We explain what exegesis is in the interpretation of texts and its importance in law. Also, hermeneutics and eisegesis.
What is exegesis?
Exegesis is the objective interpretation of the meaning of a text, that is, its literal and investigative explanation, although in some contexts also philosophical, historical or religious, as with biblical exegesis. Those who put it into practice are known as exegetes.
This word comes from ancient Greek, specifically from the verb exegeomai, translatable as "lead out", that is to say: "expose", "extract", in the sense of taking out the truth inside of a thing. Thus, exegesis is considered as the recovery of the truth of a text, understood as its critical and complete interpretation, without allowing for the subjectivities of the interpreter. In this it differs from eisegesis.
Commonly, an exegetical exercise involves reviewing the historic context Y cultural of the text to be interpreted, taking into account its translation, its significant or peculiar words, its variables, limits and internal contexts, that is, a rather scientific view of the text. Therefore, they are usually carried out by specialists in the field.
A very frequent case of exegesis is the one that involves sacred books such as the Bible, the Koran or similar, which due to their historical and cultural importance can be interpreted as documents and as literary works, or as the divine word of God on Earth. .
Exegesis and hermeneutics
Exegesis and hermeneutics both have to do with interpretation, but at levels and from very different perspectives.
Exegesis, as we have seen, always revolves around a text, from which we seek to "extract" the most objective truth, that is, the most complete, scientific and explanatory sense. On the other hand, hermeneutics is the science of the interpretation of texts, that is, the discipline that deals with the systematic study of translation, explanation and understanding of written texts, especially ancient ones.
We could, then, affirm that exegesis is only one of the possible methods of interpretation that hermeneutics studies, since the latter has a broader vision and field of interests, and also constitutes a discipline, while exegesis is just one practice.
Exegesis in law
In the world of Right The term exegesis is also used, although no longer to apply it to the interpretation of ancient texts, but to the text itself of the laws, since the latter are only general principles gathered in a document, and they need to be interpreted, understood and applied to each case in general that is intended to be judged.
On the other hand, in the 19th century there was a law school in France called the School of Exegesis, after the publication of Napoleon's Civil Code of 1804. This school exalted the written law and proposed its interpretation as faithful as possible to what was written. , giving it preeminence over any other type of considerations.
In that sense, their vision of law was anti-historical, since they understood the norm as an isolated element, and not as the result of a particular journey in the way of thinking about the law. Justice.
Thus, for the Exegetical School, the correct way to interpret a rule It was not so much what the text itself said, or what the interpreter could conclude about it, but rather that an attempt should be made to reconstruct the very meaning of the will of those who wrote it, that is, of the authorities. What was really important about it was that it contained the supreme thought of its author.
Exegesis and eisegesis
The terms exegesis and eisegesis can be considered contrary or antonyms. The difference between one and the other lies in the degree of objectivity that takes place in the interpretation of the text proposed by each one.
Exegesis proposes the reading contextual, scientific and objective of the text, taking into consideration the elements present in the text and those that can be investigated about it. On the contrary, eisegesis raises the interpretation of the text based on the point of view of the interpreter, that is, reading the texts in relation to a particular topic, whether or not it is directly linked to the text in its original context.
Eisegesis can be understood as an interpretation oriented towards a subject of subjective interest to the reader, or also as a biased reading, which imposes on the text a meaning that, objectively speaking, is not there, but to which it is susceptible.