A Beginner's Guide to New Testament Exegesis: Taking the Fear out of Critical Method

By Richard J. Erickson

Book Overview

Let's face it. Just the word exegesis puts some of us on edge. We are excited about learning to interpret the Bible, but the thought of exegetical method evokes a chill. Some textbooks on exegesis do nothing to overcome these apprehensions. The language is dense. The concepts are hard. And the expectations are way too high. However, the skills that we need to learn are ones that a minister of the gospel will use every week. Exegesis provides the process for listening, for hearing thebiblical text as if you were an ordinary intelligent person listening to a letter from Paul or a Gospel of Mark in first-century Corinth or Ephesus or Antioch. This book by Richard Erickson will help you learn this skill. Thoroughly accessible to students, it clearly introduces the essential methods of interpreting the New Testament, giving students a solid grasp of basic skills while encouraging practice and holding out manageable goals and expectations. Numerous helps and illustrations clarify, summarize and illuminate the principles. And a wealth of exercises tied to each chapter are available on the web. This is a book distinguished not so much by what it covers as by how: it removes the "fear factor" of exegesis. There are many guides to New Testament exegesis, but this one is the most accessible--and fun

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830827714
• ISBN13: 9780830827718
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Length: 239 Pages
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

practical and encouraging

easy to read, breaks things down step by step, gets you solidly into the Bible so you don't have to depend on commentaries, humorous (and who couldn't use more of that in life), and, most importantly for a person like me who perceives a call to teach the Bible but is plagued by doubt and insecurity: encouraging! Some gems I have actually copied onto index cards to keep me going! Plus, he cites Ken Bailey, coolest Bible scholar ever.

Exegetical Method done realistically and skillfully!

Rich Erickson has provided beginning students of Exegetical Method a more digestible way of understanding how to unlock what was divinely inspired in the New Testament. His book invites a beginning exegete into this complex method of study yet through his step by step process takes the fear out of learning the techniques required to thouroughly exegete passages of scripture. His creative writing style not only is humorous at times but some of his analogies help the beginner remember valuable techniques of exegesis. He also masterfully takes the beginning exegete from feelings of trepidation to feelings that exegeting scripture is a journey that requires each of us to relax and continue on. It is not simply something we do once and put the books away after a class is over, it is something we do for a life time if we want to grasp the divine-human intention of scripture.

Exegesis- a Life Long Adventure

Rich Erickson's book does a fantastic job of bringing the task of biblical exegesis within the grasp of even beginning biblical scholars. The tools and skills of biblical exegesis are presented in a thorough manner with many encouragements and suggestions along the way to bite off only what you can chew. Exegesis is an exciting, lifelong journey he says! Don't be discouraged by what you CAN'T do, celebrate what you CAN and be amazed at the insights you gain!

The Guide We've All Been Waiting For

As one who has taught New Testament courses for over 20 years now, I am so grateful to Rich Erickson for writing this book. This is the guide that all of us, teachers and students, have been waiting for someone to write. I have no doubt it will become the standard guide to New Testament interpretation and exegesis for years to come. It is amazingly comprehensive and very thorough BUT at the same time it is written in a conversational style that is engaging and communicates clearly and simply with its reader. Thanks Rich for writing a book that I will use in my classes and recommend over and over again to all my friends and students.

Taking Off, Putting On

Rich Erickson is one of those wonderfully creative writers whose work might easily have given Michael Crichton a run for his money had he chosen to invest his life in that world. Thank God he didn't! Instead of choosing fiction, Rich has chosen to invest his life in truth, to help ministry students learn how to read and interpret the Word of God. As a disciple, he understands what's at stake in mastering this discipline. As a pastor, he knows how deep the fear can go in the heart of the beginner. As a teacher, he knows how challenging it can be to overcome these fears long enough to learn something unavoidably, irrevocably "foreign." Hammered out in the classroom over decades, A Beginner's Guide to New Testament Exegesis may be the best tool available to help students learn how to take off their fears long enough to put on the Word.