Difference Between Kaiser And Stevenua

Properly interpreting a text is crucial to better understand the author’s intention. As Kaiser and Silva mentioned, “we need principles of interpretation to understand trivial conversations and even nonlinguistic events.”1 When talking about texts written more than two thousand, some even for thousand years ago, by a variety of people from different cultures, the task is even more significant. For this reason, biblical hermeneutics is one of the most important disciplines. What is hermeneutics? According to Kaiser and Silva, it “is the discipline that deals with principles of interpretation.”2. For Hartill, hermeneutics “is a science of interpretation and termination.”3 Therefore, biblical hermeneutics “is a science of interpreting the Bible.”4 However, as Kaiser and Silva highlighted, “some writers like to call it [hermeneutics] the science of interpretation; others prefer to speak of the art of interpretation.”5 At the end, “when writers use the word hermeneutics, most frequently what they have
The interpreter needs to be aware of these differences. What is the role of the interpreter? Simply saying, is to bring the author’s original meaning to the contemporary readers. Nevertheless, the mission is not as easy as the description. According to Corley, Lemke and Lovejoy “The interpreter must realize that it is impossible to know for sure the text’s intent, that the same text will have to be read again and again because of the limitations of the interpreter’s context in any given hermeneutical moment.”6 - (Biblical Hermeneutics – A Comprehensive introduction to interpreting the Scriptures) Bruce Corley – Steve W. Lemke – Grant I. lovejoy – Nashville, Tennessee – 2002. Broadman&Holdman