If you aren’t sure what the word “exegetical” even means, it is simply “an explanation or critical interpretation of a text”, especially in regards to the Bible. So the title “Exegetical Fallacies” refers to the many ways that the Bible is commonly mis-interpreted by theologians, scholars, pastors, and Bible-teachers.
This is a book that was first published in 1983 (the same year I was born!). The edition that I read, however, was the 2nd edition, published in 1996 by Baker Books. I found the book rather randomly while browsing a friend’s household library last month. He said I could borrow it and I am glad I did.
Many of the fallacies (mistakes) detailed in the book in regards to interpreting scripture are simple ones that almost all of us have made out of sheer ignorance and the simple fact that we think we understand much more about scripture and the Bible in general than we really do.
In D.A. Carson’s own words,
“This study is important because exegetical fallacies are painfully frequent among us- among us whose God-given grace and responsibility is the faithful proclamation of the Word of God. Make a mistake in the interpretation of one of Shakespeare’s plays, falsely scan a piece of Spenserian verse, and there is unlikely to be an entailment of eternal consequence; but we cannot lightly accept a similar 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. It is all the more shocking, therefore, to find in the evangelical pulpit, where the Scriptures are officially revered, frequent and inexcusable sloppiness in handling them. All of us, of course, will make some exegetical mistakes: I am painfully aware of some of my own, brought to my attention by increasing years, wider reading, and alert colleagues who love me enough to correct me. But tragic is the situation when the preacher or teacher is perpetually unaware of the blatant nonsense he utters, and of the consequent damage he inflicts on the church of God. Nor will it do to be satisfied with pointing a finger at other groups whose skills are less than our own: we must begin by cleaning up our own backyard.”
(the bold in the above quote is mine)
The book is divided into four main chapters detailing different types of fallacies, along with one final chapter “briefly listing some areas where more opportunities for fallacies lurk in the darkness to catch the unwary”:
1. Word-Study Fallacies
2. Grammatical Fallacies
3. Logical Fallacies
4. Presuppositional and Historical Fallacies
5. Concluding Reflections
I was originally planning on giving at least one example of a fallacy from each chapter, but I want to share a story from the Introduction instead that will help show why we should endeavor to interpret the Bible correctly.
Carson writes,
“When two equally godly interpreters emerge with mutually incompatible interpretations of a text, it must be obvious…that they cannot both be right.”
At the bottom of the page, in a footnote linked directly to the previous statement, Carson continues,
“Occasionally a remarkable blind spot prevents people from seeing this point. Almost twenty years ago I rode in a car with a fellow believer who relayed to me what the Lord had “told” him that morning in his quiet time. He had been reading the KJV of Matthew; and I perceived that not only had he misunderstood the archaic English, but also that the KJV at that place had unwittingly misrepresented the Greek text. I gently suggested that there might be another way to understand the passage and summarized what I thought the passage was saying. The brother dismissed my view as impossible on the grounds that the Holy Spirit, who does not lie, had told him the truth on this matter. Being young and bold, I pressed on with my explanation of grammar, context, and translation, but was brushed off by a reference to 1 Cor. 2:10b-15: spiritual things must be spiritually discerned- which left little doubt about my status. Genuinely intrigued, I asked this brother what he would say if I put forward my interpretation, not on the basis of grammar and text, but on the basis that the Lord himself had given me the interpretation I was advancing. He was silent a long time, and then concluded, “I guess that would mean the Spirit says the Bible means different things to different people.”This is a slightly comical story, but it highlights something that is way too common in the Church today; that is, the belief that one Biblical text can actually say different things to different people, or that the Scriptures can have meaning apart from what the authors intended or from what the original language actually shows a word to mean.
I should probably finish this review by mentioning that this is not a “light read”. It takes a lot of time and thoughtfulness to work through each chapter if the fallacies discussed are to be properly understood. I expect that I will read this book many more times in the coming years, if only because there is so much to be taken from it that I could not possibly retain it all with just one read.
