Customer Reviews

Exegetical Fallacies

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4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

D. A. Carson is research professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. This book began as a series of lectures sponsored by Western Conservative Baptist Seminary in Portland, OR. Carson also explains that much of what went into the lectures, and so now the book, began as part of his notes given in various classes over the years. This is the second edition of the book, which finds it slightly revised and expanded form the previous edition. Carson divides his book into four chapters that deal with various kinds of fallacies and a fifth chapter that offers some concluding thoughts.

The first chapter deals with word-study fallacies. Here, Carson gives a list of the mistakes related to linguistics studies. All of these fallacies occur when interpreters misunderstand the use of certain words by an author. Some involves reading back into the word the meaning of another word which has the original as its root, though the root did not originally mean what its derivative does. For example, while our word `dynamite' may have the Greek 'dunamous' as its root, Paul certainly was not thinking of blasting powder when he spoke of the 'dunamous' [power] of the gospel. Others involve finding a root to words which simply isn't there. For example, we not should interpret the word `butterfly' based on its apparent root words - `butter' and `fly'!

Chapter two examines grammatical fallacies. These sorts of mistakes many times come from basing arguments on the mood or tense of words when the language is more flexible than the one arguing will allow. For example, the aorist tense is often abused by some who insist that it always means an `once for all action' that occurs in the past. Heikki Räisänen makes this mistake when commenting on Romans 3:27.

Logical fallacies are the focus of the third chapter of this book. Here, Carson attacks the erroneous ways in which one justifies the way he or she may interpret Scripture. These can come in one's inability to recognize distinctions, or perhaps draw distinctions where none exist. Still yet, another fallacy can come when one improperly frames the question he is trying to answer. For example, "When did you stop beating your wife?" is a mis-framed question, for almost any answer will get the innocent man in trouble!

The fourth chapter outlines some presuppositional and historical fallacies that often plague exegetes. Some of these mistakes result when one ignores the Bible's storyline. For example, some today would see the Song of Songs as pornographic literature. Obviously, they have missed the point of the book, in part because they have failed to take the plot-line of the Scripture in mind. Some of the historical fallacies that Carson speaks of involve uncontrolled reconstructions of ancient settings, attempted explanations of an author's motive, and the desire to relate the Bible to other disciplines (e.g. sociology or psychology).

Carson has put together an excellent handbook on mistakes to avoid in interpreting Scripture. And while Carson himself sees this book as only being supplemental reading, I think that it should be required reading for anyone who studies (or practices!) hermeneutics and Scripture interpretation. The only critique I have to offer is the book's brevity. I would love to see Carson do yet another revision of the book, elaborating further on the various fallacies he has outlined along with adding a comparable section on positive elements for interpreting Scripture.

Overall, I found Carson's book to be an excellent read. Granted this is not light reading that one would want to take on vacation with him or her, it is a book that repays serious study and contemplation. On a personal note, I was fortunate enough to meet Carson once. When I did, I told him how much this book sacred me when I read it. He made the comment that he supposed the book was not all that "edifying." After reflecting on the short conversation, I think he was wrong. In fact, the book is very edifying because it teaches the reader that he or she is not interpreting just another book, he is handling the Word of God and great care must be taken. The book is edifying in that it reinforces the value of God's Word.

As others have said, this book is short, but Exegetical Fallacies is well worth your effort to learn how to properly exegete scripture. Written in a systematic way, I appreciate the work Carson has done. He is obviously a scholar and makes great points, especially on those texts that preachers massacre to make them say something that they really don't. I appreciated the fact that Carson was not only critical with others' interpretations but some of his own as well. I thought that this was admirable.

My criticism of this book (why it loses a star) is that there are times Carson could have been so much simpler while still saying the same thing. Several times I had to read and then reread his writing, and still I came away confused. No, it wasn't the use of the original languages that gave me problems, but rather just his manner of using awkward works or saying too much without properly expounding. (Could this have been because he was condensing? Probably.) One example is on pages 51ff regarding the use of agapao and phleo in John 21. I understand his point on page 53, but he (at least in my opinion) was most difficult to follow in these pages. (I'm still scratching my head.) While I'm no scholar, I believe that many average and even above average readers could have been serviced better with a clearer presentation in several parts of the book. But still, the book is worth fighting through, so don't let that discourage you.

In a lengthy introduction Carson shows the need for this study, warns of the dangers of this study, and sets the limits of this study. His purpose for writing this book is to cause awareness of common exegetical blunders. He hopes this will provoke the reader to examine his own exegetical practices, causing the reader to both handle God's Word with care and avoid these errors. He points out that it is a focus on the negative, meaning what not to do. The hope is that by knowing what to avoid the reader will be able to make use of the wealth of material available that inform on the methods of exegesis. The author limits his scope to exegesis and not hermeneutics. He aims to write this book at the semi-popular level with the practitioner in mind. Carson addressees a total of forty-eight different exegetical fallacies. He discusses them under four major headings: word-study fallacies (27-64), grammatical fallacies (65-86), logical fallacies (87-124), and presuppositional and historical fallacies (125-136). A fifth chapter is also included which contains some concluding remarks.
Carson, through a no holds barred approach, draws attention to common exegetical fallacies forcing the reader to examine his own exegetical practice. In almost every instance Carson does not simply write about a particular exegetical fallacy but provides a specific illustration of that fallacy. He also provides some advice on how to avoid it in interpretation. No theological school escapes Carson's critique. His index of authors for the most part looks like a who's who of the theological world. He reveals errors of conservatives and liberals, prominent scholars and less prominent ones, his former dean, and even himself twice. This diversity of sources informs the reader that no theological persuasion is void of every fallacy. This is a warning that he should not think he is above the same pitfalls. While this approach can cause the Bible student a little bit of anxiety, as Carson himself warns, it causes the reader to humbly come to the Word of God and desire to correctly handle it. Thus, through a relentless approach of focusing on the negative Carson successfully achieves his main goals.
One weaknesses of the book is Carson vocabulary. He has a big vocabulary, or good thesaurus, and this book shows it. He also uses technical language in spots without any definition or explanation. Seminary students, perhaps, should know the vocabulary and concepts Carson uses. Simplicity and clarity, however, is appreciated even by the most intelligent. Since he had keeping the practitioner from error in mind, simplicity and clarity should have been a priority. The one goal that Carson does not achieve is writing the book at a semi-popular level.
Another weakness of the book is that it might drive one to "discouragement and even despair" (22). He urges the reader in the introduction and conclusion to not be, but this does little to comfort the new practitioner who has seen admirable scholars much more capable than he be torn down or even the veteran that has just realized dozen of errors he has committed.
Carson's tone is at times harsh. He chides Gleason Archer for saying something is clear when Carson had arrived at a different conclusion. Carson says using terms like this is insulting to others. His point is well taken, but the irony is that Carson calls one author "linguistically naive" (70). If saying something is clear is insulting to someone, then what is calling them naive? A little bit of tact would help him keep this book, which already focus on the negative, from becoming discouraging.
This is an excellent book and an enjoyable read. At a little over 140 pages this book is a quick read. Overall it is enjoyable and needed.

This book is a must read for any Christian preacher, teacher, or student. At this book's heart is the necessity of correctly handling the Word of God. Scripture declares that those who become teachers have a greater judgment (James 3:1). In other words, those who seek to handle the Word of God must do so carefully and correctly. Carson writes, "we cannot lightly accept ... laxity in the interpretation of Scripture. We are dealing with God's thoughts: we are obligated to take the greatest pains to understand them truly and to explain them clearly" (p. 15). This book calls us to careful, clear, and correct preaching and teaching of God's most holy Word.

Carson begins by looking at various "word-study fallacies." With words we preach, teach, communicate, and oftentimes confuse, mislead, and destroy. How we use words matters. One of the most common word-study fallacies is what Carson calls "semantic anachronism." This occurs when one takes a modern day use of a word and reads it back into earlier literature. How many preachers have read the meaning of the English word dynamite back into the Greek word dynamis? Such word-study fallacies are all too common in preaching.

Carson continues by examining various "grammatical fallacies." This involves such problems as the ever-abused Aorist tense in biblical Greek. The Aorist refers to an undefined event, which is often misconstrued to refer to an exact moment of time in the past. The meaning and usage of the word must be determined by its usage within the context not through preset categories. As a side note, this chapter is the most Greek intensive. One could follow Carson's thought but much of it would not be extremely helpful unless one knew Greek.

The third chapter looks at common "logical fallacies." He begins by arguing for the universality of logic (something which is hotly disputed today) and then proceeds to list various logical fallacies. While this list is helpful it remains incomplete. For an excellent guide to logical fallacies one should reference S. Morris Engel's "With Good Reason: An Introduction to Informal Fallacies." Throughout this chapter (and all chapters) Carson offers examples from Christian scholarship, which both violate and uphold the rules of logic. The poem "Why Are Fire Engines Red?" is worth the price of the book.

Next, Carson highlights various "presuppositional and historical fallacies." Everyone has baggage (both good and bad) when they approach the Biblical text. These are our presuppositions, which are unavoidable - everyone has them and can't get rid of them. The best thing to do is to recognize one's presuppositions and see how they color one's reading of Scripture. Carson argues that we must seek to distance ourselves from our recognized presuppositions in order to approach the biblical text afresh (a difficult task!). It is just as much a fallacy to read our theology into the text, as it is to assume that we are neutral. Carson also lists a few historical fallacies which expositors who handle a historical text (i.e. the Bible) may be prone to commit.

Carson concludes by listing a few more potential abuses of Scripture. In both the introduction and the concluding paragraphs Carson warns his readers against the pride of knowing and being able to point out fallacies. It is not a tool toward pride, but a guide for humility. He concludes by suggesting our newfound understanding of fallacies to be seasoned with a little self-doubt. We must be able to recognize fallacies others commit but in doing so we must not fail to realize that we may just as easily be committing them unaware. Therefore as expositors of God's Word we must humbly seek to carefully and correctly handle that word.

This is an excellent book and an enjoyable read. At a little over 140 pages this book will be a quick read and will serve as an invaluable reference for life. Scripture encourages us to be as Bereans testing what we hear from others by the Word of God (Acts 17:11). To this end Carson's work offers us one more help in testing what we hear and discerning the true meaning of the Word of God. May we seek to love God with our minds as we carefully and correctly handle his holy Word.

I've been pastoring for about 10 yrs...do sermon prep in the Greek text and try to bring the text in a relevant way to my congregation. This book has a ton of great error checkers for those who work with any Greek at all.

For example, the Root Word fallacy section...Carson deals with issues that have bothered me for a long time. One of the most famous is the AGAPE is a special kind of God's love...that is different from PHILEO. Think with me on this for a minute...if the devil could get pastors to miss the biblical definition on the most important virtue in the bible...then he has shifted their entire ministry off base to a degree. That is what has happened in America today with so many bible teachers/preachers appealing to the Greek meaning of Agape as different from Phileo...

Carson calls the approach a root fallacy...in other words the root meaning of the word reveals the true meaning of the word.
One of his illustrations is "Good-bye" which originally was 'God be with ye'. He points out that no one is thinking today 'God be with ye' when they are saying Good-bye....it is a similar thing to probe for the root meaning of the Greek word and then try to bring a revelation out that 'changes' the translation to something deeper, more spiritual. It's really a twisting of the text into a wrong definition.

Agape is frequently used to describe lots of feelings outside of God's love. The popular teaching that Agape is God's love...that it means unconditional love...whereas Phileo means brotherly love doesn't stand up if you do a basic word study in the bible of the two words. When I was first in the ministry I was stunned to find that word studies in the LXX & GNT did not back up this very popular teaching-that Agape is God's unconditional love...and Phileo is human love...of a lower grade. Almost everyone in my congregation had heard that popular teaching somewhere...either on Christian radio, books, magazines, or TV. But in fact, it seemed that the two words for love were used interchangeably a lot. Not only that...agape is used in one place to describe a rapists feelings for his victim!!!! (This is very hard to believe for people who have only heard the pop definition of agape. But before you give me a poor review for saying this, just check your Greek LXX to see the first use of Agapaw. 2 Samuel 13:4 uses this term, and then describes how he went on to actually rape Tamar). How could that be God's unconditional love? Something is very wrong with the popular teachings on love today.
I discovered this in my own word studies of love and was stunned. Then, I found it referenced in D.A. Carson's book here. Carson makes this point to show how false definitions once popularized can lead to eisegesis unless we do our own homework. It is really kind of scarey when I hear pastors of large evangelical churches and popular radio/tv preachers give false definitions to some of the most important concepts in all of Christianity...and with such apparent authority! So how do we avoid clear error on such important issues as agape love?

To my delight, Carson shows how to identify these sorts of errors. The book is a little hard to understand in some places because he packs so much into each paragraph, but if you find the issue you are working on and read his stuff slowly, it should alter the way you approach God's word (if your approach is flawed).

One really cannot get to a more important issue than dealing with a definition of love...can we?

Some of the criticism about negativity in this book is probably fair...but there is so much linguistic nonsense out there being taught in the name of spirituality, it's tough to deal with it all in a 'positive' way. I just think all pastors should read and more importantly learn to apply this book when doing exegesis for sermons.

Hope you get two copies and give an extra one to a pastor friend.

An outstanding, practical guide to proper Biblical interpretation with vivid, real life examples (including, humbly a few of his own which receive dishonorable burial) of how not to practice exegesis. Unknowingly almost every interpreter of Scripture is doing eisegesis under the guise of exegesis. It is too easy and natural to seek what one is prone to find, rather than just find what one may not be prone to seek. The author makes the excellent observation that God discloses on the basis of our need to know, not out need to want to know. The Bible's purpose is to sanctify the honest inquirer, not satisfy the curious. Should be required reading for all serious Bible students. Hopefully a follow-up volume, updated over the past ten years with many more contemporary examples, can be produced.

This is one fine little all-purpose addition to the pastor, teacher, student or lay-minister's exegetical tool kit. D.A. Carson holds back on no one-including himself! He even points out some fallacies from his own teachings in the past which have been corrected by, can you believe it...his grad students! That alone impressed me, that a scholar of Carson's reputation could admit that he too, has made exegetical errors. He says that we all must be aware of our tendencies towards logical fallacies, misuse of the Biblical languages, blurring context, bringing presuppositions to the passage, etc.

D.A. Carson tears down many sacred cows...pet topics of preachers that I have heard all my life and (ouch) even preached a few! But forewarned is forearmed. This book will make you aware, and cause you not to be paranoid and skeptical, but to use good technique and research in preparation. It's one more step that God gives us in rightly dividing His Word. _Exegetical Fallacies_ is a great tool, and I believe it has enriched my preaching and teaching. I highly recommend it anyone who's ready to study the Word, from the seminary prof to the Sunday School teacher.

Carson's effort here is something of a gem. This little book is filled with sage advice for exegetes and all levels (layman, student, pastor, professor). What makes the book all the more useful is that each concept is concretized via an actual example of someone committing the fallacy under discussion. Carson's comments are generally fair, sober and accurate. Two cautions are in order however: 1) Carson's own presuppositions sometimes show through (he is a mildly Reformed Baptist) in cases of continuity and discontinuity of the Old and New Testaments and his slightly wooden understanding of the grammatical-historical method, and 2) Just because Carson thinks something is a fallacy does not mean that it actually is! His observations here are his, they do not carry the authority of the fallacies commonly identified by the logicians. Hence, one can rightly disagree with Carson and should at a few points. These reservations do not detract from the immense value of this book as a teaching tool (as long as one keeps in mind that the teacher is not infallible) and a great help to interpreters of Scripture.

Many people are keen to be able to read the bible in the original languages, but do not understand how to apply their new-found knowledge.
There are some excellent books to assist in this regard, including Moises Silva's Biblical Words and Their Meaning, Cotterell and Turner's Linguistics and Biblical Interpretation and David Alan Black's Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek, It's Still Greek To Me and Using New Testament Greek in Ministry.

But Don Carson's Exegetical Fallacies is a great start. It is reasonably easy to understand, and shows how language works and how we can easily get tripped up in our efforts to interpret it, in a stimulating and entertaining manner. His book is short, and definitely worth reading a few times.

If you find yourself disagreeing with his conclusions, think carefully about what yours are based on. Is it a great sermon or a cherished theory, or is it based on careful biblical study?

Other thought-provoking books by Carson which give examples of his exegetical method include his "Inclusive Language Debate: a plea for realism,""The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God" and "Showing the Spirit," which is an exposition of 1 Corinthians 12-14.

Carson is bilingual, having been brought up in Canada where he and his father preached in both English and French. He shows how this has helped in his study of language and of the Bible in his book on the inclusive language debate. The insights he has discovered make him well worth reading.

Highly recommended.

<strong>What's the Point of the Book?</strong>
When proving a point in an argument or laying out a thesis based on exegetical research, fallacies arise. They do so (sometimes) innocuously and although they may conclude with a proper understanding they get there the wrong way. Carson's goal is to give people a whiff of the different types of exegetical fallacies that can arise so that people can avoid them, learning to draw conclusions with proper methods.

<strong>The Good?</strong>
The book is short, clocking in at 147 pages sans index. The book is inexpensive: I purchased mine for about eleven bucks. Carson covers fallacies in the areas of word-study, grammar, logic, presupposition and history. Carson touches on several Scriptural portions and common fallacies performed with them. If he uses Greek in the text (thankfully a legible font) he always translates it. Carson recommends plenty of titles to further personal study and even leave you hungering for more.

<strong>The Bad?</strong>
I couldn't really find any bad in the book. The grammatical section becomes a bit medium to hard reading if you're not versed in Greek grammar but to those that persevere you get some really great stuff from this section. I personally read through the section a few times to properly get what he was saying. Maybe the one bad thing is that the book was so short. His final section leaves the door open to even more fallacies (in structuralism and literary genre) but he doesn't dive into it because the book is purposefully not comprehensive.

<strong>The Ugly?</strong>
Nothing. I mean you would think it is ugly to look at fallacies performed by peers and other authors, but the guy has zero pride about it. He actually goes and tears up one of his own pieces showing the fallacies he had committed. If anything were ugly I would say that the jacket has a horrendous design.

<strong>Star Rating</strong>
I would give this book five out of five stars with a recommendation of "must-buy". If Carson ever comes out with a comprehensive book on exegetical fallacies (impossible I know...there are a million ways to do something wrong and then a million more) I would buy it outright.