Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi by Iain M. Duguid

This book was given to me unsolicited by the publisher, EP Books, and I chose to review it. I had previously reviewed How to Enjoy Your Bible by this publisher.

This commentary is an exposition of the last three books of the Bible. It aims to interpret the Bible text section by section as opposed to verse by verse exegesis. At the end of each chapter is an Application section that deals with how the previous portion of Scripture applies to us today and how it points to Christ and the New Testament.

You will find that the theology is solidly evangelical and Reformed, the latter especially showing up in the Application section. If you aren’t familiar with that term, I don’t think it will be of major significance.

This popular level book is useful for pastors and laypeople who want to gain a better understanding of these three books of Scripture.

The author provides his own translation of these texts, however in the exposition, Hebrew words are mentioned sparingly but in a helpful and understandable way.

Why are these books important to study? “Gospel writers quote Zechariah 9 – 14 more often than any other biblical source in explaining Christ’s sufferings and death.” (pg 11) The commentary helps clarify many of the obscurities of the visions in Zechariah. Also, “The fundamental theological context of these books is the return from exile,”. The commentary helps bring into perspective this relatively small portion of history with equally ‘small’ but significant events.

I enjoyed reading this succinct 241 page book. Though it doesn’t go as in-depth as a more thorough and technical commentary, there weren’t any major questions left unanswered for me. I didn’t feel a need to to go another source for more information, although I wasn’t preparing a sermon or studying deeply.

The earlier mentioned Application section is very helpful. I felt these sections may have been a bit longer than necessary and stretching some things a little far. I wouldn’t have minded a little more content in the expositional portions, but that may be more of a preference than a criticism.

There are the dreaded endnotes instead of footnotes. If you want to look up a reference, to the back of the book you go.

One of the reasons I like reading good expositions like this of the Old Testament is that in almost any section, things learned help to understand other portions of the Old Testament. This is the case over and over again with this book. Whether it’s history, feasts, symbols, Christology, references to passages in other books or any number of topics, this commentary will help you not only with these three unsung but important books of the Bible, but will help you understand the whole Old Testament at least a little bit better.

I highly recommend it.

Hardcover: 255 pages
Publisher: EP Books (Evangelical Press) May 2010
ISBN-10: 085234712X

Buy it from:
Amazon.com
Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service

A listing of the other EP Commentaries can be found here:
EP STUDY COMMENTARIES

Ryken’s Bible Handbook by Leland Ryken, Philip Ryken, James Wilhoit

This book was provided as a review copy from Tyndale House Publishers. This review has been a long time coming and in the future I don’t ever intend on letting a review go on this long since the time I receive the book. I thank them for their generosity and patience.

This book is for teachers and students of the Bible and I think it would also be good for parents to use with their kids. Even though it’s over 600 pages long, it’s a smaller sized reference book and isn’t comprehensive or meant to be. It’s a concise handbook on how to read and study each book of the Bible. Anyone familiar with studying the Bible will benefit from this book.

Each chapter is devoted to a book of the Bible and includes things such as Author’s Perspective, Audience Perspective or Implied Audience, Special Features, Challenges Facing the Teacher or Reader of the Book, How to Meet the Challenges, Form, Genre, Structure, Outline, Timeline, Characters, How To Apply the Book, Key Verses etc. Don’t let that overwhelm you. Each part is concise and very useful and not every chapter has every one of those.

I especially like The Most Common Misconceptions of the Book since this is one thing I’ve been working on for a few years now whether it’s books, passages, verses, etc. I also like Perspectives which are quotes on the book at the end of each chapter by various authors and scholars and somewhere in each chapter there may be a quote dealing with a subject of the book. I also like various Did You Know? inserts which are short factual items related to the book that are helpfully shaded in gray (see below).

Also sprinkled throughout the book are one page articles on the major genres of the Bible and other topics anywhere from How We Got the Bible at the beginning to Apocalyptic Writing in the end. My one complaint is that these articles don’t look different enough from the rest of the book. It’s easy to keep reading and not always realize it’s the start of the article. The typeface is different but that’s the only thing that sets it apart other than the title. A border or shaded background would be helpful.

The very idea of a “Christless sermon” appalled Charles Spurgeon and in the same vein this handbook always looks for how OT books point to Christ but doesn’t press the point too far if it’s scant.

There has to be some interpretation in a book like this but as far as I can tell it’s very neutral. Since my theological outlook is the same as the authors’, I may not be able to discern that as clearly as others. In any case, I can’t imagine anyone not benefiting from this book.

Part of the reason this review took so long is because I read each chapter before reading each book of the Old Testament this year (in addition to having surgery right in the middle). This was very helpful. It gave me a “heads up” on things to look for without telling me how to interpret it or without it being a commentary that I would want to read after reading that book of the Bible.

This is the only book that I can remember reviewing where I really don’t have anything negative to say other than the formatting issue of the article inserts. I often even try to find something negative so that I don’t sound like a shill for the publishers that provide review copies for me. I like it that much.

Buy it from:

• Amazon.com
• Westminster Bookstore

Product Information:

• Hardcover: 672 pages
• Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (September 19, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 0842384014
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches

I don’t usually write about what reviews I’ll be doing until I actually do them. What’s the point in wasting the time writing about what I’ll be reviewing and then post again when I review it? But I so much want to be like everyone else and be a cool and famous biblioblogger so I’ll try it this one time. If anyone can tell me why this is a good thing let me know.

Soon I hope to review Ryken’s Bible Handbook. This has been very helpful.

I’ve been eyeing a book called Helpful Truth in Past Places: The Puritan Practice of Biblical Counselling (their spelling). I thought I’d write to the publisher, Christian Focus, and they wrote right back telling me they’d be happy to send a review copy. I’d like to see if what’s written in the book can be applied individually to the reader in addition to a counselor.

Unburdened: The Secret to Letting God Carry the Things That Weigh You Down by Chris Tiegreen

Tyndale House Publishers has graciously provided me with a review copy of this book.

If I were to use one word for this book, it would be balanced. Back to that later.

Right off the bat I have to say I don’t like the word Secret in the title. Doesn’t it say somewhere that there is nothing new under the sun? Maybe we’re above the sun on this matter. I thought we were done with books that say secret or cure or free from whatever. I rather doubt it was the author’s idea to put that in there.

Another small complaint is that Scripture references, of which there are a lot fortunately, are end noted–shown in the back of the book. I would think if not showing the reference in parenthesis at least they could be shown at the bottom of the page. I’ll be glad to look up the Scripture but having to look it up in the back of the book first makes for two “lookings up”.

This book was timely for me. I read it after I had gotten back surgery–a lumbar double fusion. My faith was being tested at the time and I was worrying about everything. Because of this book I made a commitment to worry less, with God’s help and direction of course. Because of the surgery, I read the book and am now reviewing it later than many other people so I will try to cover things that others may not have yet.

The book is balanced because just when I felt he was cheerleading about not worrying on our own, he wrote about how important it is to do it with God’s help. When I thought he may be writing about the power of positive thinking, he would write about how we need to not just stop worrying, but replace our thoughts with Biblical ones.

He balances our responsibilities with God’s, explaining both well from a Scriptural perspective in alternate chapters, including some anecdotes from his own life.

We can’t shed all of our responsibilities and obligations. We have decisions to make, tasks to perform, things to learn, bills to pay, and people to care for. We don’t live in a vacuum.

We can, however, cast all our cares on the Lord. That’s a promise–or, rather, a command. It’s an act of rolling our worries off our shoulders and onto his, fully expecting him to take responsibility for dealing with them appropriately. We absolve ourselves of the responsibility for determining the outcome and handle only the aspects of those burdens that he tells us to handle.

Most of us have read that sort of thing many many times but within the context of the book it’s good to review it again.

What and how God tells us something can be a sticky issue in other parts of the book. I won’t go into that here because it depends on your theology and view of what and how God speaks. Just be aware of those things when reading the book.

One portion of the book I disagree with is that, “Those who see themselves as adopted children of God in whom he absolutely delight find themselves growing in purity in ways that a person focused on his utter need for mercy never does.” The first part of that statement is certainly true. But Biblically we are to constantly recognize and confess our sin and grow in appreciation of his mercy. I will say that he’s addressing people who focus too much on their sin and not enough on being redeemed children of God, but I think he goes too far here. He gives no Scripture in this section other than being dead to sin.

The second to the last chapter, titled Praise, comes awfully close to the “power of positive thinking” type of psychology. In reading it a second time, I can see where he comes so close to that type of mindset, but then comes out of it by bringing the spiritual dimension back into it. I would read that carefully, but with an open mind.

Here are a few more quotes that might give you an idea of what the book is like.

God is deeply concerned for your body, and he does promise to heal us, but he is infinitely more invested in your heart. That’s where his Spirit thrives and does amazing things in your life.

We can never experience any kind of loss that he does not have some kind of provision for.

The fallacy of mistrust is that it doesn’t recognize God for who he is.

We don’t have to figure out the root cause of all our wounds and issues in order to deal with them.

But that’s the goal: deep-down trust that can count on his agenda to be at least as good as or better than our own. Then we can relinquish ours and rest in his.

I recommend this book. It’s rather basic and most of us have read much of what’s written (and I didn’t find a secret) but it’s written in a way that most everyone could benefit from. Knowledge of the Bible is necessary, but there is no deep theological or philosophical jargon that would leave anyone confused. As mentioned earlier, because of reading this book I made a commitment to worry less. That’s very valuable even if I disagree with some of it. On the whole I think it’s a solid book that will help anyone who needs to work on this matter.

Buy it at:
Amazon.com

Paperback: 240 page
Publisher: SaltRiver
Published: June 7, 2010

Why is God Ignoring Me? What to Do When It Feels Like He’s Giving You the Silent Treatment by Gary R. Habermas

This book is a review copy sent to me by Tyndale. I thank them very much for the opportunity to review this book.

The author knows pain. His wife of 23 years, the mother of four children, died of cancer. He knows the loneliness which follows something as horrific as that. Although he doesn’t go into much detail in the book, this is an author who is obviously writing as someone who is truly sympathetic with the person reading this book. Yet at the same time I don’t think he gets to the heart of the matter and I feel he is often missing connections either with what the reader feels they want or what’s most important from a spiritual perspective.

Much of the book is about how God is working in the world. He isn’t silent. He is working and speaking through healing, answered prayer, angels, demons, near-death experiences and people who haven’t heard the gospel who have been prepared for it. If I was in the situation of wondering why God is ignoring me, I would be thinking, “But what about me? That’s great that these things are happening to other people but I still feel ignored.”

Next he talks about “love letters”. Things that are more subtle than the last chapter like feelings of joy, conviction of sin (a good one), etc. I kept thinking, What about the Bible? I wouldn’t necessarily call it a love letter, but it’s one big collection of letters written by God through people to us. Any time we want, we can hear God speak to us by just reading it. We may not often get a special revelation, word of comfort or conviction of sin, but God’s word is living and active (Hebrews 4:12), not just a collection of text. Augustine said, “The Holy Scriptures are our letters from home.” Thomas Watson, a prolific Puritan writer wrote, “Think in every line you read that God is speaking to you.”

A strength of the book is Biblical Teaching That Life Will Be Difficult (page 46) that’s within Chapter 3 – Our Favorite Verses. This talks a lot about the Biblical view of suffering which is really what people who feel ignored by God are going through. There is a lot of Scripture given in this chapter. He writes about how prayer isn’t always answered (or the answer is ‘no’). He writes about the Bible saying that life isn’t always going to be rosy, even some of Jesus’ prayers weren’t answered, Christians in the present time are often strengthened through sickness, trouble etc.

Some of the things written about are legitimate and some are on the edge without a lot of backing from Scripture. It reminds me of the book Prayer by Richard Foster. And interestingly enough he refers to that book a lot. I gave it a very unfavorable review here on this blog.

A good quote from this book that I wish he would have dwelt more on is,

By giving God the preeminent place in our lives, we draw closer to him, and in doing so, we just might find that he’s not as hidden as we might have assumed. Concentrating preeminently on God can help promote a mind-set and atmosphere in which he can work more fully in us.

Chapter 7 is what I would call spiritual (in a good way) cognitive therapy, or what we tell ourselves. This is done in a way that isn’t worldly and helps us to think in a more Godly way.

In the last paragraph of the book he writes,

We know so much more than Job ever did, especially the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. With such a foundation, we are more than justified to trust God with those matters we don’t understand. Shouldn’t we be willing to grow and mature spiritually as we wait for our resurrection, which will place all our suffering in an eternal perspective?

This would be a good place for the book to start and concentrate on.

Although the author is a Christian apologist and is a solid conservative evangelical Christian I can’t recommend this book, although it may be helpful for some.

I would recommend How Long, O Lord? by D.A. Carson. The title gets to the heart of the matter and even that is Scriptural. Cries of the Heart by Ravi Zacharias is also good. There are also many good books on suffering in general and trusting God like Suffering and the Sovereignty of God by John Piper et. all and Trusting God by Jerry Bridges.

Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (February 26, 2010)
ISBN-10: 1414316887

Where to buy:
Amazon.com
Westminster Bookstore does not sell this book.

How to Enjoy Your Bible by John Blanchard

I first found out about this book on Nathan Bingham’s microblog where he posted an Interview with Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III. In talking about as a pastor, trying to convince Christians under their guidance about the importance of studying God’s Word, Ligon Duncan said, ‘[G]et your people to read good books about Bible study and prayer (John Blanchard, “How to Enjoy Your Bible,” Don Carson, “A Call to Spiritual Reformation,” Matthew Henry, “Method For Prayer,” “Ryken’s Bible Handbook,” etc).’

I respect Ligon Duncan so I looked into it, especially because I was about to embark on reading the Old Testament again. I already enjoy my Bible, but I want to enjoy it even more!

So I wrote to Evangelical Press and asked them if they send out review copies. They wrote right back and said they’d be happy to.

The book is written at a ‘popular level’ meaning it will be understandable to anyone who has any familiarity with the Bible. It’s at a little more basic level than I expected but that’s only because of the other recommendations that surrounded it. At 180 pages it’s fairly easy to get through.

Chapter 2 – Countering the critics, answers many of the arguments people have against the Bible. Maybe even some of the people reading the book have these questions. The questions that are addressed are: Those who deny its authority, Those who deride its simplicity, Those who denounce its history, Those who dispute its accuracy, Those who doubt its integrity and Those who decry its credibility.

There are two chapters on The excellence of the evidence. The author comes from the view of inerrancy. Quoting Brian Edwards, Nothing but the Truth, Evangelical Press, pg. 139, on the Bible’s human authors:

They recorded accurately all that God wanted them to say and exactly how he wanted them to say it, in their own character, style and language. The inspiration of Scripture is a harmony of the active mind of the writer and the sovereign direction of the Holy Spirit to produce God’s inerrant and infallible word for the human race.

He writes about prophecy, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, history and how the Bible comes from God.

There is the obligatory chapter on translations which is basic and brief. This is a decent chapter for those who aren’t familiar with different translations and styles. As in most books, the more literal/formal translations get the nod. After writing about translation theory and why translations are different, various translations are reviewed including KJV/AV, RSV, NASB, GNB, NIV, NKJB, CEV and ESV. Since the book was published in 2007 I would have expected a different selection including the NLT for sure and possibly the HCSB and NRSV.

After writing about the canon and various means of reading and studying the Bible we come to the chapter that is more than worth the cost of the whole book called The outcome of obedience. The vital link that brings reading and studying the Bible, and joy (enjoyment [I made that up]). This chapter has many quotable quotes by the author and others well known. I will pick one by J.C. Ryle:

God tests men’s sincerity by making obedience part of the process by which religious* knowledge is obtained. Are we really willing to do God’s will so far as we know it? If we are, God will take care that our knowledge is increased.

*religion wasn’t a dirty word back then

He writes about loving obedience, willing obedience, believing obedience, wholehearted obedience and dependent obedience. The last one is “so important that it governs all others.” We are dependent on God’s enabling. This is what takes the fear out of obedience for those who don’t like that word and he explains this concept well in the book. This is key and he saved the best for last.

I would highly recommend this book for those who are rather new to these concepts and need more confidence in the reliability of the Bible, need to learn the various ways to read and study the Bible and learn how key obedience is in this whole process. These things all put together will help us to better enjoy our Bibles.

• Paperback: 185 pages
• Publisher: EP Books (October 2007)
• ISBN-10: 0852346700

Buy it at:
Amazon.com

In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel Centered Life by Dr. Sinclair Ferguson

This is a Reformation Trust review.

Sinclair Ferguson draws heavily on the Gospel of John and the book of Hebrews to paint a portrait of Christ and His sufficiency for living out our faith.

The book is accessible for the lay person but meaty enough for anyone although it may not be for those who are new Christians.

The book is comprised of 50 somewhat short chapters making it suitable for devotional reading. The chapters are divided into six sections, each pertaining to a different aspect of Christology.

The book is one quotable quote after another. The chapter entitled Santa Christ? has been quoted in part on blogs from time to time.

Ferguson’s theology is fully and obviously Reformed but the nature of the book is not polemic, apologetic or comparative. He even gives a few warnings to those who are Reformed.

The apostles saw that Pentecost was a once-for-all-time, epoch-making event, but with often-repeatable elements built into it. The empowering for witness that Jesus promised was to be limited neither to the single event of Pentecost nor exclusively to the apostles. It extended beyond their persons and time (Acts. 2:4).

A Word to the Reformed

This is what we still need: power to witness. The truth is that nothing would as readily silence gainsayers against the Reformed faith as would this. Far more important, it is only through such empowering that we will get beyond witnessing to fellow Christians about the Reformed faith and start witnessing to non-Christians about saving faith.

His zeal for Scripture is evident:

[A]biding in Christ means allowing His Word to fill our
minds, direct our wills, and transform our affections. In other words, our relationship to Christ is intimately connected to what we do with our Bibles!

For those who have a hard time with the book of Hebrews (although I’m not sure why there are so many), Ferguson explains how “there is no letter in the New Testament that tells us more about Christ and His work” in the chapter entitled: Hebrews—Does It Do Anything for You?

Some of the later chapters seem a bit disjointed. Maybe this is because the book began as articles in Table Talk and Eternity Magazine. However this is only a stylistic point and doesn’t detract from the quality of the content.

Other than that very minor point I have nothing negative to say about this book. While reading it I found myself worshiping our Savior, learning more about Jesus, having some questions answered and looking foreword the the next chapter. It’s the best book I’ve read in a long time and is my favorite so far of the books I’ve read from Reformation Trust. I highly recommend it.

Table of Contents and Sample Chapter (PDF File)

Book details:

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Reformation Trust Publishing
• Publication Date: December 15, 2007
• ISBN-10: 1567690890

Buy it from:

• Ligonier Ministries Store
• Amazon

Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism by Joel R. Beeke with contributions from: Sinclair B. Ferguson, James Grier, Michael A. G. Haykin, Nelson Kloosterman, Ray Lanning, Robert Oliver, Ray Pennings, Derek W. H. Thomas

Joel Beeke says, “The target audience for this book is laypeople and ministers who are interested in learning the basics of Calvinism. I hope it also will serve as a stimulating summary and refresher course for those who are already avid Calvinists, much as Steven J. Lawson’s The Expository Genius of John Calvin from Reformation Trust excites those of us who are already familiar with much of its content. I have worked hard to keep this book simple, clear, and non-technical, in the hope that you might hand it to others to help them understand how you think as a Calvinist.”

I felt this was the case except the chapter on philosophy can be a more difficult read for those of us not well versed on the subject.

While John Calvin – A Heart for Devotion Doctrine & Doxology, also from Reformation Trust and reviewed here, is about John Calvin himself and a brief introduction to his theology, this book is less about Calvin himself and more about Calvinism from the beginnings of the Reformation through the time of the Puritans both in Europe and after they arrived in the U.S. It’s longer and more thorough than the previous mentioned book but is still introductory.

Included in this history are the Reformed canons, confessions and catechisms. There is a lengthy treatment of these documents which may be of interest to some who are unfamiliar with their content and origins.

Other notable figures from Martin Luther (including an explanation of the differences between Lutheranism and Calvinism) to Jonathan Edwards are mentioned in the book.

Although the acronym TULIP wasn’t developed until the 1900′s, the Canons of Dort contain a response to the Remonstrance of 1610, a response to Calvinism by forty-three of Arminius’ followers. “The canons were structured to correspond with the five articles of the 1610 Remonstrance” which correspond to the contents of TULIP but in a different order. This is covered quite a bit in the book. Therefore, this book isn’t an objective look at Calvinism as compared to other areas of theology and Arminianism is talked about negatively and even called “heretical” (or at least referring to what Arminius’ followers had to say) which is going too far. Just when I thought there may have been too much time spent refuting Arminian theology, the book moved on from there.

The book doesn’t dwell too much on TULIP though, as Calvinism is much more than that:

“It is important to note that the five points do not summarize all of Calvinism; that would be a truncated view of the Reformed faith. One of the aims of this book is to show the panoramic grandeur of the Reformed faith’s worldview.”

The book also covers the popular 5 Solas–Scripture alone (sola Scriptura), grace alone (sola gratia), faith alone (sola fide), Christ alone (solus Christus), and the glory of God alone (soli Deo gloria).

A couple of ancillary benefits to this book are the extensive citations and bibliographies at the end of each chapter and an introduction to the history and theology of the Puritans who carried on the Reformed tradition.

Other than listing some of the current denominations that are Reformed, I would like to have seen the history go even farther–past the Puritan era–but that may have been beyond the size and scope of the book.

This book is very readable, enjoyable and educational. I highly recommend it.

Hardcover: 414 pages
Publisher: Reformation Trust Publishing
Publication Date: September 12, 2008
ISBN-10: 1567691056
ISBN-13: 978-1567691054

Buy it from:

• Reformation Trust
• Amazon.com

Paul for Everyone: 1 Corinthians by Tom Wright

This little book (256 pages long but small in dimensions) by Tom (also known as N.T.) Wright really is for everyone. Although it is “approachable and anecdotal in style”, even those who have read the bigger commentaries would benefit from this book.

Wright manages to combine personal anecdotes, exegesis, exposition and even a bit of Greek word study in an oblique way for every passage of 1 Corinthians. This is quite masterful.

He has written his own translation for the whole book of 1 Corinthians. Here is an example of 2:14-3:4:

Someone who is merely human doesn’t accept the things of God’s spirit. They are foolishness to such people, you see, and they can’t understand them because they need to be discerned spiritually. 15 But spiritual people discern everything, while nobody else can discern the truth about them! 16 For ‘Who has know the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of the Messiah.

3:1 In my own case, my dear family, I couldn’t speak to you as spiritual people, but as people who were all too obviously merely human, little babies in the Messiah. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, because you weren’t able to take it — and you still can’t, even now! 3 You’re still determined to live in the old way! Yes, wherever there is jealousy and quarrelling, doesn’t that mean you’re living in the old way, behaving as any merely human being might do? 4 When someone says ‘I’m with Paul!’, and someone else says ‘I’m with Apollos!’ are you not mere humans?

That gives you an idea of how long each section of Scripture is. The exposition is typically about four pages.

His translation, like his exposition, is also a mixture of sorts being somewhat literal, dynamic and paraphrastic all in one where appropriate. One little annoyance is he says you see in almost every passage.

Another small annoyance is as he is wont to do, he let’s his political and social comments slip in now and then but it’s very infrequent and not very obvious.

This book is very well put together and although it’s very accessible for everyone, it’s deep and insightful enough to truly be for everyone.

There is a helpful glossary in the back of the book where he provides a paragraph description of select terms. I especially liked kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven.

Wright has a whole series of “For Everyone” books. Search for:
Tom Wright For Everyone
using the Amazon search box in the right sidebar here.

I think it would be great if there were Bible study guides to go along with these for group Bible study.

Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press (March 2004)
ISBN-10: 0664227910
ISBN-13: 978-0664227913

Buy it at:

• Amazon.com
• Westminster Bookstore
• Christianbook.com
• Barnes & Noble

New Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors by Gordon D. Fee

What is exegesis as defined by Fee?

“The term exegesis is used in this book in a consciously limited sense to refer to the historical investigation into the meaning of the biblical text. The presupposition lying behind this task is that the biblical books had ‘authors’ and ‘readers,’ and that the authors intended their readers to understand what they wrote (see, e.g., 1 Cor. 5:9-11; 1 John 2:1; see the Appendix). Exegesis therefore answers the question, What did the biblical author mean? It has to do both with what he said (the content itself) and why he said it at any given point (the literary context)–as much as that might be discovered, given our distance in time, language, and culture. Furthermore, exegesis is primarily concerned with intentionality: What did the author intend his original readers to understand?”

This book is for those very serious about exegesis. It’s very broad, but accessible for any student, pastor or anyone serious about studying the Bible.

Although the book was originally written 20 years ago, it has stood the test of time and has been revised in both the 2nd and current 3rd edition to keep it very up to date.

Is it necessary to know Greek to utilize the book?

This is addressed in the Preface to the first edition but also in the Introduction to the 3rd edition:

“A final word to those who use only the English Bible. First, you need to take heart that you can learn to do exegesis as well as anyone else. Knowing Greek gives one obvious advantages in several matters of detail. But the person without Greek who is willing to do a bit of extra work can enter into the full joys of this discipline. You must take seriously the need to learn the Greek alphabet; that will give you direct access to most of the better tools, especially when it comes to the study of words.”

For those who do know Greek the book goes in-depth into using Greek as part of exegesis.

By taking a look at the Amazon link you can “Search inside this book” and start with the Table of Contents to get a good overview of what’s covered.

Fee mentions a wide array of resources for research related to each step. Bibliographic material is mentioned within each chapter in addition to a whole chapter devoted to the material, based on category.

One could easily spend over $2000 on these books which may be a little overwhelming for some. For those without an extensive library of their own, the help of a public library or even at the minimum—the internet, a couple of good study Bibles and a couple of in-depth commentaries covering the passage you will be exegeting—one could get by and do most of the things outlined in the book.

Also overwhelming is the sheer number of steps required in the first chapter, many of which are explained in the second chapter. This is geared to a student who will be writing a paper on a passage of Scripture. The third chapter abbreviates the steps for pastors who have approximately ten hours a week to prepare a sermon.

I thought it would be helpful if the steps in chapter three were directly correlated to the steps in the first two chapters.

It’s important for everyone to carefully read the whole book. For English only readers, reading the portions related to Greek are still valuable. For students, the chapter for pastors is important for remembering application, prayer and reflection so that it doesn’t become only an academic exercise. Pastors will want to be very familiar with the first two chapters so they can tailor the steps to their needs with Fee’s guidance as outlined in the third chapter.

The Appendix, new to the third edition, explains what Reader-Response Criticism is, how popular this has become and how dangerous it is. I see it everywhere and this is not a good thing.

Personal notes:
As noted in the review, the number of steps involved can be overwhelming for a neophyte exegetor. As I was first reading the book I was wondering when the steps would finally come to an end. But once I got through all the steps and read the abbreviated portion for pastors, I could see how I can make it all work. I’m not using the pastor’s chapter as a way to do less work. (I would rather spend more time exegeting and not have to try to write a sermon. Now that’s hard work.) I went through the whole book and wrote down the steps that I can do—not knowing much Greek—along with page numbers and topics so that I can go through it one step at a time. Baby steps.

Another blogger bought this book for me which was on my Amazon Wish List. As one with a small library and small budget, I can’t say how much this is appreciated.

Paperback: 195 pages
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press; 3rd edition (March 2002)
ISBN-10: 0664223168
ISBN-13: 978-0664223168
Book Cover Design: Really cool

Buy it at:

• Amazon.com
• Westminster Bookstore
• Christianbook.com
• Barnes & Noble