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Biblical Resources Tutorial

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Exegesis: to explain, interpret. Critical interpretation of a text or portion of Scripture.

You have been asked to write an exegesis paper, that is, a paper on a Biblical passage or topic. Where do you begin?

Exegesis brings together your own reflection with a thorough examination of the text in context (historical, linguistic, etc). There are many ways to accomplish the task of exegesis so consult with your teacher to make sure you understand how he or she would like you to approach this work.

1. Beginning Handbooks on Exegesis and Writing Exegesis Papers
2. Finding Bibles and Commentaries
3. Tools for Understanding the Key Words in the Passage
4. Tools for Understanding the Historical and Cultural Context
5. Finding Journal Articles

Beginning Handbooks on Exegesis

• Old Testament Exegesis: A Primer for Students and Pastors / Douglas K. Stuart. Philadelphia: Westminster Press
  
  --Includes a good outline of the steps in preparing a writing a paper or preparing a sermon.

• New Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors / Gordon D. Fee. Philadelphia: Westminster Press
  
  --Similar to the Old Testament book above, with a good outline of the steps.

• Handbook of Biblical Criticism / by Richard N. Soulen. Atlanta, Ga. : Knox Press.
  
  --See section on "Exegesis" for a very brief outline of steps.

• A Handbook for Basic Biblical Exegesis / Samuel R. Thorpe. Lanham MD: University Press of America
  
  --Step-by-step instructions, organized according to type of analysis; e.g., linguistic analysis, critical analysis, etc. Thorough, although not for skimming.

• Biblical Exegesis : A Beginner's Handbook / John H. Hayes, Carl R. Holladay. Atlanta : John Knox Press.

• Interpreting the New Testament : A Practical Guide / Daniel J. Harrington. Wilmington, Del. : M. Glazier.

• Exegetical Method : a Student's Handbook / Otto Kaiser and Werner Georg Kummel; translated, with an introduction, by E.V.N. Goetchius. New York : Seabury Press.

• Douglas Stuart, "Exegesis," in the Anchor Bible Dictionary vol. 2.
  The Anchor Bible Dictionary / David Noel Freedman, editor-in-chief. New York : Doubleday.

• Keck and Tucker, "Exegesis," in the Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, supplementary volume. The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, supplementary volume / Keith Crim, general editor. Nashville : Abingdon.

• Hearing the New Testament : Strategies for Interpretation / edited by Joel B. Green. Grand Rapids, Mich. : W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. ; Carlisle : Paternoster Press.

• Interpreting the New Testament / Hans Conzelmann and Andreas Lindemann. Peabody, Mass. : Hendrickson Publishers.

• Interpreting the Bible: A Popular Introduction to Biblical Hermeneutics/ Terence J. Keegan. New York: Paulist Press.
  
  --Each chapter covers a different type of approach; e.g, narrative criticism, reader response criticism, etc.

• Multipurpose Tools for Bible Study/ Frederick W. Danker. Miineapolis: Fortress Press.
  
  --Thorough discussion of the history, development, and use of Bible research tools.

Finding Bibles and Commentaries

Finding Bibles

The GTU Library collection includes nearly 5000 different editions of the Bible. A handy selection of Bibles is kept in the Reference Collection on Level 2. You can search for Bibles in the library by searching via the special Bibles in the Library page on GRACE, the GTU Library catalog. You can also search for online Bibles via the library's Biblical Resources web page.

Finding Commentaries

Commentaries are a passage-by-passage explanation of the Biblical text. This is the easiest way to get started. You can search for Biblical commentaries in the library by searching via the special on Bible Commentaries and Criticism page on GRACE, the GTU Library catalog.

Tools for Understanding the Key Words in the Passage

Concordances

Suppose that you are trying to remember where a certain passage appears in the Bible, but you can only remember a key word in the passage. A concordance will help you identify the correct book, chapter, and verse for that passage.

Or, suppose that you are looking at a particular passage. You would like to gain a better understanding of the Biblical meaning of key words within that passage. A concordance will help you identify other places where that word appears in the Bible, so that you can see it in different contexts.

There are many different Biblical concordances. Each one corresponds to a specific English translation of the Bible, and may have other "value-added" features. The following is a list of just some of the special features of a variety of concordances to English translations of the Bible.

Strong's Concordance.

• Corresponds to the Authorized (King James) Version.
• Identifies Strong's numbers: Each word in the original language is assigned a number, commonly called a Strong's number. Words in the original language can then be looked up by number in a simple dictionary in the back of the concordance. Some lexicons (dictionaries), such as the Brown, Driver and Briggs Hebrew-English Lexicon, also enable you to look up words according to the Strong's number.
• Strong's is an "exhaustive concordance." This means that even words like "is" or "the" are indexed. These small words are indexed in the back of the concordance.

Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible.

• Corresponds to the Authorized (King James) Version.
• This concordance also has a simple dictionary of greek and hebrew words, and includes a pronunciation guide to names.
• Two articles found in the back on "The Canon of Scripture" may be helpful background material.

Nelson's Complete Concordance to the Bible: New King James Version

• Cross reference related words and names. For example, ARUMAH (see Rumah) or FOUGHT (see fight).

NRSV Exhaustive Concordance (Thomas Nelson Publishers).
NKJV Exhaustive Concordance.

• NRSV edition includes the Apocryphal and Deuterocanonical books.
• NRSV edition has a topical index which organizes words into concepts; for example: Salt -- uses of, miracles connected with, figurative of.

The NIV Exhaustive Concordance (Zondervan Publishing House).
The NRSV Concordance.

• NRSV edition includes the Aprocryphal/ Deuterocanonical books.
• NRSV edition has a topical index
• NIV edition includes a handy Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic lexicons, which lists the various English meanings of each word
• Both editions use a new numbering system (Goodrick and Kohlenberger, or G/K) instead of the older Strong's Concordance numbers, but includes a cross-reference index between G/K and Strong's numbers.

Computer Concordance to the Novum Testamentum Graece.

• Concordance to the Greek words of the New Testament -- you must be able to read Greek to use this!
• Corresponds to the Nestle-Aland, 26th edition and the Greek New Testament, 3rd edition (corrected)

Many online bibles have search engines that allow you to search for particular words, like a concordance. You can search for these Bibles by going to one of the sites listed on the library's Biblical Resources web page.

There is not a one-to-one correspondence between words in English and words in the original languages. Several different words in the original language may be translated as one word in English. Or, on the other hand, a word in the original language may be translated into different English words, depending on the context. A concordance, therefore, is only one bridge between the English language and the original language, just as the meanings of words are only one bridge between the text and our understanding of it within the context of our own lives today.

Lexicons and Dictionaries

Lexicons and dictionaries define the meaning of specific words in the Biblical passage. Grammatical forms of the word, pronunciation, functions, etymologies, meanings and syntax, as well as their Biblical context can be found in Hebrew and Greek lexicons.

Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament (TDOT)

• This is a 14 volume set that follows the Hebrew alphabet from Alef to Shin, with future volumes being published as they are finished. Each Hebrew word/concept is identified by etymology, meaning, and usage.
• To use the TDOT, it helps to know at least some Hebrew. All of the entries are in Hebrew alphabetical order.
  • Take your Hebrew word and locate it in the appropriate volume (1-14).
  • Read through the entire section to get the full range of nuance and meaning for the word, paying close attention to how the word is used in other passages.
  • Keep your Bible handy so that you can read the cross referenced passages and learn more about how the word you are studying is used in a variety of settings.

Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT), Kittel

• Similar to its counterpart, the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, the TDNT follows the Greek alphabet by the root of the word. The TDNT tries to treat every word of religious or theological significance. It is the benchmark in New Testament Studies. In a complete set, volume 10 contains indexes to help you look up English keywords, Greek keywords, Hebrew and Aramaic words, and an Index of Biblical References. There is also a one-volume abridged edition of Kittel (Ref. PA 881 .T4713 1985).
• To use the TDNT, a working knowledge of New Testament Greek is almost essential. Either locate the word you wish to study by its Greek root or find the volume and page number by using the keyword index in volume 10. Each entry follows a basic pattern: first a word origin study, and then sections about the root word in various time periods such as Hellenistic, Old Testament, or New Testaments period. Be forewarned that Greek, Hebrew, and Latin words and phrases abound in the TDNT without English translations.

Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (BDB)

• Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) gives the dictionary definition for each word and relates it to Old Testament usage. BDB also catagorizes a Hebrew word's nuances of meaning. Since it is organized by the Hebrew roots of the word rather than alphabetically, the user can see the relationship between different words from the same root. Each word in BDB has a number assigned to it which corresponds to its number in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance so that you may look up words even if you do not know Hebrew.
• To use Brown-Driver-Briggs, match the Strong's Concordance number for a word to the number in the index at the back of BDB. Then locate that number in the main section of the book. If you are proficient in Hebrew, you can look up the root of the word directly. BDB uses many, many abbreviations, so it appears almost to be written in code, but the list of abbreviations in the front of the book will help you wade through each entry. For more details see the BDB Guide

Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT)

• The EDNT is a guide to the forms, meaning and usage of every word in the text of the 3rd edition of the Greek New Testament or its equivalent, the 26th edition of the Nestle-Aland Novum Testament Graece. Each heading supplies the following information:
  • gender of common nouns
  • the word transliterated
  • meaning of the word in one or more English translations
  Some headings have short articles which mention all New Testament occurences of a word, grouped according to the different usages and contexts.
• To Use the EDNT, either locate an English word or concept in the index (found in Volume 3) or locate the Greek word directly in Volumes 1-3. The EDNT is in Greek alphabetical order, so some knowledge of New Testament Greek is helpful.

Tools for Understanding the Historical and Cultural Context

Bible Dictionaries / Encyclopedias

This is the best way to get started. You can use Bible dictionaries / encyclopedias to get a quick overview of historical, cultural, and archaeological information; that is, information about people, places, and things. Reading an article on Isaiah, for example, will help you to place your scripture passage into the wider context of Isaiah's background and his writings. Then, if you need more information, check to see if the article has a bibliography at the end. Look up the titles in GRACE to see if the GTU Library owns the books listed in the bibliography. Those books have been selected by the author of the article, who is likely a scholar on that book of the Bible, and are often better choices than random selections from the library shelves.

There are over 100 Bible dictionaries in the GTU Library. We've listed just three important ones below as good starting points; there are others of value.

Anchor Bible Dictionary.

• Contains substantial articles, some as long as forty pages.
• Covers recent biblical historical, cultural, and archaeological information.
• Includes bibliographies at the ends of articles.
• Provides Greek and Hebrew words in transliteration.

Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible.

• Stands as a major work of scholarship, though it does not reflect recent research.
• Major biblical words are given extensive treatment; articles include the original Hebrew and Greek along with transliterations.
• The supplementary volume is a useful update to the set.

HarperCollins Bible Dictionary.

• Handy one-volume work that summarizes the "best of current biblical scholarship." (Pref.)
• Emphasizes a sociological interpretation.
• Avoids technical language, but also usually does not give the original Hebrew or Greek for biblical words.
• Well illustrated.

Locating more Bible dictionaries: You'll find the largest number of Bible dictionaries in the GTU Library Reference Collection on Level 2 in the Library. A small number of important dictionaries are shelved in the Exegesis Collection also on Level 2. If you want to browse through Bible dictionaries, here are the major call number areas to look at:

• Bible dictionaries in English and other languages
• Biblical archaeology encyclopedias
• Encyclopedia Judaica

Finding Books on Biblical Topics

If you need further resources than what the Bible encyclopedias directed you to, then you can also search on GRACE, the GTU Library online catalog on our list of Biblical Topics, Teachings, and People.

Finding Journal Articles

Special resources exist for finding journals articles that discuss particular Biblical passages:

• Old Testament Abstracts and New Testament Abstracts are major tools for this purpose.
• ATLA Religion Database is a large, all-purpose database. Use the SCRIPTURES button (found in the green bar near the top of the page) to search by Bible passage.
• The series, Bibliographies for Biblical Research presents a well laid out list of journal articles.
• The GTU Library subscribes to a number of online databases that provide access to relevant materials.Connect to databases from the Research Databases page. (Please note: remote access to databases is limited to GTU students, faculty, staff, and visiting scholars.)

There is no one way to find journal articles. The best way for you depends on the nature of your topic, as well as on your own research skills and preferences. "Finding Journal Articles" will introduce you to this important skill, or you may wish to attend a library workshop.

Last updated July 25, 2005