Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader

Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture 1st Ed. Edition

by Peter J. Leithart (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 17 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-1602580695
ISBN-10: 1602580693
Why is ISBN important?
ISBN
This bar-code number lets you verify that you're getting exactly the right version or edition of a book. The 13-digit and 10-digit formats both work.
Scan an ISBN with your phone
Use the Amazon App to scan ISBNs and compare prices.
Trade in your item
Get a $3.59
Gift Card.
Trade in
Learn More
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Buy new
$26.96
Only 15 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it Friday, Aug. 19? Order within and choose this date at checkout.
List Price: $29.95 Save: $2.99 (10%)
34 New from $22.72
FREE Shipping.
Deep Exegesis: The Myster... has been added to your Cart
Ship to:
Select a shipping address:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or
More Buying Choices
34 New from $22.72 24 Used from $18.97
58 used & new from $18.97
See All Buying Options
Free Two-Day Shipping for College Students with Prime Student Free%20Two-Day%20Shipping%20for%20College%20Students%20with%20Amazon%20Student

The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Author interviews, book reviews, editors picks, and more. Read it now
$26.96 FREE Shipping. Only 15 left in stock (more on the way). Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Frequently Bought Together

  • Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture
  • +
  • The Trials of Theology: Becoming a 'proven worker' in a dangerous business
Total price: $41.95
Buy the selected items together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods
    OP A. G. Sertillanges
    4.8 out of 5 stars 24
    Paperback
    $16.23 Prime
  2. The Trials of Theology: Becoming a 'proven worker' in a dangerous business
    Brian Rosner
    4.6 out of 5 stars 7
    Paperback
    $14.99 Prime
  3. To Know and Love God (Hardcover): Method for Theology
    David K. Clark
    4.4 out of 5 stars 12
    Hardcover
    $39.10 Prime
  4. A House for My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
    Peter J. Leithart
    4.1 out of 5 stars 18
    Paperback
    $18.92 Prime
  5. Advances in the Study of Greek: New Insights for Reading the New Testament
    Constantine R.…
    4.4 out of 5 stars 19
    Paperback
    $22.49 Prime
  6. Delivered from the Elements of the World: Atonement, Justification, Mission
    Peter J. Leithart
    5.0 out of 5 stars 7
    Paperback
    $19.83 Prime
Next
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
The latest book club pick from Oprah
"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead is a magnificent novel chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. See more

Product Details

  • Paperback: 253 pages
  • Publisher: Baylor University Press; 1st Ed. edition (August 26, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1602580693
  • ISBN-13: 978-1602580695
  • Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #318,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsPerhaps Leithart's Best
By Ralph Allan Smith on October 3, 2009
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Peter Leithart's Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture is the most helpful book I have ever read on how to interpret the Bible -- a topic of serious interest for me for almost 40 years. In my seminary days, I learned that historical grammatical exegesis is the only way to approach the Bible. The problem was that certain passages in the New Testament clearly interpreted the Old Testament in ways that did not conform to the literal mold. Could we follow the exegetical methods of Jesus and Paul, or were they operating on principles that are beyond our ken?

In six chapters with titles like "Words are Players" and "Texts are Music," Leithart not only uncovers the exegetical methods of Jesus and Paul, but he shows his readers how to follow their path by ending each chapter with relevant insights on John 9. In the process, Leithart relates Biblical interpretation to the interpretation of literature outside the Bible, offers withering criticism of Biblical critics, discloses serious flaws in conventional hermeneutical wisdom, teaches us the music of the Biblical text, and, most importantly, shows how all Scripture is about Christ. Leithart does this all with penetrating theological insight, wry humor, and even more than his customary eloquence. I literary could not put the book down.

If there is only one book you read on Biblical interpretation, this should be the book. It is too well written and profound to be considered a "textbook," but it is so full of insight and such a delight to read that a kind professor might give his students a break and assign them a book that would be sheer pleasure. Anyone serious about reading the Bible and looking for guidance in reading not only deeply, but in a manner that is faithful to the Bible as Holy Scripture should read Leithart's Deep Exegesis.
3 Comments 60 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsA Hermeneutical Paradigm Shift
By William B. Littlejohn on October 19, 2009
Format: Paperback
It has been taken for granted in the last century that the venerable medieval exegesis of the quadriga, as well as any hermeneutical practice prior to the nineteenth century, was "pre-critical," and hence unscientific, unreliable, and fanciful. Rigorous grammatico-historical exegesis, it has been argued and accepted, is basically the only way to go, whether you're liberal or conservative. Ironically, conservatives have militantly defended this stifling limitation on the Bible's ability to speak to us, because they fear that opening up the meaning of the text at all will leave it victim to the interpreter's whim to twist the text however he wishes.

In Deep Exegesis, Peter Leithart comes out firing on all cylinders against this odd modernist myopia, showing that it destroys the integrity of the Biblical text, as surely as it would destroy any other work of literature on which such a method was used. He employs very recent discoveries in the philosophy of language, philosophy of history, and literature, to vindicate and enhance a very ancient understanding of how texts work, arguing that a "literal" conservative hermeneutic need not be minimalist but can be as deep and broad as the Scriptural narrative itself.

Leithart keeps our journey along this sophisticated path pleasant and easy by enlisting dozens of examples from literature, pop culture, and everyday life to illuminate his argument, and by his characteristically lighthearted (forgive the pun), readable style.
2 Comments 26 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
4.0 out of 5 starsVery interesting and informative.
By PastoralMusings VINE VOICE on February 28, 2010
Format: Paperback
Deep Exegesis
I enjoy reading books relating to hermeneutics. This was a particularly interesting book to me.
Peter Leithart, Senior Fellow of Theology and Literature at St. Andrews College, has added to my library a book that has opened my eyes, or opened them anew, to some important truths.
Time and space will not permit an in-depth review. For this reason I shall note what stood out to me as interesting and worthy of consideration:
1.Leithart seems to like essentially literal translations of the Scripture due to the fact that words have meaning and should be translated as such, as opposed to the idea that words are "malleable" (pg 6) and can be changed (in such manners as gender neutral translations, or in dynamic equivalence translations where ancient idioms are changed to present day idioms). He has a point that should be seriously considered. After all, we must have a text which is true to the original text. If not, what is the use of exegesis?
2.Leithart also brings up a very interesting point when he posits that the meaning of a text can change with time. He uses the example of someone who shoots a person and is charged with attempted murder. When the victim dies a few hours later, the circumstances have changed, so the shooter is charged with murder. The point to be seen here, is not the fact that the meaning of a text changes, as Leithart says. The point is that subsequent events give us a different perspective on the text, thus influencing our understanding of the text as well as the text's significance to us. Leithart's point, never the less, should be seriously considered, because we must look into backgrounds, etc. if we are to understand a text, and in that he and I agree.
3.Another thing that Leithart mentions is structure and themes in texts.Read more ›
Comment 11 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsOne of the best of its kind
By John Dekker on July 4, 2010
Format: Paperback
This is one of the best books on understanding the Bible that I've read. Leithart goes through different aspects of understanding the biblical text, constantly coming back to John 9 in order to illustrate what he means.

Leithart starts off by arguing that the text of Scripture is important: we ought not view it as a husk to be stripped away and discarded in order to get at the kernel. He then suggests that texts add meaning to what has gone before. So, in John 9:14 we are told that Jesus had healed the blind man on the Sabbath day. This crucial piece of information had been withheld until now, and it colours all that goes before. Meaning emerges as we read through the chapter.

Leithart then proceeds to discuss poetic meanings (like John pausing to tell us what the name of the pool means in 9:7) and intertextual allusions (such as creation out of dust in John 9:6 and Genesis 2:7). He also looks at structure, and notes that the interrogation of the blind man's parents forms the hinge of a chiasm. Leithart concludes by asserting the Christ-centred nature of all sound interpretation.

At times Leithart seems to get bogged down by talking about people like Spinoza and Oedipus, but this is still an excellent book for those who read theology at a first-year seminary level.
Comment 8 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

everything it was ok

Published 6 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsWhether or not one agrees with all his connections, ...

Whether or not one agrees with all his connections, this book teaches a serious student of the Word to look at scripture more fully, to think outside the box, and to see Scripture... Read more

Published 6 months ago by Samuel Brewer
5.0 out of 5 starsBrilliant!

What an easy read and such an expansive read. I wasn't thrilled with the MSG vs KJV argument at the beginning but the Thor redeemed himself. Read more

Published 9 months ago by Brandon Morrow
5.0 out of 5 starsDeep Dish Biblical Study

Would you pick up a book like <i>Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture</i> if it wasn’t a textbook? Read more

Published 10 months ago by Johnny Wilson
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Just what I needed

Published 10 months ago by Nathaniel Gibson
5.0 out of 5 starsDefinitely Not "Shallow Exegesis"

Read my whole review here: https://spoiledmilks.wordpress.com/2015/06/10/review-deep-exegesis/

How are we to interpret the Bible if we can’t always follow the apostles’... Read more

Published 12 months ago by S. Robinson
5.0 out of 5 starsA CUT ABOVE.

This guy along with James Jordan, Mark Horne etc are the best scholars a Christian could read. They teach u how to read the Bible like it was meant to b read Most everyone reads... Read more

Published 19 months ago by Mark Lee
4.0 out of 5 starsI haven't finished it yet. But I appreciate so ...

I haven't finished it yet. But I appreciate so far Leithart's desire to allow both our general hermeneutics and our interpretive approach to the Old Testament to be shaped by... Read more

Published 22 months ago by Philip R. Olsson
2.0 out of 5 starsUseful close readings

The author provides useful close readings of John 9 and many other Biblical texts, making this a valuable book on that score. Read more

Published on October 21, 2012 by J. M. Walker
5.0 out of 5 starsBrilliant introduction to theologically rich hermeneutics

Read this and other reviews by me and other scholars at the blog "For Christ and His Kingdom".

Rev. Dr. Peter J. Read more

Published on May 23, 2012 by Peter A. Green

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway
This item: Deep Exegesis: The Mystery of Reading Scripture
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.