Anthony Pritchard
Active Member
Exegesis and Repurposing
There is a great gulf fixed between exegeting the Scriptures and repurposing them. The difference is not small, and it is not academic. It is the difference between receiving God’s words as they were given and reshaping those words to serve a system. Once a man crosses that gulf, he may still quote Scripture, but he no longer hears it.
Exegesis begins with the text itself. It listens before it speaks. It follows the grammar, the argument, and the author’s intent. It asks what the writer meant, not what the reader wishes he had meant. Exegesis is an act of submission. It allows Scripture to define its own categories and refuses to let a theological system speak first. It is the discipline of letting God’s words stand as they are.
Repurposing is the opposite. It begins with a conclusion and works backward. It finds a verse and bends it until it fits the system. It imports categories that are not present in the passage and forces connections the writer never made. Repurposing treats Scripture as raw material for a theological agenda. It is not listening to God; it is using God’s words to reinforce what one already believes.
Hebrews 11:2 provides a clear example of the gulf. The text says that “by faith the elders obtained a good report.” The verb means that God bore witness about them. It is His commendation of their trust in Him. Yet some will repurpose the verse, turning God’s witness about the elders into the elders’ witness about Christ, or into the internal witness of the Spirit, or into a proof of a particular atonement theory. None of these are found in the passage. They are not exegesis. They are repurposing.
The danger is subtle because repurposing often sounds pious. It speaks of Christ, redemption, and grace. It quotes Scripture freely. But it does not let Scripture speak. It uses the text to support a system rather than letting the text shape the system. And once that habit forms, any passage can be made to say anything: Hebrews 11 becomes a defense of penal substitution, Romans 9 becomes determinism, 1 John 2:2 becomes “world means elect,” and Hebrews 2:9 becomes “sons only.” The text is no longer the authority. The system is.
The gulf matters because faithfulness to Scripture requires staying on the side of exegesis. Repurposing may win arguments, but it loses the text. Exegesis may challenge our assumptions, but it preserves the voice of God. The elders obtained a good report because God Himself bore witness to their faith. That is what the passage says. And that is enough.
There is a great gulf fixed between exegeting and repurposing. Wisdom is found in knowing which side you stand on, and humility is found in refusing to cross it.
"Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him." Proverbs 30:5
~Tony
© A.K. Pritchard 1979 -
Free to use with proper attribution.