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Category Archives: How To Do Exegesis
No Traction
I could be posting about the weather in Glasgow this morning, with snow-slicked slippy pavements so that one gets a backache just from walking with tensed muscles at every step — but rather I’m talking about the widespread perception that … Continue reading
Posted in How To Do Exegesis, Uncategorized
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Tell Me Something
I’m beginning to think I’m just an incorrigible old crank, a conclusion that many people surely reached a long time ago. Still, as long as I have responsibility for teaching and evaluating students, I’m going to stick with this one. … Continue reading
Posted in How To Do Exegesis
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Long Range Planning
Just noted, for now — I anticipate gathering up all my ‘How To Do exegesis’ posts and compiling them into a PDF that I’ll make freely available. I expect that elements of that compendium will eventually grow into a published book … Continue reading
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OK, How Do You Do Exegesis?
After having written about what makes exegesis difficult (and subsequent posts), and after having written about criticism and evidence, I’ll get to the point and suggest how you actually set about doing exegesis. First and most important: do what … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, How To Do Exegesis
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What Is ‘Evidence’?
One of the great problems in learning exegesis is that ‘evidence’ is not what you think it might be.† Or — to be more precise — most students don’t apply themselves to learning how to formulate a convincing exegetical argument; … Continue reading
Posted in How To Do Exegesis, Uncategorized
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When Criticism Isn’t Critical
I don’t remember where I left off in the “How To Do Exegesis” series, but this afternoon I’m provoked to write about a phenomenon that puzzles me as a scholar, frustrates me as a colleague, and depresses me as a … Continue reading
Posted in How To Do Exegesis
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Understanding Aberrant Interpretation
My work in hermeneutics has always sought out explanations for interpretive divergence — in the first instance, for proximate disagreements among well-qualified readers who generally share their premises and conclusions, and in the second instance, between ‘mainstream’ and ‘off-beat’ interpretations. … Continue reading
Posted in Bible, How To Do Exegesis, Theology and Church
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Cranmer’s Prologue to the Great Bible
For the whole cornucopia of reasons that you can readily enough recite — academic, Anglican, biblical scholar, theoretician, typographer, preacher, reader of Henrician/Elizabethan literature, partisan of the non-verbal elements of communication — I have long been fascinated with Thomas Cranmer’s … Continue reading
Posted in Commonplaces, How To Do Exegesis
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On Knowing Greek and Hebrew
”Do I understand Greek and Hebrew? Otherwise, how can I undertake, as every Minister does, not only to explain books which are written therein but to defend them against all opponents? Am I not at the mercy of everyone who … Continue reading
Posted in Commonplaces, How To Do Exegesis
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Conflicting Exegetical Criteria and Authorities
[Part Six of a series on “what makes exegesis difficult?” that otherwise includes parts one, two, three, four, and five.] Although one could go on indefinitely citing the sources of frustration and confusion for students who are beginning the study … Continue reading
Posted in How To Do Exegesis
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What Makes Exegetical Research Hard?
[Part Five of this series: one, two, three, four] Granted, then, that the practice of exegesis is complicated by confusions concerning what the term itself names, concerning the expectations that readers bring to exegesis, concerning the genres in which … Continue reading
Posted in How To Do Exegesis
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Exegesis and Language
[Previously on this topic: One, Two, Three.] Many of the confusions that arise in exegetical inquiry come from the extrinsic factors we’ve been discussing: the ambiguous technical terms, the unstated expectations, the literary genres in which students write, and … Continue reading
Posted in How To Do Exegesis
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