Greek Is Great Gain: A Method for Exegesis and Exposition

by William J. Larkin

Publisher:

Wipf and Stock

, 2008

Overview

Greek Is Great Gain: A Method for Exegesis and Exposition presents to students and pastors an exegetical method with a rigor worthy of Scripture and a practicality suitable for weekly use. It has additional features that enable the expositor to see holistically the role of Greek in ministry. The introductory chapters give the rationale, basic definitions, and presuppositions for a Greek-based exegetical method. After describing ways to maintain Greek reading proficiency and ways to prepare the text in translation and, visually, in mechanical layout, Greek Is Great Gain devotes the bulk of its pages to a step-by-step exegetical method. From surveying the text to viewing the text in its historical and literary context and genre, from engaging in analysis of grammatical and rhetorical features to addressing lexical and theological matters, the method guides expositors to unlock the meaning of the text. Then, having analyzed the text closely, the method directs expositors to view the “text whole” through exegetical outline and the relation of its message to its book, and to Scripture as a whole. Finally, after interpreting and applying the text’s message in and for today’s culture, the method instructs the expositor in appropriating the fruit of exegesis for the sermon or Bible lesson. A final chapter describes possibilities for periodic in-depth study. As Greek Is Great Gain presents each part of the method, it gives a purpose or rationale for the step and any necessary background, a list of resources to use, a procedure to follow, and a sample exegesis. A “Grammar Guide” appendix gives in outline form features of form and function for intermediate grammar. And there are charts to aid in analysis. Greek Is Great Gain includes six additional appendixes: • Additional Genre and Literary Form Analysis Procedures • Exegetical Worksheets • “Grammar in the Head” Charts • In-Depth Word Study: Introduction and Aids • Methods and Aids for Textual Criticism • Rhetorical Features Chart Greek Is Great Gain clearly lives up to its subtitle in providing a method that successfully moves preachers or teachers of the Word from Exegesis to Exposition.

Contents

Top Highlights

“The most important principle is to commit yourself to Greek Reading as a way of life. This means committing to sight-reading five lines in the Greek New Testament, spending fifteen minutes a day, five days a week.” (Page 29)

“Expository exegesis. Expository means relating and applying a passage to the contemporary cultural context.” (Page 18)

“Phillips Brooks says that preaching is basically ‘truth through personality.’ Powerful communication results when God’s truth is spoken through a life which has encountered it directly. It is also true that exegetical study is the key to wedding the two (truth and personality) so that the result has a freshness and a vitality.¹⁸ Study must involve an immersion in the Scriptures in which the text and the text alone acts on the preacher’s mind and heart.” (Page 5)

“You need to learn New Testament Greek as thoroughly as you can, along with the exegetical tools that unlock the richness of the original text. Simultaneously, you need to learn to become a life-long learner of Greek, developing habits that are not driven simply by course assignments and deadlines.” (Page 27)

“Role and rule of context. The role of historical and literary elements in the immediate context²⁵ should serve as a filter so that the precise referential meaning of any given word or phrase may be identified.” (Page 22)

Product Details

• Title: Greek Is Great Gain: A Method for Exegesis and Exposition
• Author: William J. Larkin
• Series: Greek is Great Gain: A Method for Exegesis and Exposition
• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Print Publication Date: 2008
• Logos Release Date: 2012
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Columbia International University › Faculty; Greek language, Biblical › Grammar; Greek language, Biblical › Syntax; Greek language, Biblical › Translating
• ISBNs: 9781556353451, 1556353456
• Resource ID: LLS:GRKSGRTGN
• Resource Type: Grammar
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T19:54:36Z

About William J. Larkin

William J. Larkin Jr. (1945–2014) (PhD, University of Durham) was a biblical studies professor and an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America. He joined the faculty of Columbia Biblical Seminary in 1975 after a year of pastoral ministry in Philadelphia and the completion of graduate study in England. His passion was preparing pastors and missionaries, through the study of the Greek New Testament, to communicate God’s Word accurately and effectively as a “missions document."

Dr. Larkin was a member of the Evangelical Missiological Society, the Evangelical Theological Society, the Institute for Biblical Research, and the Society of Biblical Literature. He has written articles and reviews for various periodicals including Bulletin of Biblical Research, Evangelical Missions Quarterly, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, and Themelios. He has contributed to The Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, The Dictionary of the Later New Testament and Its Developments, and The Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions. He is the author of several books, including Greek Is Great Gain, the IVP New Testament Commentary volume on Acts, and the Cornerstone Biblical Commentary volume on Luke and Acts.