Religious use of "exegete"

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.

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”.

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!