Which statement best distinguishes exegesis from eisegesis?

• A. Exegesis draws meaning from the text’s original context; eisegesis reads the interpreter’s own ideas into the text.
• B. Exegesis and eisegesis are the same, both deriving meaning from modern contexts.
• C. Exegesis ignores historical context; eisegesis relies solely on tradition.
• D. Exegesis involves reading into the text, while eisegesis withdraws from it.

Answer: (A)

The main idea here is how meaning is derived from a text. Exegesis aims to draw the text’s meaning out from its original context—looking at the author’s language, historical setting, cultural background, and literary genre to uncover what the passage meant to its original audience. Eisegesis, by contrast, happens when the reader brings their own ideas, biases, or contemporary concerns to the text and reads those into it, rather than what the text itself actually conveys. Exegesis would explore what the author intended by examining the words, their usage at the time, and the surrounding context; eisegesis would read the text through the lens of the reader’s current agenda, which can distort the intended message. For example, interpreting a passage about mercy by only applying a modern social agenda without checking what mercy meant in the original cultural setting would be reading into the text, not drawing out its original meaning.