Religious use of “exegete”

Question

I've noticed quite a number of religious professionals of late have used phrases such as "let's exegete this text" or "we need to exegete Paul's meaning here." Of course, an exegete is one skilled in exegesis, but I have never heard of "to exegete" being in accepted usage. Wiktionary included it as a possibility, but I would hardly consider that an authoritative source. Roger Wibberly critiqued a book titled Medieval Music as Medieval Exegesis in Music and Letters 82.2 (2001): 291-293 and argued that "the often-used verb 'to exegete' strikes a note of literary discord within a generally elegant text."

Is the verb "to exegete" becoming accepted usage? Obviously, it has been used consistently in at least one published source and is currently being widely used in religious circles.

Answer 1

I'm afraid it's nothing new. In 1900, a review of A Problem in New Testament Criticism by Prof. Melanchthon Williams Jacobus closes:

The author’s learning, fairness and catholic spirit commend his book to the most favorable cnsideration desite occasional excursions beyond the generally recognized English vocabulary and usage denoted by such words and expressions as “misexegeting,” “sanctificate completion,” “as though,” “to exegete” and “outrounded.”

It’s not acceptable to me, and it’s apparently not acceptable to Prof. Wibberly; but we’re old men and will just have to suck it up. After all, we (or at least I) have managed to come to terms with “as though”.

Answer 2

Making nouns perform double duty when they were not meant to is not a new phenomenon, and who am I to say "Halt!" to the evolution of words via that route. Nevertheless, we "sticks in the mud," or just sticklers, cannot help but take umbrage at the trend. (Let's be honest, sometimes our umbrage says more about our need for recognition, approval, attention, not to mention our feelings of inferiority/superiority, our critical spirit, our perfectionism, ad infinitum, than it does for our concern for better communication.)

People today use impact (impacts, impactful, impacted) as a noun, a verb, and an adjective. What don't they say the following?

A. The news of the Newtown tragedy affected me deeply (not impacted me deeply).

B. The news of the Newtown tragedy had a powerful impact on people around the world (not powerfully impacted people).

C. The news of the Newtown tragedy affected people around the world powerfully (not was impactful on people).

Getting back on point, then, an exegete is a person who engages in exegesis. In other words, one performs exegesis on a scriptural passage, but one does not exegete a passage. One can also engage in exegetical analysis.

An important part of exegesis, particularly when analyzing a passage that has been translated from one language into another, is to pick apart the construction of the passage in its original language. You are aided, of course, by being able to read the original language!

Answer 3

I'm not really familiar with the term at all, but I would point out that OED doesn't currently list exegete as a verb at all - just a noun:

1: Ancient Greek Hist. At Athens, one of those three members of the Eumolpidæ, whose province it was to interpret the religious and ceremonial law, the signs in the heavens, and oracles.
hence
2: One who explains or interprets difficult passages; one skilled in exegesis; an expounder.

The first citation for #2 there is 1854, but as this NGram shows...

...there's no doubt it's now being used as a verb. Personally, I think if they understood the word at all, most people would think it pretentious in contexts too far removed from priestly interpretation of arcane religious texts. Unless it was obviously facetious, I'd certainly cringe if I heard it used in the office in reference to, say, something someone had said in a meeting, that needed "explaining".

Answer 4

According to Webster's New World Dictionary, 4th ed., the probable origin of this word is the Greek noun exegesis, "explanation", which, interestingly, appears to come from the Greek verb exegeisthai, "to lead, explain".

If the misuse of the word exegete arises from the lack of a verb form of this word, then perhaps the scholars could use this Greek source to introduce a proper verb, i.e. exegisthai. That is difficult to say; but, if there are other Greek words that have the same verb ending one could see how that verb ending comes over into English and provide the same verb ending for our word. Then you would have a proper verb to introduce!

I posted a question in effort to search out a proper verb form for this word.