Biblical Exegesis: Discovering the Meaning of Scriptural Texts

by John Piper

Seminar available in .pdf form

Genres: Theology, Christian

32 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as senior pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary (B.D.), and the University of Munich (D.theol.). For six years, he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem.

John is the author of more than 50 books and more than 30 years of his preaching and teaching is available free at desiringGod.org. John and his wife, Noel, have four sons, one daughter, and twelve grandchildren.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Polly Tjihenuna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about the fundamentals of Biblical Exegesis. Not an in depth look at the subject (only 34 pages) but general scoping that whets the appetite to acquire more skill and resources in the area. Love John Piper :)

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sections are as follows.
1 - Goals. Why exegete etc. The affect we aim for on the heart.
2 - Procedures. Advocates use of original sources, with encouragements to know Greek (suggesting it's so exciting to exegete that you'll want to drink from the original source) though there's no mention of Hebrew.
3 - Coordinate Relationships Between Propositions (Non-Supportive)
4 - Subordinate Relationships Between Propositions (Supportive)
5 - Some illustrations - This explains a method of analysing a text where you try and graph the flow/arguments etc. I think it's called arcing - as you draw arcs above the text connecting things. It seems good, as we must be systematic in making sure we understand what's being said rather than jumping to forming our own opinions based on a superficial understanding. If this is to be read, you'll probably need to practice the method as you learn it. Otherwise there's too much information to learn.
6 - Special Problems in Finding the Propositions
7 - The Role of Meditation - having figured out what's actually being said, digest it.

Some quotes:
P3: "There is nothing magical about this method. It is simply designed to slow us down, let the author invite us into his world, and follow his train of thought."
P3: "Biblical theology leads to doxology!"
P4: "The Scriptures aim to affect our hearts and change the way we feel about God and his will."
P5: "The manger and the cross were not sensational. Neither are grammar and syntax. But that is how God chose to reveal himself."
P6: "good exegesis becomes a very humbling task. It demands that our own ideas take second place."
P28: "The whole aim of arcing is to find the one main thing each literary unit is saying and to discover how the rest of the unit functions to support or unfold it." - i.e. It's about getting to the point of the passage.

I think this should be freely available on the DesiringGod website.

[Rex Blackburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great! Punchy, to the point, motivating, and--perhaps most importantly in a work like this--informative. Piper clearly and concisely introduces readers to the concept known as "arcing." Not only does he demonstrate a technique, he plies it for the application of Scripture (as is his custom). Stellar's introduction was helpful as well. If you have a friend that's trying to learn how to "arc" Scripture, Piper's short digital work would be a good resource.

[Mike Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a pithy little book on exegesis by Piper. The first section gives a philosophy of exegesis, and is filled with potential “Piperisms” — statements that are generally true, but have a hint of overstatement baked into them. The bulk of the booklet is spent on “arcing,” a method for understanding the logic of epistolary writings. Piper does well explaining the subject.

[Peter Sontag · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction into the Bible study method of arcing. Bible arc.com gives a software to use this method. Any Bible study leader, discipler, or community group leader should learn this method.