A Good Rap

I heard a snippet today of a Christian rap song that was one of the coolest things I have ever heard. It had humor and a practical expression of faith that I have rarely heard in any contemporary Christian song. I wish I could have caught the artist's names, and the whole song for that matter. The song was about hermeneutics, and these guys displayed a real knowledge of the subject even in the little bit that I heard.

I wish I could remember the lyrics, because they did a great little wordplay joke with the word, 'exegesis.' The word exegesis comes from two Greek terms. Ex, which means "out of" and hegeomai, which means "to lead." In the context of hermeneutics the term exegesis has come to be understood as leading the proper meaning out of a text. In other words, to interpret. Proper exegetical techniques are what should be used to make a detailed interpretation of a given passage, and this involves a careful look at the original language as well, whenever possible.

Exegetical is an adjective which means interpretive, but the word has more often understood to mean more than merely "to interpret." It means the kind of interpretation that at the very least makes an attempt to based on the original authorial intent. This kind of interpretation makes it more difficult for someone to get away with denying the true meaning of the text by saying, "That's just your interpretation."

A true exegetical attempt made on any passage takes several things into account. You can be fairly certain that the good Bible scholar will have scrutinized seriously the author's usage and style of language, the context of the passage, lexical terms, syntax and also the historical background of the passage. It was interesting to hear these young guys playing with words like exegesis and hermeneutics in a way that was fun and that might be educational to the age bracket of their fan base. Maybe I'll catch the whole song some day.