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NE502 is a required course for the MDiv and some MA degrees at Fuller Theological Seminary. Greek is a prerequisite, and most students take NE502 immediately after comleting their Greek requirement. NE502 itself is a prerequisite to NE506, which is an exegetical course focusing on a book of the NT, and several Homiletics courses.

I began teaching NE502 in the Fall of 2006, having previously taught Beginning Greek (LG512) and Orientation to Theological Studies (ST511) for several years.

Below and in the sidebar you will find links to information and resources pertinent to Exegetical Method & Practice. Most of the resource links should also be helpful for anyone wanting to explore the practices and theories of exegesis of the New Testament.

Extended Course Description

Syllabus

Resources:

General

Primarily behind-the-text

Historical Criticism

Textual Criticism

Tradition Criticism

Source Criticism

Redaction Criticism

Social-Scientific Criticism (when modern sociological or anthropological models are used to analyze the text with no care to describe the social world of the writers or first readers but only the social worlds of the texts, social-scientific criticism can stay in the text and not move behind it)

Primarily in-the-text methods

Literary Criticism

Genre and Form Analysis (Form Criticism is similar but is more interested in the historical context giving rise to certain forms)

Narrative Criticism

Rhetorical Criticism

Linguistic, Grammatical and Syntactical Analysis (Linguistics can also demonstrate a focus on the historical development of language and so move behind the text)

Semantic or Discourse Analysis

Primarily in-front-of-the-text methods

History of Interpretation & Effects

Canonical Criticism (one, if not the only, method that tries in principle to account for behind- in- and in-front-of-the-text issues; it is placed here because it works from the perspective of the believing community, which is now in front of the text)

Theological Exegesis & Interpretation

Spiritual & Orthopraxic Approaches

Advocacy & Ideological Criticisms