Exegesis to Exposition: A Practical Guide to Using Biblical Hebrew

Chisholm, Robert B. Jr.  From Exegesis to Exposition:  A Practical Guide to Using Biblical Hebrew.  Grand Rapids:  Baker Books, 1998.  ISBN:  0-8010-2171-5.  304 pages.

Short Note

Book Review

I read this book with mixed emotions.  I was simultaneously almost impressed, amused, and frustrated.

I was impressed by the quality of the instruction provided in this book on exegesis.  I wish I had encountered such a text on basic exegesis when I was learning Biblical exegesis.  Unfortunately, as often happens, my classwork went directly from learning the basics of the language to a sort of exegesis course without an intervening course in the basics of the process using the source languages.  While I had a course in Bible study based on the English text, only part of that material was applicable to work in the Biblical languages.

I had two professors, one in Greek who enforced on me a study of Greek syntax, and another who forced me to pay close attention to Hebrew and Aramaic morphology.  This helped me practically with understanding the texts.  In Hebrew and Aramaic I even learned to work from unpointed text.  But anyone who has practiced exegesis can see the glaring gaps.  I had to fill those in using various commentaries and other works on various aspects of the process.

What From Exegesis to Exposition does is provide a basis in all of the various skills needed in using the grammatico-historical method, starting from exegesis through the final application.  He starts with underlining the importance of study from the original languages, and many of his remarks could be adapted to statements about working from Greek.  I think his case is perhaps overstated and impractical, but more on that below.  Chapter 2 continues with tool recommendations, which are excellent.  These tools will improve the library of any pastor who reads Hebrew.

With Chapter 3 we begin the process with a discussion of textual criticism.  The basic principles are well stated, and, well, basic.  Start from here and move on to the recommendations in the “Further Reading” list.  The worked examples are all very well done, and provide an excellent overview of the types of problems and the solutions that will be needed.

The fourth chapter deals with words and how we determine their meanings.  The material is basic lexicography and warns against the many errors made in word studies.  The author also discusses word plays.  I think that the material at the end of the chapter makes the rules a little too tight for seeing a literary relationship between passages, but since the most common errors seem to involve drawing lines of relationship with almost no evidence at all, perhaps it’s not a bad idea to be restrictive.

Chapters 5-7, pages 57-186, start with Hebrew syntax, a horribly neglected topic in Hebrew studies, and then build through material in blocks larger than the sentence, and then up through relations within long literary sections Judges-2 Samuel, for example, and how they fit into the canon.  This material is well-chosen, basic, and presented with good examples.  Every new exegete would do well.  The section on syntax, as stated in the book itself, is not a replacement for such grammars as Walke-O’Connor, Jouon, or Kautzsch-Gesenius, but it will provide a springboard leading to use of those resources.  After a year of Hebrew, very few students are ready to get the maximum benefit from those resources.  This chapter will help them get the start they need.

Chapter 8, “Putting it all Together” does just that.  There are again several well-illustrated examples of the entire process.

I began my frustration with the next chapter.  As far as I can see, the major contribution to exposition in this chapter is that one should base one’s conclusions on sound exegesis.  The illustrations are good, as Chisholm uses contemporary illustrations in bringing an understanding of the text, but the lessons he draws don’t seem to jump out compared to the topics of sermons given by people with considerably less exegetical prowess.  For those like me, who value the solid exegesis, this is a useful thing.  And don’t get me wrong here—the exposition proposed in this chapter is good.  It’s just not the solution, in my view, to making the Bible relevant to the current generation.  There’s a great deal more to be said on this topic.

It is also in this section that Dr. Chisholm’s dispensational theology shows through much more.  I’m not surprised that it should do so, as my theology would show through any work that I wrote, especially when it comes to exposition.  There is much more agreement on basic exegesis than there is on application.  I appreciate the solid foundation laid.  But I must note one example.  On page 258 Dr. Chisholm is discussing the view of wealth in Proverbs,  and notes that Proverbs says that “wisdom is more valuable than material wealth, for its rewards include material wealth and a great deal more.”  (I question this conclusion in that abbreviated form, but that is not my primary concern here.)

Dr. Chisholm continues:

“This fourth principle is especially problematic for modern Christians.  Israel’s sages seem to expect God’s material blessings in the here-and-now.  However, New Testament Christians are not guaranteed such blessings.”

I would suggest that any apparent guarantee of wealth is just as much a problem with Old Testament theology as with new, and that there is no such major gap as is posited here.  Now is this a major issue?  No.  One would simply note the approaches involved and one’s differences (assuming one differed as I do) and go on.

Perhaps I am being unfair here.  Having done such an outstanding job with the exegesis portion, perhaps I expected some sort of miracle in the exposition portion, and am disappointed at the result.  Despite this, I intend to make use of this book in my teaching at the second year Hebrew level.

Having touched on both the positive and the negative, let me comment on my amusement.  I work in continuing pastoral education and lay education.  Frankly, I would often be quite happy to get people, even pastors, to study their Bible seriously in English, much less get them to use Biblical languages skills—skills that many don’t have.  I suspect that Dr. Chisholm’s call for study from the original languages, is somewhat idealistic even in his own community when he says, “One cannot preach credibly and competently from the Old Testament without a working knowledge of Hebrew and basic exegetical skills.”  Well, I must say, in that case, that a great deal of preaching is incompetent, and observation bears me out.  In correcting it, I’d start with basic exegetical skills and move forward to language study.  In the United Methodist church, of which I’m a member, I understand a pastor can be ordained with only eight credit hours of Biblical study.  If that is correct, it is a serious problem.  I know many pastors who are much more skilled than that level of training would indicate, though very few who can handle the Old Testament with any level of skill.  I’d like to get them to take the Old Testament seriously even in English.

So my amusement is really just a bit sad.  The difference between the real and the ideal is very great.  Dr. Chisholm has provided a wonderful tool for learning in this book, and even (perhaps especially) those of us who are not from his theological tradition would do well to make use of it.