How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth was written by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart to help with Bible study. It’s one of the best-selling Bible study guides, and you may easily find it in the bookstores.
In brief, their book has several positive elements to it, which I’ll mention first. But, you might want to consider what can be considered negative elements, too.
The book offers the following positive attributes what are the seven deadly sins.
describes the complications and difficulties of translation
offers rules or general principles of ‘proper’ interpretation
promotes the consideration of historical and cultural context
examines the writing style, or genre, of each book and offers cautions against misinterpretation
offers recommendations for commentaries for each Bible book
offers recommendations for dictionaries, concordances and several Bible translations as study aids
And, the book has the following potential negatives:
offers some particular viewpoints with which you may or may not agree:
— that content found in Acts or the Epistles was meant for then and not today — a less than positive view of the King James or New King James Bible — that much prophecy in Revelation had been fulfilled — that the law ended when John the Baptist began to preach (vs. Jesus came to fulfill the law) — that baptism by immersion is not supported as normative, but that speaking in tongues is normative — strong support for the controversial, gender-neutral, Today’s New International Version of the Bible, considered heavily influenced by feminism — opposition to new alternative Bible translation versions (e.g., English Standard Version) that are not influenced by feminism — a preference for the Dynamic Equivalence method of translation
some other hermeneutics principles are not addressed
one of the authors is a member of the Assemblies of God Church, which appears to show up in his style of hermeneutics
flow of content is sometimes difficult, writing style is less than desired.
I hope this is a useful review for you.
Copyright 2009 by Christopher A. Anacker. Reprint and use of article subject to Ezine Articles Terms of Service.