different between exegesis vs commentary

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ???????? (ex?g?sis, “interpretation”), from ????????? (ex?géomai, “I explain, interpret”), from ?? (ex, “out”) + ??????? (h?géomai, “I lead, guide”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?ks??d?i?s?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?ks??d?is?s/

Noun

exegesis (countable and uncountable, plural exegeses)

1. A critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text.
   • 1885, Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (original translators and editors), Arthur Cleveland Coxe (editor of American edition), Philip Schaff (also credited as editor), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II

     Accordingly Athanasius complains loudly of their exegesis (Ep. Æg. 3–4, cf. Orat. i. 8, 52), and insists (id. i. 54, cf. already de Decr. 14) on the primary necessity of always conscientiously studying the circumstances of time and place, the person addressed, the subject matter, and purpose of the writer, in order not to miss the true sense.

   • 1913, Francis Aveling, Rationalism, article in Catholic Encyclopedia (1913),

     As with Deism and Materialism, the German Rationalism invaded the department of Biblical exegesis.

   • 1940, Mortimer J. Adler, Two Essays on Docility,

     Historical scholarship bears exclusively on interpretive reading; when it is properly subordinated as a means, its end is exegesis; all of its techniques are of service to the grammatical art. But exegesis is not the end; nor is grammar the highest art. Exegesis is for the sake of a fair critical judgment, grammar for the sake of logic and rhetoric.

Related terms

• eisegesis
• epexegesis
• exegete
• exegetical

Translations

See also

• eisegesis
• hermeneutics

Latin

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek ???????? (ex?g?sis, “interpretation”).

Noun

ex?g?sis f (genitive ex?g?sis); third declension

1. exegesis
2. exposition

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

English

Etymology

From Middle French commentaire, from Latin comment?rius, comment?rium (“notebook”), compare French commentaire. See comment.

Noun

commentary (countable and uncountable, plural commentaries)

1. a series of comments or annotations; especially, a book of explanations or expositions on the whole or a part of some other work
   • 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England

     This letter […] was published by him with a severe commentary.

2. (usually in the plural) a brief account of transactions or events written hastily, as if for a memorandum

3. an oral relation of an event, especially broadcast by television or radio, as it occurs

Synonyms

• (series of comments or annotations): scholia (ancient & medieval European works); secondary source

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• commentary in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.