THREE JOHANNINE STUDIES

The Book of Proverbs 25:2 provides a good definition of hermeneutics: «It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, to search out a matter is the glory of kings».

Not all the mysteries of God can be searched out for His wisdom is infinite. His ways are not always easy to be found. On the other hand, men are finite creatures, who are incapable of being all-knowing. But in His grace God allows those that are prepared to search for Him with all their heart to discover a treasure of truth that is hidden beneath the surface of Scripture. The readers will find out truth, grow in grace and increase in wisdom as they search for Him with all their heart and soul and mind-for it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

Exegesis is the act of studying a passage critically and objectively and interpreting the meaning, while hermeneutics is the study of the principles by which the passage is to be interpreted. Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes differed in their interpretation of the Lawís teaching on issues such as the afterlife, proper sacrifice, and the study of the Law itself. But all agreed that Scripture interprets scripture.

Hermeneutics is the art of interpreting a text. It is essential to read and interpret the text with the same Spirit it was written. To capture all the harmonics of the text we need an instrument that is well tuned. Jesus in the Gospel of John is presented as the interpreter of love and of life, inviting the reader to transform his look by beginning to marvel. Methods of reading the Scripture are numerous. They are only ways of interpreting a text. Jewish reading of the Scripture is privileged here.

The two first studies presented here have been published in the Periodical Antonianum of the Pontifical University of Rome in 2012 and the third one was published in the Acts of the Congress of Split in 2010.

Frédéric Manns