The text's original meaning

Ian has asked me to ask this question for him:

Do we commit the etymological fallacy when we're trying to determine the original meaning of the biblical author? And if so, how should Christians view the etymological fallacy?

This is my answer:
The etymological fallacy is the fallacy of assuming that the original meaning of a word is its current meaning. But when we try to determine the meaning of a biblical author we are trying to determine not what the words originally meant but what the author meant by what he says. Of course, each text has more than one author, and it is the divine author's meaning that is more important. It may also be the case that the meaning of a text wasn't recognized (and maybe couldn't have been recognized) by the first readers. This is the case with some prophecies, I think.