📖 Biblical Definition
Author Intent is the hermeneutical principle that the meaning of a text is determined by what the author intended to communicate, not by what readers wish or feel. For Scripture, this involves both the human author (who wrote in a specific time and language) and the divine Author (whose intent may extend beyond what the human author consciously knew). E. D. Hirsch's Validity in Interpretation (1967) defended the principle for general literary studies; conservative biblical scholarship has retained it.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
(Hermeneutical principle.) Meaning is determined by what the author intended.
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The principle pushed back against 20th-century reader-response criticism that located meaning in the reader. E. D. Hirsch, Kevin Vanhoozer, and others defended author-intent as the proper anchor for interpretation.
For Scripture, the dual authorship (human and divine) creates rich complexity: the human author wrote what he meant, in his time; the divine Author may intend more than the human author consciously grasped (sensus plenior), but never less and never contradicting.
📖 Key Scripture
1 Peter 1:10 — "Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you."
1 Peter 1:11 — "Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify."
2 Peter 1:21 — "Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
John 11:51 — "And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern reader-response and deconstructive hermeneutics often deny author intent as recoverable; biblical interpretation depends on it being recoverable in principle.
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John 11:51 is striking: Caiaphas spoke a prophecy he did not consciously intend. The human author meant one thing (political expediency); the divine Author meant something more (the substitutionary atonement). Both meanings are real; the divine extends but does not contradict the human.
Author intent is not the only hermeneutical principle, but it is foundational. Without it, any text can mean anything, and Scripture loses its capacity to address us. With it, the saint may know what God has actually said.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
English compound; modern hermeneutical principle.
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Latin auctor — author, originator.
Latin intentio — intent, purpose, aim.
Usage
"Without author intent, any text can mean anything."
"The divine extends but does not contradict the human."
"Caiaphas spoke a prophecy he did not consciously intend."