Hermaneutics--From Herman to the Bible

I had heard the word Hermeneutics before, but I never really knew what it meant. Whenever the word came up in conversation with my intellectual superiors, Herman Munster’s face flashed in my mind. And when it was introduced on the first day, one thought came to mind—I was going to be thoroughly horse whipped. But alas, I’m starting to really understand what the whole business of Hermeneutics is—and in fact, it has nothing to do with the Munsters at all.

When first grappling with the idea that Hermeneutics was just the study and interpretation of a work based on what and how ‘something’ is portrayed, I was more confused than ever. What did it all mean, literally? I was, to put it lightly, scared. Great, I thought, this is what we’re starting off with. I would need a whole semester to analyze all the possible answers for the one question that so condescendingly hung over my head—why? In fiction there are innumerable symbols and hidden messages cleverly hidden beneath the words, stuck somewhere in limbo between the grains of the paper and the dots of black ink. And it was now, as I understand, my job to find all of those messages beneath the sand and, without any hesitation answer the why. But first, to uncover the why, I must first discover and understand the how.

Hermeneutics, as I comprehend, is using the how (i.e. how a conversation is had, how an element is portrayed, and so on), to get to the why. Why did the author write it that particular way? And in my reading of this subject I ran across Bible Hermeneutics.  In short, the interpretation of the Bible. I wouldn’t know where to begin in exploring every symbolic detail in the Bible, but it did capture my curiosity. As I did a little research on the appropriately called Biblical exegesis, I found that Hermeneutics is considered to be a ‘philosophy’ of sorts. And even though it has been a socially accepted form of interpretation for sacred works, it cannot be misconstrued for truth.

So, in the end, I found that like Herman Munster, Hermeneutics could simply just be an important character. And even though theories are only theories, I realized that Hermeneutics can be considered the ‘umbrella’ to which all other theories flock under.