Book Review: Interpreting
the Pauline Letters: An Exegetical Handbook by John D. Harvey
This book is the first one in the promising series, Handbooks for New Testament Exegesis
from Kregel (Other planned titles include, Interpreting
Apocalyptic Literature, Interpreting the General Letters, and Interpreting the Gospels and Acts).
The book is very useful for anyone studying the Apostle Paul
(and who isn’t these days?) and his writings. Beginning with an exploration of
genre issues and historical background, the author then moves to analyze Paul’s
theology. Further, he gives practical steps to interpret passages in Paul’s letters,
as well as giving some preaching pointers.
The Chapter At A
Glance and The Chapter In Review
text boxes at the beginning and ending of each chapter will help undergraduate
students on what to expect and also what not to miss. Several charts throughout
the book make the information more intelligible as well.
The Selected Resources are nice but painfully limited. An
amplified Annotated Bibliography would have been great, and in my opinion would
have made this short book (under 200 pages) much more valuable.
To fully profit from the book a basic knowledge of Greek is
highly encouraged, but that is to be expected: How else can one expect to do serious
biblical exegesis?
The book is recommended as a decent exegetical primer to the
Pauline epistles.
Disclosure: The book was
received for free from Kregel Academic & Ministry book review program. The
program does not require a positive review, only a truthful one.
