Translation

Steve Puluka spuluka at hotmail.com
Sun Oct 10 19:59:51 EDT 1999


I beg to differ with Carl in terminology but probably not in spirit.  
William G. Heidt, OSB in his booklet on Hermeneutics from Liturgical Press 
in Collegeville, MN, defines Hermeneutics as:

"The word Hermeneutics is derived from Hermes,  the god who interpreted or 
heralded the plans of Olympus to designated recipients.

The process of propounding the meaning of Sacred Scripture involves three 
major steps.  First of all an analysis must be made of the various ways in 
which ideas are expressed; then clarification must be made of the means by 
which the meanings of a given passage may be detected; thirdly, the methods 
employed to express the message in times past and present must be studied.  
Technically these three areas of investigation are called noematics, 
heuristics and prophoristics respectively."

I believe this is what we do well on b-greek, especially, noematics.

At the same time Heidt notes:

"In the process of expounding a passage, commentators, exegetes, homilistts, 
theologians, or critics have no right to "palm off" their own ideas as the 
statements of the author under consideration.  It is a humiliating task to 
leave behind one's own inspirations, one's own creative genius, and put 
forward the judgments of another---and in this many have failed.  Nor has 
the much vaunted scientific objectivity of the twentieth century effected 
noticeable change in this area."

I believe we get into trouble when we look for our own ideas or 
pre-conceived notions in the text at hand.  We get into trouble when we 
venture broad statements not able to be justified by the text at hand.  
Lastly, we get into trouble by stating "opinions of faith" as if they are 
facts.

Steve Puluka
Adult Education Instructor
Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh

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