The Modern Preacher and the Ancient Text: Interpreting and Preaching Biblical Literature

by Sidney Greidanus

A fusion of biblical hermeneutics and homiletics, this thorough and well-researched book offers a holistic contemporary approach to the interpretation and preaching of biblical texts, using all the scholarly tools available and focusing especially on literary features. Greidanus develops hermeneutical and homiletical principles and then applies them to four specific Hebrew narratives, prophetic literature, the Gospels, and the Epistles.

Genres: Theology, Religion, Christian

392 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 1988

About the author

Sidney Greidanus (born 1935) is an American pastor and biblical scholar.

Greidanus studied at Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary before obtaining a Th.D. from the Free University in Amsterdam. He served as pastor in the Christian Reformed Church and taught at Calvin College and The King’s College before becoming professor of preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary in 1990.

Greidanus is best known for his emphasis on preaching Christ from Old Testament texts. He has been described as one of the most important and influential authors today in the area of biblical preaching.

Reviews

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fine book on basic hermeneutics for preaching. I was only disappointed that in his chapters on preaching the various genres of Scripture that he did not provide sample sermons. I think that would have gone a long way to showing the importance of the things he talked about. For those beginning preachers who think that maybe Greidanus provides a short-cut to hitting a home-run sermon every time, you will be disappointed. Preparing and preaching sermons that are faithful to the text of Scripture and relevant to the contemporary congregation is hard work, and there is no getting around it.

[Peter Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent theologically robust book on exegesis and preaching. Here are some things I enjoyed. First, he did a good job of showing the different ways we must exegete the text. He used the terms, literary interpretation, theological interpretation, and historical interpretation. These chapters were particularly fruitful, as he emphasized how each type is necessary. Here he also gleaned a lot from liberal scholars without himself sounding liberal. Second, he is Christ centered without being simplistic about it. Third, he showed how the form of a sermon should arise from the text itself. Fourth, he addressed narrative/story preaching with balance. He showed how this type of preaching can be valid, but can also simply be a repetition of the text. Fifth, he gave some basics on how to preach various parts of the Bible.

A wonderful read that is balanced, deep, and thought provoking. I am looking forward to reading more by him.

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent book about how to deal with problems encountered when preaching from an ancient text. It was very academic, which honestly detracted from the book more than it enhanced it.

[Bryce Klassen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall greatly informative!

Well researched and clearly argued! Great resource for exegetes and preachers alike. However, some of the arguments are overstated, such as the militant position the author takes against “imitational” preaching. The author, like many modern conservative scholars, is a little too fond of “slippery-slope” arguments. While the desire to prevent interpreters from going “too far” in their interpretation (ex. allegorizing) boundaries are then established which the Bible itself does not provide and for which there is no apriori foundation.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was recommended by Dr. Stephen Hague a number of years ago.

It was the first book I finished in 2016, although I started it a number of years ago, and started it a number of times. It was worth the effort. The reason it took so long was no fault of the book, I have had other required reading.

The author has thought deeply about the task of preaching the Bible. The book integrates hermeneutics (the art of Biblical interpretation) and preaching (the art of authoritatively declaring the Word of God). Main ideas I gleaned from the book are:

o There is a tension between what the text meant to the original hearers and what we may mistakenly hear from it. We should stick to the original message as closely as possible. Some concepts must be abstracted in order to make it work.

o There is sometimes more than two time periods we are talking about. It is not just the message to the original hearer and us, sometimes the original recipient is different than when the story took place. Genesis 1-12 are not written for or to the pre-Abrahamic people although that is the topic. Of course depending upon one's school of thought, it is 100's of years difference when it was written but generally no one sees Genesis 1-12 composed at the time the events took place. And there is much debate as to what the original recipients should have been hearing from the text.

o Greidanus reconfirmed for me that the structure of my sermon should follow the same thought or literary structure of the text.

o Greidanus frequently says that we must take great care in selecting the text. I am mystified by this statement since I desire to preach as much of the Bible is practical. I would love to be able to say I preached through the whole Bible, minus some genealogies, tabernacle plans, Temple plans and border plans.

The book has some qualities of a text book, more academically complete and lesson based rather than maintaining momentum on the topic. Although it stalls and repeats, it is worth the work.

[John Weis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Griedanus surveys modern critical methods, and after showing their pitfalls, supplements with more traditional exegetical techniques. He applies that holistic interpretation to the various genres of Biblical texts, showing preachers how to use form, theme, literary, and historical considerations to understand the text in order to apply it to contemporary congregations. His treatment of the various genres, applying his holistic interpretation schema are excellent. Any preacher or student of the Scriptures would find great benefit in these specific chapters.

Griedanus is wonderfully conversant with theologians of various streams - mostly Reformed, evangelical, liberal Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, (even at least one Mormon source) - mining their insights, while rejecting their errors, arriving at a robust, fruitful hermeneutic that would benefit almost any evangelical congregation. This work would be a strong antidote to the manner of teaching which destroys the text, waring either against historicity or reducing the text merely to dogmatic fundamentals.

While helpful overall, the book is weak in a small number of areas.

Though every other genre was surveyed, apocalyptic literature, though cited as a specific genre, is completely absent (pg 23). To that end, the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Daniel, are absent, and Ezekiel and Revelation are barely mentioned at all. This is especially troubling, as those are often the most difficult sections to preach.

And although Greidanus highlights the sensus plenoir as a helpful component of theological interpretation, there is a seemingly unsubstantiated wariness against allegory, symbol, and typological reading throughout the rest of the work (pg 111-112). There seems to be no thorough treatment of the Old Testament and New Testament together. An example of this in the last chapter on the epistles, in the section of Theological Interpretation, on "The Context of the Canon", there is no mention of understanding the epistles in the light of the Old Testament scriptures at all.

[Sam Sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book immensely helpful. The great use of this book is its combination of hermeneutics and homiletics. It provided a healthy balance between academic discussion and practical application. It calls for “holistic interpretation” of Scripture, that is, employing literary interpretation, historical interpretation, and theological interpretation. There were good examples throughout as the author applied this three-fold hermeneutic to the various genres of Scripture.

[Jared Lovell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book overall. I found the greatest value to be found in the first few chapters which cover literary, historical, and theological interpretation. However, the book tends to serve as a broad overview of the topic and discusses pitfalls and excesses to avoid without really commending a unified approach to handling texts. The one thing I did not care for so much is how much of the text is actually quotes from many other sources. The author does not have much in the way of original material to write. It is rare to read through two or three consecutive lines on a page before you run into a citation from another author who has written a preaching manual. For that reason, the bibliography of the book may be the most valuable portion.

[Ezra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thorough and careful, this book is a worthy blend of homiletics and hermeneutics - two topics that so helpfully go together. Greidanus lays all the groundwork of discussing textual criticism and suchlike before building towards what good exegesis for preaching looks like. He finishes with 4 chapters on preaching specific biblical genres (Hebrew narrative for example) which were really useful and highly dip-able. Tone-wise it was just the right weight to be challenging and brain-stretching without flattening me with copious technicalities.

Highly recommended.

[Landon Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greidanus' work has been very helpful to me as a preacher. This book is a detailed guide to preaching, interpretation, and sermon development. At points he interacts with other ideas and authors, and these interactions may or may not be of interest to all preachers. My favorite part of the book was chapter 9-12 where Greidanus walks his read through preaching Old Testament narrative, prophetic literature, the gospels, and the epistles. Quite helpful.

[David Bruyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid combination of hermeneutics and exposition, with a special focus on the forms and features of the text. More academic than some might like, it still retains a practical focus on delivering comprehensible and relevant sermons.

[Nicholas Abraham · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful book on hermeneutics with a preaching emphasis.

[Ben Sibley]

Partial.

[Justin Heck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Need to read this one again slower. It is referenced so often in a lot of other preaching books. Makes me feel like I rushed through it and didn't glean as much as I could have. So the 3 star rating is susceptible to change.

[Luís Branco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trata-se de um grande livro, muiro bem escrito e embasado. É muito mais que uma hermenêutica e homilética, é quase uma introdução ao Antigo e Novo Nestamento. Uma leitura cativante!