eisegesis

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek εἰς (eis, “into”) and English exegesis. Historically unrelated to the Ancient Greek εἰσήγησις (eisḗgēsis, “proposing, advising”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /aɪsɪˈdʒiːsɪs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /aɪsɪˈd͡ʒisɪs/

Noun

eisegesis (countable and uncountable, plural eisegeses)

1. An interpretation, especially of Scripture, that reflects the personal ideas or viewpoint of the interpreter; reading something into a text that is not there.
   • 1973, Paul Everett Meehl, Psychodiagnosis: Selected Papers, page 7:

     For the benefit of readers who may have been influenced by certain eisegeses of MacCorquodale and Meehl (1948), let us here emphasize: Whether or not an interpretation of a test's properties or relations involves questions of construct validity is to be decided by examining the entire body of evidence offered, together with what is asserted about the test in the context of this evidence.

   • 1984, Kelly Miller Smith, Social Crisis Preaching: The Lyman Beecher Lectures, 1983:

     To be sure, there are those who are more sophisticated in their dogmatic eisegeses, but the offense is not thereby lessened.

   • 2003, James Leslie Houlden, Jesus in History, Thought, and Culture: An Encyclopedia, volume 1, page 599:

     This is only one of a plethora of eisegeses by which images of Mary were detected in the OT.

   • 2008, [1982], Jacques More, Leadership is Male? eBook, page 28:

     I include this here in that as well as finding things out of context (eisegesis – things read into a text) I also found errors of accuracy which also contributed to my not trusting other parts of writings of authors for women in leadership.

Related terms

• exegesis