While Fee and Stuart's treatment of Old Testament narrative is not as thorough as that provided in works such as "Introduction to Biblical Interpretation" by Klein, Blomberg and Hubbard, it is nevertheless a commonsensical and worthwhile approach.

I have my favorite, others have theirs, and as long as we don't get too off the rails (like the Klingon) then you'll be alright.Definitely some practical advice for how to study the different genres of writing in the Bible, just a bit outdated. Because it is the word of God, they tend to think of it only as a collection of propositions to be believed and imperatives to be obeyed—although invariably there is a great deal of picking and choosing among the propositions and imperatives. Their extensive treatment of the genres of Scripture is beneficial to all believers, regardless of their level of theological acumen.

The reason one needs to learn -how- to interpret is that, whether one likes it or not, every reader is at the same time an interpreter. In the sphere of hermeneutical discourse, its brevity is admirable, however, in terms of comprehensiveness, there are better works available. Where great commentaries give you fish, this book teaches you how to fish and feed yourself intellectually and spiritually from the Bible. This is unfortunate, as the books of the Law possess considerable relevance to the holistic study and understanding of Scripture. Gordon Fee is Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Regent College, where he taught for sixteen years.

They are honest about what the Bible CANNOT tell us and give a lot of excellent examples of how exegesis (determining what the author meant) and interpretation (determining what it should mean to me) should work.

The extent the authors elucidate techniques of interpreting misinterpreted passages in the epistles is commendable and one of the highlights of their work. We cannot claim not to interpret (“it just means what it says so no interpretation is necessary”) because we are all doing it all the time. Emphasis on the necessity of engaging historical context is again provided by Fee and Stuart as the initial means by which to approach the message of the prophetic books. This evinces the overall pattern and approach for interpreting Scripture that should be utilized by all interpreters. The Bible, however, is not a series of propositions and imperatives; it is not simply a collection of "Sayings from Chairman God," as though he looked down on us from heaven and said: "Hey you down there, learn these truths.Fee† (PhD, University of Southern California) was professor emeritus of New Testament Studies at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia.

That being said, I do like the essential layout (broken up by genres) and some of their analysis, though biased, can still be interesting.Rather, he chose to speak his eternal truths within the particular circumstances and events of human history. Sometimes what we bring to the text, unintentionally to be sure, leads us astray, or else causes us to read all kinds of foreign ideas into the text. Because of this, there are very big loop-holes in the principles offered in this book, loop-holes that may indeed make sense to the religious person, but to an outsider seem very strange. We also tend to think that our understanding is the same as the Holy Spirit's or human author's intent . My grounding was too limited when I first started (re)exploring Christianity and the book was too dense for me at that stage.