The ultimate goal of hermeneutics is to discover the truths and values in the Bible and what the text truly means. In reality, everyone who approaches the Bible is engaging with a hermeneutic, taking in what it says and making sense of it through their own personal hermeneutic lens. 

The goal of hermeneutics as a study, however, is not to look at the Bible with a subjective or tainted lens, as a person might do approaching the Bible on their own, but to try to discern what the intended meaning of the passage is, whether for readers at the time it was written or for us today. 

With no context or just a cursory glance, many biblical passages can be incorrectly interpreted and may be taken in potentially harmful ways. 

The purpose of hermeneutics is to discover what God wants us to take away.