpose is for Jesus to teach the disciples a lesson.

The occasion is when the disciples came to Jesus and He began to speak to them.

The background is that Jesus and the disciples are in Capernaum as mentioned at the end of Acts 17.

Now let’s hop into the text, working verse by verse:

Matthew 18:15 “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother.”

In this verse, we immediately see that Jesus is tells us that if our brother, meaning fellow believer in Christ, which can be applied to both men and women, sins, that we should go and show him his fault in private and that if he listens to you then you have won a brother.

So, we know this is dealing with discipling a fellow believer and Jesus instructs us to first go to them alone and if they listen, responding in conformity, then you have won them, won being kerdaino in the Greek, meaning to spare, to save, or to relieve.

That’s great, right? The hope is that when you go to correct or rebuke a fellow beliver for their sin that they listen to you, repent, and turn from your ways.

Matthew 18:16 “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.”

The next verse begins with “But”, which is a transition word, as we know in English is often used to introduce a phrase or clause contrasting with what was just mentioned. In this situation that is exactly what it means.

Jesus says, “But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed.”

And so now we see that Jesus has continued to expand on discipling a fellow believer, telling us that if going to them in private and they do not listen, then we should take one or two more with us to confront them, because two or three more witnesses can confirm the sinful actions of that person.

Matthew 18:17 “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

Verse 17, another transition word, “If”, meaning, in the event, so let’s replace if with that, “In the event he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church, semicolon, stop there...

So, first go to them in private, next with a small group, third, with tell it to the church, and then we get an “and if” which indicates another statement is coming, let’s replace it with in the event again.

“and in the event he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

So it seems like we have made it through our list because a quick look at 18 before we ensure we know the meaning of these last few verses shows the end of Jesus’s list as we do not see a “but”, an “if”, or an “and if”.

So now let’s restate the following few verses to understand what Jesus expects of us, “When a fellow believer sins, go to them in private, if they listen to you, then they have been spared, but if they do not listen take with you a small group so that you might have more witnessed to confirm their sinful ways, if they do not listen even still, tell the church, and if they do not listen to the church, let them be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector.”

Ask ourselves, is there anything we need to understand better here?

I would say that we need to understand what it means to let them be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector.

A Gentile is someone who is not a Jew, looked at as an outsider to the Jewish people. This would mean something to the disciples as they are all Jews and knew that the Jewish people have often treated anyone who was a Gentile as an outsider.

The same can be said of a tax collector. Many of the tax collectors, such as Matthew, were Jews, but they had chosen to work for the Romans, often looked at as betraying the Jewish people. These too, were considered outsiders.

And so by looking at the two examples given and understanding the cultural background, we can conclude that Jesus is saying that the final step following a believer that is unwilling to listen even to the church is to treat them as an outsider.

Notice that Jesus does not say treat them with disrespect or to harm them with your words, He is saying to confront them about their sins, and if even after following the steps He outlined, they choose to still not listen, then the next step is to simply separate yourself from them as they are choosing to not repent of their sins, thus allowing themselves to be separated from Christ.

If we had time, what I would do at this point would be to pull out verses that relate to discipline and compare these verses with those, because as you would see in 1 Corinthians 5 that the hope is that person finally repents and is restored to the church.

Matthew 18:18 “Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

Verse 18, although seeming to begin a new section is in fact a continuation of the situation.

Jesus says, “Truly I say to you”, meaning that the statement that follows with contain truth, “whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven;”, semicolon, stop there...

What does He mean?

He is saying that if the process that He has outlined is followed then if the decision is to bind them, meaning to separate from them, then the decision will be supported in heaven.

And so now, understanding that and how it refers back to the verses before, lets finish the verse, “and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

The opposite of bind is loose, and so if the church decides to loose, meaning to restore them, then that decision will be supported in heaven as well.

Matthew 18:19 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.”

After Jesus laid out the process of calling a fellow believer to repentance and told them that if the process is followed that their decision, whether to separate from them or to restore them, will be supported in heaven, He now tells them “Again”, meaning, once more, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.

Even this Scripture of often misinterpreted, but now that we understand the context of the verses that came before, we can now interpret this to mean that if two people agree that the the person is either truly repentant or unrepentant, accurately, through the witness of not only one person, not two people, but the church, then according to Jesus’s teaching they can decide whether or not someone should be separated from the church or restored to it and God will support it.

This is a huge responsibility, one that should not be taken lightly, thus why Jesus outlined the process to the disciples.

Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

And now, finally arriving to the verse we have all be waiting for… beginning with the word “For”, another transition word meaning, in support of, so if the last statement is true, that if the truth is brought forth, that it shall be done for them by God in heaven, then where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.

Again, the subject hasn’t changed, we are still talking of disciplining a fellow believer who is unrepentant.

The Father, God, supports the decision of the church, because Jesus is with them, not because of their own personal power or merit.

This is important to understand, because when we, the church have to make tough decisions, if we allow Jesus to be our guide and stand on the truth, then God will support us.

This takes the weight of the responsibility off of us and places it on Jesus, that while we have to carry out the process, it is He who is the author of the process and His teaching that have been the decider of the process as He outlines what is sin and what is not and so when the sinner has a problem with the churches decision, it is God who they must take their sin up with, not us.

The process of exegesis is a long one, but needed, as here is how someone using eisegesis would use this verse.

They flip through Matthew and after coming to Matthew 18:20, they read it, “For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.”

Oh sweet, so if I go to pray over someone, that means there is two of us here, so Jesus is here!

What is that person prays for healing for themselves? Or what of the many people who pray for healing for that person by themselves? Does that mean that Jesus is not amongst them?

Absolutely not!

The Holy Spirit is given to all believers, God with us, and since Jesus is apart of God, then He to is always with us regardless of there being one or two people in the room.

Jesus even tells us in Matthew 6:6 that there are times we need to go into our inner room to pray to the Father in secret, and that He will see what is done in secret and reward us.

Matthew 28:19–20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

To use this verse in that way is to use it out of context, for regardless of their being one or two or hundreds, Jesus is there and that should be comforting for us knowing that even when we are alone, Christ is in our midst.

As the worship team comes, while today was a learning sermon, there is one thing that it be important that you learn today…having Christ in your midst is the best thing that could ever happen for you...

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