How to read the Bible carefully—the method, the tools, and the Greek and Hebrew behind the text—and the prior question of whether the text can be trusted at all.
Most of this is method. A six-week class works out what exegesis is, what tools it takes, and then does a complete exegesis of John 3:16 in front of the room. The seminary papers behind it compare the Greek grammars and trace the long argument over what kind of Greek the New Testament is. And underneath both sits the question that comes first: whether the text has reached us intact, and whether the difficulties in it undo what Paul says about all Scripture being God-breathed.
Doing Exegesis 3
A six-week class at Spring Creek Bible Church, spring 2017. Manuscripts here; slides, audio, and lightly edited transcripts are linked on each page.
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Foundations for ExegesisSeries pt. 1
Message · 2017
Where the class starts: exegesis against eisegesis, what “meaning” is and whose it is—author, intent, context—and the theological presuppositions you bring to a text whether or not you admit them.
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Techniques and Tools for ExegesisSeries pts. 2–3
Message · 2017
The three steps—establish the text, interpret it, apply it—and the tools that serve each one, in the order they actually help.
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Exegesis of John 3:16Series pts. 4–6
Message · 2017
The whole method run on a single verse: illumination, textual criticism, translation, grammar, word studies, context, theology, application. Three sessions on twenty-five Greek words.
Inspiration and Reliability 3
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Unchanging Truth in a Changing World (2 Timothy 3:16–17)
Message · 2002
2 Timothy 3:16–17 preached on a mission trip: all Scripture is God-breathed, so all of it is profitable—what that “all” covers, and what it is profitable for.
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Problems of the Old Testament in Relation to Its Inspiration
Paper · 2001
The attack that comes from inside the church—partial inspiration, which trusts the doctrine while conceding the history and the science. Why the apparent discrepancies don’t warrant the concession.
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Genesis 50 in Three Texts: From Joseph Smith’s Bible to the Inspired Version
Subject Study · 2026
One chapter followed down the actual line of transmission—the 1828 KJV Joseph Smith worked from, the 1831 manuscript, the 1867 Inspired Version—so the changes can be seen for what they were.
The Greek Text and Its Grammar 2
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A Comparison of Important Modern Intermediate and Advanced Grammars of New Testament Greek
Paper · 2005
Burton, BDF, Robertson, Dana and Mantey, Turner, Young, and Wallace—compared on history, intended audience, and arrangement, with a view to which one to reach for when.
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The History of the Study of Greek Grammar
Paper · 2005
Whether the New Testament is written in a “Holy Ghost language”: the purists, the Hebraists, Winer’s philological turn, and what Deissmann’s papyri settled.
Word Studies 5
Eleven in all, from seminary Greek and Hebrew courses; the rest are on the word studies index.
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Word Study · 2002
186 occurrences in the Greek New Testament, sorted into nuances that overlap far more than the English glosses suggest—with a Venn diagram to show how much.
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Word Study · 2004
Only eight occurrences, but two of them load-bearing: John 6:44 and 12:32. Whether the word means “draw” or “drag” decides more than its frequency suggests.
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Word Study on the Synonyms of Sin
Word Study · 2004
The New Testament vocabulary for sin, organized semantically rather than alphabetically—what the spread of roots shows that a concordance count cannot.
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Word Study · 2003
Over 750 occurrences and fifteen distinct KJV renderings. What the word does not mean is “soul” in the sense most English readers hear.
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Word Study · 2003
440 occurrences, usually rendered “forever”—a gloss that imports a philosophical eternality the Hebrew is usually not reaching for.
Background and Archaeology 3
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Archaeology and the New Testament
Paper · 2002
Manuscripts, inscriptions, and cities—what the spade has actually confirmed about the New Testament world, and what it can’t be asked to do.
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The Value of Archaeology for Old Testament Studies
Paper · 2001
The same question a Testament earlier, framed by the Copernicus problem: what to do when evidence from outside the text presses on your reading of it.
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Jewish Institutions in New Testament Times
Paper · 2002
The Samaritans and the scribes—two of the groups whose assumptions the Gospels expect a reader to have already.