Interpreting the Pauline Letters: An Exegetical Handbook

by John D. Harvey (Editor)

The inaugural volume in the Handbooks for New Testament Exegesis series, "Interpreting the Pauline Letters" begins by exploring the components of narrative--setting, characterization, and plot--and then develops the foremost theological themes in each of the books traditionally ascribed to Paul. The method sets the task of exegesis within the literary context of first-century letters as well as the theological context of major themes present in Paul's letters. The book goes beyond exegesis to discuss strategies for communicating the central truthesof Paul's first-century messages to a twenty-first-century audience. Each chapter includes a list of helpful resources to the step of interpretation discussed. A glossary defining technical words and samples of moving from exegesis to proclamation make this guide practical and user-friendly. Designed as a handbook for seminary and graduate students, the book provides a go-to guide that will also serve seminary-trained pastors, upper-level college students, and well-motivated lay people. As readers work through this handbook, they will begin to see and interpret the narrative writings as Paul intended them to be understood.

Genres: New Testament

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2012

About the author

Dr. John D. Harvey is Dean and Professor of New Testament at Columbia International University Seminary & School of Ministry in Columbia, SC. He earned his Doctor of Theology degree from Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. His previous books include Listening to the Text: Oral Patterning in Paul’s Letters, Greek is Good Grief: Laying the Foundation for Exegesis and Exposition, and Anointed with the Spirit and Power: A biblical theology of Holy Spirit Empowerment. He is an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church in America and is actively involved in pulpit supply. He has served cross-culturally in Europe and Africa.

Reviews

[Timothy Decker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better suited for undergrad level than seminary. However, knowledge of seminary level classes are expected. Felt imbalanced, but greatly appreciated the homiletcal concluding chapter. Studying Paul is for the benefit of the church.

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author takes on a great challenge, to provide an exegetical handbook for the Pauline letters. In fact, provides more than an exegetical handbook, including isagogical, hermeneutics, and initial sermon preparation. And he succeeds in this task.

Overview

Chapter 1 Genre of Paul’s Letters: Harvey sets Paul’s letters into the first century context that includes the oral, rhetorical and literary environments. This is helpful because of the shift taking place in the 1st century between the first and third environments. He offers comparisons to other letters, distinguishing between literary, official, private letters, noting that Paul’s reflect family type letters.

In Chapter 2 (“Historical Background”) Harvey provides a brief overview of each letter. Then he lays out a timeline based of Paul’s writings and compares that with a timeline based on Acts. He considers those points which seem to be referenced in both, then9780825427671 explores the issues related to any such matching. Harvey presents an extremely helpful table showing the matching comparison (pp. 69-71).

In Chapter 3 the author surveys Paul’s theology. He present four major themes: 1) two spheres “in Adam” and “in Christ,” 2) “faith in Christ” transfers a person from one sphere to the other, 3) common themes in five groupings of Paul’s letters, and 4) the model of “coherence and contingency” is used to understand the theology. The explanations are direct, and neatly summarized in table form for each section (pp. 81, 83, 84, 88). It seems a little surprising that the 4th area of interest is presented by each letter rather than by theological concept. Nevertheless the the information is helpful for the exegetical task.

Although Chapter 4 (“Preparing to Interpret”) is a relatively short chapter, Harvey provides a helpful overview of resources and tools to examine and understand the text. In essence, this is a quick review of textual criticism and the hermeneutical process. He then reviews the process of determining what the text means: 1) comparing English versions, 2) Working with interlinears, 3) translating the passage. The only criticism on this is that since the book is primarily for seminary students and pastors, it would make sense to reverse the order. He briefly addresses semantics and syntax. He follows with a sample exercise demonstrating the points covered in the chapter. I particularly like that he poses questions of the text and how each part should be resolved in terms of translation.

Chapter 5 (“Interpreting Passages”) seemed redundant at first perusal, offering similar material earlier in chapters. However, he ties together the earlier historical details into the textual study. Further, he moves into the literary analysis of the text. Under “General Context” he urges a synthetic study to get a big picture for a framework to study the text appropriately. He illustrates that with an appropriate table showing the overall framework for Ephesians. Then he provides a structure of the specific passage under consideration (p. 135). He concludes with a short review of three theological tools: the analogy of Scripture, the analogy of faith, and use of the Old Testament in the New Testament.

Conclusion

Overall this is a helpful book. Not having read any other volumes in the series, since this was an exegetical handbook I was not expecting isagogical material or sermon material. Nevertheless, the approach worked well.

At times I sensed a lack of filling in the gaps for the beginning exegete. For instance, in one section he writes: “It seems unlikely, however,…” (p. 68), which leaves the student wondering “why is it unlikely?” A further exploration of why the author thought it unlikely would have been helpful. Likewise, on p. 138, he states “Those twelve uses fall naturally into three categories of meaning…” The question arises, does the student know this? Is this based on lexical studies (BDAG, GEL, or something else) or is it based on the author’s experience?

However, despite these minor annoyances, Harvey is to be commended for providing a solid resource for the beginning exegetical student, and a good review for pastors. Initially I thought that the “be-all-to-all” approach of combining isagogical, hermeneutical, exegetical, and homiletical elements serves to detract from the focus on exegesis, the intended purpose. But after further study of the book and reassessing the stated purpose of the series, I find that this book is a worthwhile contribution to the exegetical task.

There are several editing errors in the book, very uncharacteristic of Kregel; I supplied the list directly to Kregel.

Note: Thanks to Kregel Academic & Professional for the review copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is part of the Handbooks for New Testament Exegesis series published by Kregel Publications. Previously I have enjoyed the work on interpreting Apocalytpic literary forms by Richard Taylor very much and was looking forward to this volume largely because of it. I was also excited for this volume since I have been teaching pastors and seminarians how to exegete and study the Word of God for the purpose of expository preaching specifically with New Testament Epistles. So this handbook on interpreting Pauline Epistles is timely!
The book is divided into seven chapters. The book begin with a discussion about the genre of Paul’s letter. Chapter two is on the historical background of Paul’s letter and next is a chapter on the theology of Paul’s letter. Chapter four is “Preparing to Interpret Paul’s letter” that touches on the topic of New Testament textual criticism followed by a chapter on “Interpreting Passages in Paul’s letter.” Chapter six is on the homiletics of preaching Paul’s letters and then chapter seven gives us two examples of the work of exegesis up to the final produce of the sermon. Following this last chapter is a section on selected sources.
My favorite chapters of the book are chapters four and five which is the actual bread and butter of exegesis. I felt this book went a long time on background and theology of Paul’s epistles; those are great and important, but it was only on page one hundred did we finally get to the approach of looking at a Pauline passage. But once the author dived into it, it was very good (hence I gave this book a rating of five out of five). I do think reading this that this book assume the readers know Greek already. This can be a drawback with the book if a reader isn’t seminary trained or lack knowledge of Greek grammar. The chapter on preaching Pauline passages was also great and helpful though I probably do things a little different than suggested. Still it was good to read about how others prepare sermons and engage in homiletics.
Overall I enjoyed this volume so much that I desire to also want to read the volume on interpreting the Gospels and Acts next.

[Michael Boling · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Pauline letters form the majority of the New Testament text so understanding how to properly approach and interpret them is truly a must for any serious student of Scripture. Part of doing proper biblical exegesis involves a proper understanding of concepts such as genre, history, language, and literary analysis. This of course does not mean that if one is not versed in the nuances of these concepts they will somehow not be able to understand what Paul is saying. What it does mean is in order to approach an in depth analysis of the Pauline corpus, having a grasp of how these letters are presented, some background on what and who Paul was writing to are just a few things one should study. Professor John Harvey, in his book Interpreting the Pauline Letters efforts to provide the reader with a useful guide to do just that.

At first glance, Harvey’s book bears a striking resemblance in scope to another Kregel product, Lars Kierspel’s Charts on the Life, Letters, and the Theology of Paul. Both books engage a number of similar topics, however, unlike Kierspel’s book which is all charts, Interpreting the Pauline Letters helps the reader grasp some rather difficult ideas due to his salient and scholarly discussion. For example, Harvey spends a great deal of time at the outset of his book explaining the differences in how people obtained and learned information, in particular the importance of oral communication. Furthermore, he notes that not everyone in the first century, especially in the Greek culture was illiterate. There was certainly the ability on the part of many to read and comprehend, thus one of the reasons for understanding why Paul wrote letters and the reality that these letters were likely read aloud.

I also found helpful the explanation of how the Pauline letters compared to other letters of the same period, namely in their structure and length. Harvey notes similarities include “(a) the overall form of introduction, body, and closing; (b) the features of relationship, dialogue, and presence; (c) the purposes of informing, requesting, exhorting, and commanding; and (d) the use of formulaic language.” In regards to differences, he notes “length, complexity, and flexibility” with the idea of flexibility describing Paul’s ability to adapt the format of his letters to the particular need or audience he was addressing. Some may view this type of information as dry and overly academic and to some degree that is maybe true. However, this type of background information is very relevant and helpful to understanding the overall structure of the Pauline letters. This can be seen in Harvey’s charts that compare and contrast the structure of the twelve Pauline letters. It is indeed interesting to see how each letter is structure to include the similarities and differences in each.

Harvey does an excellent job of engaging the background that likely drove Paul to write each letter. This is very important information as understanding the historical time period, the cities to which the churches Paul was writing to resided at as well as the general milieu shed abundant light on the actual content of each Pauline letter. To avoid engaging this is to essentially avoid studying the very root of the subject matter, the who, what, when, where, why if you will of Paul’s letters. Harvey divides the Pauline corpus into three main categories: The Missionary Letters (Galatians, 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Corinthians, Romans); The Imprisonment Letters (Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians, Philippians); and the Pastoral Letters (1-2 Timothy, Titus). He rightly notes “Nine of Paul’s letters address a church or group of churches. Each congregation lived and worshipped in a specific locale and faced specific challenges…it is important to interpret Paul’s letters in the context to which they were written.” Thus the reason to pay close attention to the background of each letter, something Harvey does an excellent job of exploring.

Another excellent aspect of Interpreting the Pauline Letters is the engagement of the overall theology of the Pauline corpus. Harvey aptly comments “For Paul, there are only two spheres of human existence: every person is either “in Adam” or in Christ” sometimes described as a comparison between the old man and the new man. Interestingly, the phrase “in Christ” occurs 172 times in Paul’s letters which should cause any exegete to give notice to that concept as having great importance for Paul. Along these same lines, the transfer from the old man to the new man occurs at the point of salvation, a fulcrum point if you will that engages grand theological terms such as justification, propitiation, reconciliation, and adoption. These terms are replete in the Pauline corpus and represent some very core and foundational theology. Harvey’s exegesis of these terms is truly outstanding. He does a wonderful job walking the reader through some rather complex theology referring to Paul’s letters throughout.

Another highlight of this section was the overview of the major themes of each of Paul’s letters. A thematic approach to exegeting Scripture is valuable to grasping the overall thrust of the issues Paul was addressing. For example, Philippians has often the letter of joy due to its constant reference to the idea of joy. Ephesians speaks of ideas such as the church being the body. Regardless of the specific theme, each Pauline letter constantly returns to the overarching theme mentioned by Harvey as being the transfer from being “in Adam” to “in Christ.” Harvey cogently states “That transfer involves a radical change from one sphere of existence to another and is so significant that Paul must use multiple terms to picture it.”

Interpreting the Pauline Letters by John Harvey is an excellent tool for both scholar and layman alike. Exegeting Paul’s letters truly takes a lifetime of study so any book that breaks down the sometimes complicated themes presented by Paul into easily digestible bits of information is something worth reading. Harvey’s effort fits this need. Scholarly, yet accessible, in-depth yet not overwhelming, this book will provide the reader with a wealth of information that will both whet and satisfy your appetite for studying the Pauline letters. I highly recommend this book and I look forward to the future volumes on tap in this series from Kregel Academic.

I received this for free from Kregel Academic for this review. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

[Craig Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second only to the Gospels, the thirteen letters of Paul are comprise some of the most discussed, debated and studied books in the New Testament. Having written nearly half of the NT himself, Paul covers a broad scope of both theological and practical subjects. If the new perspective on Paul has shown us anything it is that a basic understanding of Pauline theology, philosophy, methodology, etc. is built on a proper exegetical method and tools.

It is towards this goal of providing basic exegetical tools for interpreting the letters of Paul that John D. Harvey has written Interpreting the Pauline Letters: An Exegetical Handbook in the new Handbooks for New Testament Exegesis published by Kergel. This is the first of four volumes to be written by Harvey the others of which are Interpreting the Gospels and Acts, Interpreting the General Letters and Interpreting the Apocalypse. The goal of this series of books is to provide seminary students with a textbook on all the NT books who have already had one year of Greek. However, since the English translation is also provided along with the Greek text, non-Greek students can still benefit greatly from these books.

Background for Interpreting Paul’s Letters

As is typical for books like this, Harvey begins by looking at the genre of Paul’s letters. Paul writes his letters against the backdrop of a culture that placed a high price on oral and rhetorical skills as well as literary. By utilizing the letter form of writing Paul is able to address multiple people at once with the intention of dispersing the letter once the original recipients have read it. Harvey does a great job showing the similarities and differences between Paul’s letters and that of the Greek culture. One of the noticeable differences being that Paul’s letters are much longer than average and he covers many topics in a single letter (29). Harvey provides the reader with a most helpful chart which breaks down each of Paul’s letters into their overall literary structure (32-33).

Following genre, Harvey turns to the historical context of Paul’s letters by providing a short yet comprehensive outline of the historical flow of each book by itself and all thirteen as a whole. Harvey briefly and satisfactorily tackles the historicity, or, integrity, of each book and especially addresses the issues surrounding 2 Corinthians and Philippians (51-54). Concerning the historical flow of Paul’s letters Harvey presents the method based on Paul’s letters alone versus the book of Acts. Noting that a chronological sketch of Paul’s ministry as extracted from his letters alone is difficult, he leans towards Acts to provide a more full chronology stating, “The book of Acts provides a connected account of Paul’s ministry.” (67) Essentially, Harvey walks through the books three times: first, through the letters themselves establishing the chronology, then briefly through Acts and finally through the letters once again focusing on the historical background of each letter.

Moving to the theology of Paul’s letters we come to perhaps the pinnacle of Harvey’s work. After briefly presenting the various methods of outlining Paul’s theology Harvey suggests that the primary way in which to dissect Paul’s theology is through antithetic (80). With this in mind, the primary antithesis that characterizes Paul’s theology is that of being “in Adam” or “in Christ.” These constitute the two spheres of human existence. It is from this antithesis that Harvey delves into much of Paul’s theology such as justification, propitiation, adoption, faith and the church. With the big picture of Paul’s theology in mind Harvey then walks through each of Paul’s letters and highlights their distinctive theological contributions to Paul’s overall theology. Harvey has a lot of good content here and some readers will wish he had developed some Pauline themes a bit more to their satisfaction.

Process for Interpreting Paul’s Letters

With Paul’s theology behind him Harvey begins to move into the area of interpretive tools. First he discusses textual criticism. The eclectic, reasoned and conservative approaches to textual criticism are discussed along with a synopsis of the various text theories. Harvey walks the reader through a detailed process of utilizing various linguistic tools for determining both the original text of Paul’s letters but also their correct translation. He gives a six step process for translating the text and provides a solid list of accompanying resources to aid in translation work.

After translation work comes contextual considerations such as historical, literary and theological context. Historically there are issues to address such as how daily life was viewed or what might it mean to be a Roman citizen. Also, it is important to know who the rulers were at the time and what each of the cities were like that Paul visited and wrote letter to. With some repetition, but mostly new information, Harvey revisits the literary and theological aspects of Paul’s letters as it pertains to interpreting them. Throughout he provides a wealth of other books and resources to aid in this task.

The final two chapters deal with crafting a sermon for preaching Paul’s letters and Harvey provides two passages to serve as examples of how it might be done. Harvey lays out a three step to the exposition of a text: synthesis of the passage, appropriation to the hearers and homiletical packaging for how the passage bears on my life. The two examples in chapter seven really bring home the three step process Harvey lays out and will benefit anyone. The final chapter provides a list of resources under headings such as Greek text editions, textual criticism references, NT theology books as well as commentaries for all of Paul’s letters. There is also a helpful glossary of all of the terms in bold throughout the book with a once sentence definition

With the inaugural volume of the Handbook for New Testament Exegesis there is no doubt that these four volumes will quickly become one of the most used books by students, teachers and pastors for their target use. Interpreting the Pauline Letters will find its place next to Thomas Schreiner’s already popular Interpreting the Pauline Epistles as a perfect complimentary book. If one can master the content in Harvey’s book then they will be well on their way to gaining an impressive grasp of most of the NT.

NOTE: I received this book for free from The Good Book Company through Cross Focused Media in exchange for my honest review. I was under no obligation to provide a favorable review. The words and thoughts expressed are my own.

[Bob Hayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The life of a pastor is busy. Hectic may be a better word. And in the 21st Century, the pace of life has quickened for everyone while the expectations for what a pastor must do have only increased. Fortunately, there is an abundance of books and resources designed to give the pastor or teacher a helping hand. "Interpreting the Pauline Letters" by John D. Harvey, will prove not only helpful but indispensable in the study of the Pauline Epistles.

The book is an exegetical handbook designed to prepare the pastor, teacher or student for an intensive study through Paul’s letters. But it doesn’t stop there. Harvey’s intent is not merely to educate about the historical background of these treasured NT epistles. He aims to facilitate a pastoral application of the Word for today’s hearers. To that end, the book includes a section on how to craft an expositional sermon as well as two examples where Harvey walks through all the steps in preparing a sermon on a text from one of Paul’s letters.

The book begins with a study of the genre of Paul’s letters, comparing Paul’s writing with formal and informal letter styles from the ancient world. Harvey draws careful, balanced conclusions from a comparison of the structure of all of Paul’s letters and explains the function of various sub-units of Paul’s letters. In this chapter, I was introduced to the terms “apostolic parousia” and “apostolic apologia” which play an important role in Paul’s letters and have commonalities with other ancient letters. He also looks at the role rhetoric plays in Paul’s letters. I found his thoughts on the genre to be instructive and not overblown: a helpful survey to keep in mind as one approaches Paul’s letters.

Next Harvey surveys the historical background of Paul’s writings. This section was perhaps the most fascinating. The conservative pastor will be appreciative that the arguments for and against Paul’s authorship of all the traditional Pauline epistles are briefly surveyed and a defense of Pauline authorship – even of the pastoral epistles, is presented. He defends Pauline authorship well but in a cursory manner. He then argues for the integrity of the epistles as we find them in Scripture – 2 Corinthians and Philippians in particular are discussed. He then attempts to build a chronology of the historical background for Paul’s letters from a study of just the letters themselves. He compares this with what we find in Acts and finds complementarity not disharmony. He presents an interesting argument for Philippians being the last of Paul’s letters, but presents the traditional view as well. He is careful not to base too much on historical reconstructions where the evidence is slim. Harvey shines in this section as he navigates the reader through the ins and outs of Pauline scholarship.

The handbook continues with a section on Paul’s theology, which emphasizes “the great transfer” from darkness to light, from being in the world to being in Christ, from Satan’s dominion to the power of God. He traces a theology of each of the letters as well. He only briefly discusses “covenantal nomism” and the New Pauline Perspective, arguing for a traditional view. This in my view is the book’s biggest weakness. By only briefly surveying that issue, and by brief I mean about a half page, the handbook is perhaps more acceptable by a wider audience, but it is less helpful for the busy pastor who wants to know more about this important Pauline question.

The book then moves away from a laser focus on Paul’s epistles to a more generic approach to studying Scripture. Textual criticism and translation are discussed, with several approaches for busy teachers – from comparing translations to doing you own translation from the Greek text (advocated as the best approach). In this section I was pleased to see the Majority Text view of Byzantine priority given equal treatment with the prevailing preference for Alexandrian manuscripts. Most works of this scholarly nature hardly give the Byzantine perspective any mention at all. It is almost a certainty that for conservative pastors, the question of Byzantine priority will come up. Harvey attempts to be even-handed even while ultimately siding with the majority scholarly opinion. After focusing on translation and defining the text to be studied, he gives a general study of how to interpret passages synthetically. He focuses on historical, lexical/linguistic, and theological analyses in a brief but helpful way. The historical analyses was redundant for this book and a bit distracting in my perspective, but everything else was quite useful.

In the next section, Harvey focused on homiletics and how to build a sermon using deductive or inductive patterns. Like the previous sections on translation and interpretation, the examples were from Paul’s epistles but the content was broad and applicable to all of the New Testament. It is here that he also focuses on applying the text to the 21st Century.

In the final section he provides two case-studies applying all the tools, starting with textual criticism and translation of the text, to historical study, literary/linguistic analysis, syntactical study, theological analysis, appropriation, and homiletical packaging. Walking the reader through his method helps bring the whole book together.

I was impressed with how useful and accessible this handbook was for the average reader. It will benefit lay teachers and pastors alike. While it doesn’t cover everything I would like, it is a fine resource which stays faithful to a conservative approach to Scripture. This book is one of a series produced by Kregel Publications: the “Handbooks for New Testament Exegesis.” There is also an OT set of handbooks as well. I’ll be wanting to collect the entire set after my time spent reading through this example. I encourage you to check out this helpful series as well.

Disclaimer: This book was provided by Kregel Publishers. The reviewer was under no obligation to offer a positive review.

[Philip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harvey provides an insightful overview of the canonical Pauline corpus, explaining their genre, historical backgrounds, theology, interpretational best practices, and preaching best practices. The book addresses several unique angles, no doubt due to Harvey's own specialties, related to oral patterning in Paul's letters and epistolary analysis. His handling of Paul's chronology starting with his letters and working backward to the Book of Acts is insightful. I highly recommend this work for students in undergraduate classrooms or early in their Masters work. It pairs well with Schreiner's "Interpreting the Pauline Epistles," which addresses other features of the Pauline corpus and goes deeper into grammatical analysis.

[Isaac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok. Not amazing, but ok. Handy. Left me wanting something better though.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The apostle Paul is baffling to many. Who hasn’t puzzled over what Paul meant in Romans 9-11? John Harvey, Professor of New Testament and Dean of the Seminary & School of Ministry at Columbia International University, has written a short volume to help us understand Paul’s epistles. Interpreting the Pauline Letters: An Exegetical Handbook, takes students, seminarians and pastors through Paul’s letters, highlighting pertinent background information and helping us get from ‘exegesis to exposition.’

Harvey’s eight chapters walk us through the whole process of exegesis of these letters. The first three chapters give a general overview. In chapter one, Harvey provides background on the ‘genre’ and structure of Paul’s letters. Chapter two gives a bird’s eye view of the historical context for each of the epistles. In chapter three he examines themes in Paul’s theology (organized with reference to Paul’s own vocabulary rather than imposing a structure from systematic theology).

In chapter four and five, Harvey unfolds the steps for his exegetical approach. The first step to proper interpretation is textual criticism and translation (chapter four). This helps us establish what the text says and what it means. As we begin the work of interpreting the text, we will need to look at the passage historically, literary and theologically (chapter five) Each of these spheres informs our understanding of the text. Historical analysis helps us understand the social context of Paul and his original audience. Literary Analysis illuminates structural and generic elements, as well as gets us to pay attention to rhetorical features and syntax. Finally, theological analysis helps us articulate how this passage makes sense in relationship to the Bible’s wider themes (the analogy of scripture) and doctrine (analogy of faith)(140-1).

Chapter six and seven discuss how to communicate the message of the passages we are exegeting. Chapter six describes how to move from the ‘big idea’ in the passage to how to relate it to a contemporary context. Chapter seven gives two case studies of how this approach works from ‘text to sermon.’ The final chapter provides a list of resources and commentaries for understanding Paul’s letters.

This is a constructive guide and Harvey’s exegetical steps correspond well to the approach I learned in seminary. I found this text simple to understand, and I thought he did a good job of describing the elements of good exegesis. I really like his three lenses on the text: history, literature, and theology. Harvey demonstrates the importance of understanding history, and literature for exegesis and highlights aspects of ‘theological analysis, especially as it relates to Paul (i.e. the Old Testament use in the New).

For me, a book on interpretation of the Bible is only ‘good,’ if I feel like it is worth putting into practice. The next time I am preaching from Paul’s letters, I will refer back to this book. I especially found helpful, Harvey’s succinct background on Greek and Jewish Epistles and how Paul’s letters fit the pattern (and where they are unique). I think his exegetical approach is spot on; however I felt like he could have explored more in-depth what theological analysis entails (i.e. what weight do we ascribe to patristic sources or historical theology?).

That small criticism aside, this is an introductory book on Pauline exegesis and does not attempt to untwist every issue in interpreting Paul’s letters. What it does is give a framework for us to dig deeper into the text ourselves. I give this book four stars and recommend it for pastors and students alike.

Thank you to Kregel Academic for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Focusing on Paul's letters, but not on any one of his letters in particular, this book is basically a recourse for studying Biblical letters. Harvey delves into proper methods of researching the text, its variants, and the historical background of the time of Paul. He also gives recommended steps in studying the original Greek and advise as to how it can be presented.

I particularly liked Harvey's summary/overview of Paul's teachings throughout his letters. When dealing with Paul's speaking of the change that takes place at salvation, quoting 2Cor. 5:17, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come' he explains, "That statement points to something far greater than a minor shift in belief or behavior; it describes nothing less than a total transfer from one sphere of existence to another." I also liked his overview of the backgrounds of each place to which Paul wrote his letters.

What I didn't like was that Harvey didn't seem like a big advocate for verse-by-verse/book-by-book preaching. Not that he was absolutely against it, but he seemed to be advocating focusing on people's needs and applying the scripture to those, which might bring about more of a selective approach to the Scriptures. Don't we discover our needs from God's Word? Not our felt needs necessarily, but our true needs, whether we feel a need for them or not. Perhaps I would add the word duties, and not merely "needs" but 'must-knows'(which isn't really a word), so how about 'imperatives'? These things may be what Mr. Harvey meant, but isn't a verse-by-verse/book-by-book approach the best way to discover all of our needs and duties, in the correct order we're supposed to deal with them and all of the instruction pertaining to them?

But overall, I think that this was a good 'handbook'. It gives a good amount of background information and summaries. Also, the chapters on translating and interpreting the passages from the Greek are handy. I think that it is a good overview of Paul's letters.

Thanks to Kregel Academic for sending me a free review copy of this book!(My review did not have to be favorable)

[Kevin Sorensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a previous review, I commended that book, but not to everyone. Kregel Academic, along with author John Harvey, let you know right from the start that Interpreting the Pauline Letters: An Exegetical Handbook is not for everybody. It is primarily for a first year seminary student or beyond. It will take at least a first year Greek student's best work to have a working knowledge of the Greek language to benefit most from Harvey's work.

That said, Interpreting the Pauline Letters is a fine book. It will prove helpful, not only to seminary students, but to pastors who take their study of the Word seriously. It's not always easy, as a solo pastor of a church, to find the time to dig deep like this. However, it helps when a book such as this comes along, laden with tools, charts and graphs. The organization of the book is quite helpful in this regard. Each chapter gives a strong overview of the need to understand…

• the genre of Paul's letters
• the historical background of Paul's letters
• the theology of Paul's letters
• the interpretation of Paul's letters
• the communication of Paul's letters through preaching

Then, along with two texts (Colossians 3.1–4 and Philippians 3.12–16), Harvey shows how to 'put it all together' and get the pastor ready to preach from Paul's letters. Each chapter begins with 'A Glance at the Chapter', ends with a summary of what the chapter has covered, along with another chart that reviews the primary aim of that chapter.

Having been long since removed from the seminary classroom, this work pressed me a bit, but all in a good way. Harvey shows why it's important to be serious about the exegesis of Scripture. Interpreting the Pauline Letters is good motivation to keep my sleeves rolled up as I prepare to preach each Lord's Day.

If you're a third- or fourth-year college student or a seminary student with at least one year's worth of Greek language study under your belt or a pastor who needs to refresh his knowledge and understanding of such subjects, this book is for you.

[Simdumise Poswa · Rating 5 out of 5]

John D. Harvey Harvey has written a great handbook on Pauline Exegesis. He covers the genre of Paul's books, historical background, the theology of Paul's epistles, preparing to interpret Paul, Interpreting passages, communicating them and moving from text to sermon. The book is very comprehensive and covers everything from exegesis to exposition. I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in studying Pauline letters.

[Cliff · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Jason Gardner · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my review at http://eisdoxan.wordpress.com/2013/07...