Giving Thanks in November/Dictionary Word of the Day
Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 06:09AM exegesis
\ek-suh-JEE-sis\ , noun;
1.Exposition; explanation; especially, a critical explanation of a text.
I need only read my daily Dictionary Word of the Day to find something for which to be thankful this morning.
As many of you know, I am in the third year of leading a Bible Study in the book of Hebrews. Three years and still not finished?? you may be thinking. Yes, that's a long time but it's a complex book and its subject matter illumines both the Old and the New Testaments and develops a detailed picture of the Person and the Work of Christ--in other words, there's a lot there!!
This is not the first time I've studied Hebrews by any means. I had a very good working understanding of the content and the author's purpose before we began this study, but the difference this time is the addition of the use of commentaries and the benefit we have all gained by the exegetical skills of some remarkable men of God.
Each week, I begin my preparation with my own inductive study of the text, using a Bible study method that I've cobbled together from many different sources and techniques over the years. (Someday I'll sit down and write a post about how I go about it.) Then I go to the commentaries--Calvin, Aquinas, Owen, Richard Phillips, Matthew Henry and sometimes Gill, and Stedman. THAT's where the 'real' exegesis comes in! No matter how carefully and diligently I have done my own study, I am always amazed at how much more there is to learn from the text! Each one of those men bring their God-given gifts and their education and knowledge to their work and I, a middle aged woman in Chicagoland living today in America, receive the benefit of all that!
When my friends Carol and Dorothy and I get together to discuss what we've learned in our week's study, we all benefit from each other's preparation. Dorothy reads John Brown and Carol reads Matthew Poole and another 'dead theologian' whose name I can never remember (Geoffrey Something. . .)
Pooling it all together makes for a lively discussion. Our commentators don't always agree, so that makes it interesting and even when they do, they often come to the same conclusion through different means.
Exegesis. It's a good thing.
Pop on over to Rebecca Writes and see what other bloggers are thankful for!
Pop over to Rebecca Writes and see what other bloggers are thankful for
Reader Comments (2)
Sounds like you all are having a mighty fine time together in the book of Hebrews. What a wealth of knowledge and understanding can be gained by referring to the commentaries of all those good dead theologians!
I love your dictionary word of the day. I'm a wordsmith wanna be. And I would be really interested in reading your blog posts on your study method. I do not tire of exegesis when the text is the Lord's.