Exegesis is the scientific art of studying the Bible faithfully and truthfully. It’s aim is to draw the meaning out of the text that the authors actually intended, rather than just reading our own ideas into it. And it is such an important art because unfortunately, so many supposedly “Christian” customs were never really biblical to begin with. So Jesus, when crowds at the feast of Tabernacles challenged his authority to teach Scripture, showed how good of an exegete he actually was while also showing us principles for how to do good exegesis ourselves.
First, Jesus answers the challenge by saying his teaching is not his own but rather from the Father’s will. Put all the reading strategies aside—if you’re not willing to rely solely on the Father’s teaching, nothing else will be any good. All of us have our own ideas of what we want to convince the world of, and yet we all know less than we think, and God has so much to teach us. We just need to listen to his ideas and not our own!
Second, Jesus shows that he teaches not for his own glory but for his Father’s. He’s not interested in anyone lauding him as eloquent or exciting or insightful or brilliant, or even depending on him for guidance; he simply taught to turn people’s eyes up to the Father’s goodness. If the Son of God can do this, how much more so should we!
And third, once he has shown that he teaches only from the Father’s will and only for the Father’s glory, he demonstrates how to assess Scripture with sound judgment. He thinks logically, critically, and carefully. He examines every side of God’s Word. He reasons to find the right answer to a question. And of course, he makes sure that his answer still honors God’s will and glory. Honestly, we should take notes from him.
Those three steps are the fundamentals of exegesis; all the rest of the strategies will follow. Jesus is a master of handling God’s Word faithfully and truthfully and teaching what the Father has to teach. Now, I would be a bad exegete if I didn’t say this passage was primarily about Jesus’ authority to teach as the Son of God; and yet secondarily it also demonstrates how we should be handling God’s Word as well. The Son of God himself had the humility to handle the Word faithfully and the discipline to do so truthfully, so we absolutely should too!
