Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, Revised Edition

Klein, et al's Introduction to Bibilical Interpretation is a wonderful book that does exactly what it was designed to do - provide the best possible education experience on Biblical interpretation and hermeneutics for advanced Bible students. And when I say advanced, I am referring to students who are in seminary and studying for a Master's degree in Theological Studies, Biblical Studies, or Apologetics.

This is how I was introduced to this text. It was one of my main textbooks in a high level (700 level) graduate course at a big evangelical seminary. The book is awesome, but sometimes is it just hard to read because there is just so much information the human mind can handle and comprehend at one time. In other words, this book is written at an advanced level. Just to give you an idea of the level of scholarship that supports this text, in the second chapter about the History of Interpretation, there were 160 footnoted references pointing to external sources, more information, or information that just had to be followed up on by the reader in order to get a full understanding of what was being introduced in the book.

Don't misunderstand me, this book is the best, but it assumes it's audience is an audience composed of advanced bible readers, and advanced students of the Scriptures. That's is not to say anybody can't buy this book and read and understand it. But unless you are used to reading scholarly journals, you are not going to be reading this book like a novel and be done with it in a weekend. If you do get it, you will definitely have in your hands one of the best books on Biblical Interpretation and Hermeneutics that has ever been published.

This is an invaluable comprehensive resource for any serious student of the Bible who needs practical guidance in interpreting the Bible correctly. The three authors are Seminary professors who share their expertise on hermeneutics and affirm their position that a biblical text has one meaning that is discovered by using the historical/grammatical/semantical approach of interpretation. One must also consider the literary, cultural, and social issues of the text. Understanding a text in its context is also vitally important. The authors also explore other traditional and modern interpretative methods that reflect current biblical scholarship. Lastly, the authors discuss our role as interpreters and what we bring to a biblical text, i.e. preunderstandings, life experiences, etc. This is a great resource!

Very thorough and easily understood. I use this as a course textbook. Best feature is the presentation of opposing viewpoints.

In Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, the authors provide a comprehensive study for the field of Biblical Interpretation, beginning with the history of interpretation and concluding with specific discussion on the different types of genres found within the Bible itself. It is appropriately titled Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, as the book seems more like a broad survey for helping readers understand the Bible when they open it, rather than an in-depth approach to the discipline of hermeneutics that helps readers interpret the text outside of pre-conceived conclusions. It really is not an academic treatment of hermeneutics, as it too easily assumes the evangelical position, which guides and seems to pre-form many of its conclusions throughout.

For example, the authors use the term `theological biographies' to classify the Gospel genre (p.401). The basis for this classification comes from several areas. First, the authors previously point out that the gospels may better be linked to Hellenistic biography, rather than having a genre of their own. They write, "Earlier readers were thrown off track because conventions for writing biography in the ancient Greco-Roman world did not always correspond to modern standards. Hellenistic biographers did not feel compelled to present all periods of an individual's life or to narrate everything in chronological order" (p.400). The authors go on to explain this type of contextual analysis also involves a focus on someone's death because "they believed the way people died revealed much about their character" (p.401). Therefore, the authors conclude that "formally" the gospels have similarities to other forms of literature (i.e., Hellenistic biographies), yet "materially" they are distinctively "Christian" (p.401).

This seems like theological `hand-waving.' First, the authors create a term called "theological biographies," which sounds interesting to the armchair theologian. They then track this phrase to the term "Hellenistic biography", which seems to contradict itself when read in the quotation from the previous paragraph. How is it that these authors somehow understand the genre so clearly as `Hellenistic biography,' when everyone else (i.e., `early readers') missed this point? Secondly, where is the internal evidence that clearly aligns the gospels to `Hellenistic biography'? One major textual idea is given (death) in the author's treatment, yet this idea is not distinctively Hellenistic, as one's death is a major event in any type of narrative writing. Simply citing Luke 1 doesn't due justice to this type of conclusion (p.401).

Furthermore, notice the author's own conclusions. Their first conclusion is that the gospels have "formal" similarities to other forms of literature. If this is the case, what is it that makes it `Hellenistic'? It seems more likely that `Hellenistic biography' helped shaped the gospel genre, but other forms of literature also shaped their genre. The gospels are exciting to read to even the modern reader; do you picture modern readers picking up `Hellenistic biographies' and reading them?

Their second conclusion, that the gospels are `materially' Christian, is an example of theological carelessness, where the book's original purpose is to help readers interpret the Bible. What does Christian mean today? What is a `Christian' genre? This is about the loosest genre available for the gospels. This example shows how the author's evangelical position pre-forms many of their conclusions. More attention should be given to the genre of the Gospels in a book entitled Introduction to Biblical Interpretation, especially when Christians more and more need to be able to think critically to understand Scripture.

I really appreciated, what was for me, a comprehensive introduction to the topic of Biblical Interpretation. This stood me in good stead for a posy graduate diploma in Biblical Studies and will be a valuable reference tool well into the future.