NEW TESTAMENT THEOLOGY

CONTEMPORARY HERMENEUTICS
AND THE
STUDY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 1
RICHARD B. GAFFIN, JR.
THE question of hermeneutics (or how the Bible is to be
interpreted) is at the center of contemporary theological
debate. In fact, it does not go too far to say that today all
theological discussion is, in one form or another, hermeneutical
discussion. Particular lines of inquiry are seen to converge
in a hermeneutical focus. Specific issues are considered to be
reducible to a hermeneutical common denominator. In a
word, the problem — for it is recognized to be such — the
problem of hermeneutics is felt to be the theological problem
par excellence.
As long as one continues to operate with the conventional
understanding of hermeneutics, this all-consuming interest in
the subject remains unintelligible or its significance is, at best,
only dimly perceived. Traditionally, hermeneutics has been
conceived of as a particular theological discipline, closely
associated with, yet distinguished from, exegesis, as both have
reference to the biblical text. To be more specific, hermeneutics
and exegesis are related to each other as theory to practice.
Hermeneutics is concerned with enunciating principles of
interpretation derived, for the most part, from previously
established epistemological and philological considerations,
principles which, in turn, are to facilitate understanding of
the text as they are applied in the concrete act of exegesis.
This, for instance, is the conception of hermeneutics developed
by Abraham Kuyper in the third volume of his monumental
work on theological encyclopedia: hermeneutics is "de logica
der exégèse." 2
1 A paper delivered at the conference of the Board of Trustees and the
Faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary on October 21, 1968.
2 Encyclopaedie der Heilige Godgeleerdheid, III (Kampen: J. H. Kok,
1909), 90.
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