Bible Exegesis

Bible exegesis is the critical interpretation of the Bible and its text, oftentimes explained to unbelievers. This can be a useful tool for understanding your own faith, and for sharing it with others. You can perform your own Bible exegesis, or learn from those conducted by others.

In my Christian walk, I was encouraged by a pastor of mine to read two books on Bible exegesis. I had come of an age of reasoning and doubting, and wanted to know for myself the Bible's truths. This pastor pointed me to two books which truly changed my life.

Both of these books were edited by Stanley E. Porter. They were titled, A Handbook to the Exegesis of the New Testament and A Handbook to the Exegesis of the Old Testament, and were integral in my understanding of the Bible as the inspired Word of God. Additionally, these were serious theoretical guides, which helped guide me towards my own undertaking of Bible exegesis.

Bible Exegesis for the Scholar

Best of all, these handbooks were able to be used again when my brother attended Bible College and had to perform a Bible exegesis of his own. He gleaned information and guidance from these texts, learning how to conduct discourse analysis, rhetorical and narratological criticism, literary criticism, and canonical criticism. With the models of analyses that these handbooks provided, my brother was greater able to conduct Bible exegesis on his own.