Exegesis and Hermeneutics Online Course
Exegesis, Hermeneutics and Bible Interpretation
Introduction
Welcome to our Bible Interpretation course: Exegesis, Hermeneutics and the art of biblical interpretation.
Often we have the mistaken notion that biblical exegesis / biblical hermeneutics and all of the other “tools” for interpreting the Bible are the sole domain of pastors, ivory tower types and other church “professionals” (as much as I don’t like the types of distinctions we make within the church.)
But the truth is that interpreting the Bible isn’t rocket science. Anyone, with a bit of effort, can acquire a basic set of interpretive skills to bring greater depth and meaning to the passages of Scripture.
When you learn the skills of biblical interpretation:
- You will get more from your personal Bible studies, devotions and even listening to sermons
- You can better prepare for Bible studies and Sunday School classes (either ones you lead or participate in)
- You can research and investigate the answers to difficult doctrinal or biblical questions
- You can speak more confidently regarding different Bible topics and themes
And so much more!
A Basic Bible Interpretation Course
The following free bible course is designed to teach a basic set of Bible interpretation skills.
There are 7 lessons, which require about 1-2 hours of good effort each. You can of course simply read the text and not do the assignments in much less time.
Lesson 1 – Setting a Good Foundation
- Lesson 1.1 – Why Do We Need to “Interpret” the Bible?
- Lesson 1.2 – Defining Exegesis and Hermeneutics
- Lesson 1.3 – The Bible Interpretation Process
- Lesson 1.4 – Our Interpretation Biases
- Lesson 1.5 – Our Ignorance Affects How We Interpret
- Lesson 1.6 – How Shall We Approach Interpretation?
- Lesson 1.7 – 7 Steps to Interpreting the Bible
Lesson 2 – Understanding Overall Context
- Lesson 2.1 – Understanding the Overall Context of a Book
- Lesson 2.2 – Example of General Context Study
Lesson 3 – Literary Contexto
- Lesson 3.1 – Introduction to Literary Context
- Lesson 3.2 – Steps to Studying Literary Context
- Lesson 3.3 – Example of Using Literary Context
Lesson 4 – Doing an In-Depth Word Study
- Lesson 4.1 – Introduction to Lexical-Grammatical Context
- Lesson 4.2 – Doing and In-Depth Word Study
- Special Lesson – Using an Online Bible Concordance for Word Studies
Lesson 5 – Studying the Cultural Context
- Lesson 5.1 – Introduction to Analyzing the Bible’s Cultural Context
- Lesson 5.2 – An Example of Historical / Cultural Analysis from Mark 14:1-10
Lesson 6 – Biblical Context
- Lesson 6.1 – Introduction to Biblical Context
- Lesson 6.2 – Example of Biblical Context Using Sample Passage