A Six Part Study of the Book of Beginnings
By Eric Rauch
Hermeneutics is the technical word for the study of interpretation. We "do" hermeneutics every day in the routine of our lives. Anytime we receive messages from someone else—whether written, verbal, or non-verbal—we must "decode" those messages to arrive at what we believe is what the other person was trying to communicate. Some messages are much clearer than others, i.e. less prone to interpretational difficulty. For example, "Watch Out!," is less likely to be misunderstood than, "that's an interesting painting." Some messages are actually designed, like the one about the painting, to be arbitrary. When my mom doesn't like a particular food, she will call it "different." Technically there is nothing untrue about calling something "different," but the real purpose is to avoid the unpleasant social situation of telling the cook that his food stinks. Since I am aware of this (having made some "different" food of my own), I am a better "interpreter" of what my mom really means, than is someone she has just met. Knowing what the "code" is, my hermeneutical abilities in this one area are better than others due to experience.
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