Exegetical Notes on 2 Peter

Dennis Wretlind has posted his exegetical notes on 2 Peter here.

Habakkuk Exegetical Notes

Dennis Wretland has posted his extensive exegetical notes on Habakkuk here.

New Testament Exegesis and Hermeneutics Bibliography

Nijay Gupta and Cody Matchett have produced a helpful New Testament exegesis and hermeneutics bibliography. You can check it out here.

Free Logos Book for September: Preaching and Teaching the Last Things

The free Logos Book for the Month for September is Walt Kaiser's Preaching and Teaching the Last Things: Old Testament Eschatology for the Life of the Church. You can also purchase Kaiser's Preaching and Teaching from the Old Testament: A Guide for the Church and Toward an Exegetical Theology: Biblical Exegesis for Preaching and Teaching for $2.99 and $3.99 respectively. There is also a contest to win the 18 volume Baker Academic Theological Interpretation Collection. For all these offers, go to the Logos' Free Book of Month page here.

Exegesis vs Exposition

Michael Duduit explains the difference between exegesis and exposition here.

Online Exegesis Resources

David Murray has a terrific list of links to online resources for biblical exegesis here.

Cognitive Biases That Might Affect Your Exegesis

David Murray has an infographic and list of "20 Cognitive Biases That Affect Your Exegesis" here.

The Importance of Sound Exegesis and Preaching

Here is another great quote from Stephen Farris.

“It is not that it is impossible to preach a good sermon without sound exegesis. It is, however, hard to imagine preaching a good sermon regularly without such a discipline.

Stephen Farris, Preaching That Matters: The Bible and Our Lives (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1998), 41.

Solving Two Common Preaching Problems

"There is nothing more practical for the preacher than the thorough study of the biblical text. A constant complaint of weak preachers is 'What am I going to preach on next Sunday?' The complaint of the parishioners is different; they know what the pastor will preach on–some variation of ‘the same old thing every Sunday.’ The preacher who studies the scripture regularly and faithfully does not have the first complaint, and it is far less likely that the parishioners will have the second. Preachers who get in the habit of good exegesis will indeed have a problem. They will have so much homiletical material that it will be difficult to know what to leave out!"

Stephen Farris, Preaching That Matters: The Bible and Our Lives (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1998), 40.

Exegetical Tools Quarterly

Readers will want to check out a new online publication called Exegetical Tools Quarterly. My initial impressions are "Wow." This appears to be a helpful resource. So check out the work of Todd Scacewater and others here. 

Whose Eyes in Zechariah 9:1?

Lee Fields has a good discussion here related to translating Zechariah 9:1, in particular the owner of the "eyes."

Pragmatic Textual Analysis

Dr. David Allen has a good post discussing text-driven preaching and pragmatic textual analysis here. Make sure to read the entire post but see the conclusion below to whet your appetite.

"In summary, text-driven preachers will do their exegetical homework to determine what the text means. Text-driven preachers will engage in creative exposition to explain the meaning of the text to a contemporary audience. Text-driven preachers will seek to become master communicators with an understanding of their audience and communication techniques that will make for the most effective preaching of Scripture with the goal of life transformation effected by the Holy Spirit."

Preaching and Authorial Intention

Ben Simpson has a good post here about respecting authorial intention. Too often it seems that we are willing to sacrifice what a passage means contextually for what we might wish it to mean pastorally or communicatively. A great illustration, poem, song, video, etc. should not be allowed to trump the contextual meaning of a text. I am thankful that Ben knows that.

Text-Driven Preaching and Linguistics

David Allen has a nice post entitled "Text-Driven Preaching and Linguistics: What the Preacher Must Know to be a Good Exegete" here.

Critical Exegesis and Critical Exegetes

  
Tim Gombis has some helpful thoughts here on how one who has knows how to do critical exegesis keep from becoming a critical exegete. One thing that I would add is to remember that exegesis is a means not an end.
  

Theology and Exegesis

   
Kevin DeYoung has a good post here discussing the positive role that one's systematic theology can have in the exegetical process.
  

The Exegetical Habit

  

"Responsible biblical preaching does not come easily. It requires time, study, and hard work. The time required for the study of Scripture is not spent apart from ministry; it is not even in preparation for ministry. It is ministry, and as such it should be cherished and protected. There are ways to use study time wisely and efficiently. There are even shortcuts we can take in the process of biblical interpretation, but there are no short circuits." 

Thomas G. Long, The Witness of Preaching, 2nd ed. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2005), 67.
  

Quality Exegesis as a Moral Responsibility

 
See Phillip Long's post on quality exegesis.
  

Blomberg on Exegesis and Systematic Theology

   

Craig Blomberg has noted four ways that systematic theology can trump biblical exegesis rather than having exegesis as the basis for our systematic theology.

• If the immediate, literary context of the verses is not examined
• When textual and contextual features are ignored
• When interpreters fail to observe differences between one biblical writer's or corpus's use of key words or concepts and another's
• If parallel accounts of the same teaching or event are inappropriately harmonized so as to lose sight of the distinctive message of each

Craig L. Blomberg with Jennifer Foutz Markley, A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2010), 321. 
 

Blomberg on Common Indicators of Interpretive Problems

  

Craig Blomberg has provided the following helpful list of common indicators of interpretive problems.

• Nontrivial differences among the major translations of a given text
• A passage of Scripture that seems to disagree with something the author has said
• Apparent disagreement between the author and what other inspired authors of Scripture say about the same topic.
• A single text that has spawned multiple, complex debates
• A text whose meaning is hardly debated today but whose background indicates diverse history of interpretation
• Places in the New Testament use a quotation from the Old testament in a way that does not seem consonant with the meaning of the verse in the original context

Craig L. Blomberg with Jennifer Foutz Markley, A Handbook of New Testament Exegesis (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2010), 170.