Toward an Exegetical Theology: Biblical Exegesis for Preaching & Teaching
By  Walter C. Kaiser Jr.

In writing this book, Walt Kaiser undertook the task of enlivening the practice of exegesis in preaching in a time when exegesis was not practiced widely.  Even for those who claimed to hold to the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture, exegesis had fallen on hard times.  His purpose in writing this book was to extend the process of exegesis past the original meaning of clauses and phrases, and focusing on how can exegesis affect preaching.  He also clarifies that this is not a book primarily for the pastor who is already in the pulpit preaching; instead he says, "the main object of our work must be the scores of those men and women who are currently enrolled in Biblical and theological studies at the collegiate or seminary level" (22).  He hopes that if he can make contact with ministers when they are first learning how to interpret the Bible, then change will be more effective in the long run, bringing about more dialogue to further the conversation in the theological world abroad. 

Summary

The book is split into two main sections, with an introduction and conclusion on each end.  His introduction to the book is made up of two chapters, the first being an overview of current issues in exegetical theology.  In this chapter, he goes through a select group of writers spanning the seventeenth up to the middle of the twentieth century, tracing the question, "can we as interpreters understand a writer better than he understood himself" (34)?  His second introductory chapter deals with bringing out the importance of exegesis as a method, but also carrying it through to its logical conclusion - preaching in today's context. 

The first section covers Kaiser's teachings on the syntactical-theological method.  He splits his discussion of the syntactical-theological method into five stages of analysis: Contextual, Syntactical, Verbal, Theological, and Homiletical.  He then ends the section with a chapter on illustrations of the Syntactical and Homiletical Analyses.  The first chapter on context analysis addresses four levels of context: sectional context, book context, canonical context, and immediate context.  The second chapter on Syntactical Analysis focuses mainly on the discipline of grammatico-historical method of interpretation, which means to interpret a text based on the laws of grammar and the facts of history (87).  He focuses on understanding the literary type when attempting to interpret any passage, and then the exegete should work on the specific passage and the independent propositions of the text.  In the third chapter on Verbal Analysis, he seeks to educate the reader on how to interpret the meaning of words in differing contexts, when a single form of a word may have multiple meanings, unless first interpreted in context and according to the idioms of the day in which it was written.  The fourth chapter of Theological Analysis, the one part of analysis that he claims is missing from most sermons, deals with the proper means by which to locate a specific passage in theological history.  In it, his main goal seems to be to not allow the exegete to look to any materials that were written after the passage to shed light on the passage in question, thus the later books must be interpreted in light of the earlier, not vice versa.  His final chapter in this section on Homiletical Analysis focuses on the fact that the former stages of analysis are never to be an end in themselves, but must be arranged for understanding by the spoken word.  Kaiser uses this chapter to urge exegetes to be sure that their sermons are in line with the passage preached: the subject of the text is the same as the sermon, and the emphases of the text are the same ones of the sermon.  Kaiser ends this section with examples of how to go about syntactically diagramming a passage, and then finding the main points of the passage, and the sermon, through the diagram. 

The second section of the book discusses three special exegetical issues, focusing on three types of literature in each chapter: Prophetic Exposition, Narrative Exposition, and Poetic Exposition.  In each chapter, he addresses possible abuses and necessary features of each type of literature, and then give helpful advice as to how to go about finding the relevant implications for the present day context without violating the knowledge and purpose of the original author.  He concludes the book with a chapter on how to not allow the exegetical method he spent the rest of the book describing to overpower the work of the Holy Spirit of God in teaching and leading His people.

Strengths

There were many striking thoughts that made impressions on me.  His explanation of the Peshat, focusing on Hillel's seven rules of interpretation were very helpful in understanding the exegetical method that the early church may have been using when writing the New Testament canon (53-55).  Another section that I felt was important was his list of four ways to ascertain the purpose of the writer of a Biblical book in his section on contextual book analysis (79).  Also, his discussion of theme verses independent propositions was quite helpful in putting together a homiletical outline of a text (100-01).  The entire chapter on verbal analysis is extremely important since much of the poor exegesis done in modern pulpits stems from the problem of not understanding the semantic domain and intention of the individual words in a given context.  Another very helpful chapter was his chapter on illustrations of syntactical and homiletical outlines.  It allowed the reader to visually watch Kaiser put into practice what he had been describing in chapters previous.

Weaknesses

Though there are many parts of the book that are quiet helpful, there are a few places that I take issue with Kaiser's viewpoint.  The first, and most prominent is his view that the human authorial meaning is the only meaning that should be recognized from any text.  Kaiser, agreeing with Bollnow, writes, "the concept of better understanding cannot be stretched to the production of new meaning" (36).  The problem that is apparent to me as I understand his argument is that the Biblical authors themselves did not practice Kaiser's method.  When speaking of the Abrahamic covenant, Paul clarifies in Galatians 3:16 that the promise to Abraham was not "seeds" as referring to many, but to "seed," referring to Christ.  How, though, was this interpreted up to the time of Christ?  The clear meaning of the text in Genesis is that Abraham would have a son, Isaac.  Another example is the covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7:12-13, where God promises David a "seed" that would establish his kingdom and build a house for God's name, and God would be a  Father to him, and he would be a son to Him.  Again, up to the time of Christ, this was clearly interpreted, with good reason, as Solomon.  My point is that there was a true meaning in the seed of Abraham being Isaac, and the seed of David being Solomon.  There is clearly, though, another meaning (not implication) in seeing these "seeds" as referring to Christ, as Matthew strives to show us in his genealogical introduction to his gospel.

A second disagreement that I have with this book stems from the first, and it is that he claims, "the Church at large (since the time of the Reformers especially) is in error when she uses the analogy of faith (analogia fidei) as an exegetical device for extricating meaning from or importing meaning to texts that appeared earlier than the passage where the teaching is set forth most clearly or perhaps even for the first time" (82).  Kaiser brings out this idea again in his section on theological analysis.  My problem with this thought is that there is no room for work of the Divine author with this method of interpretation.  If Job is the earliest written book of the canon, then how could one understand it at all if we can only use sources that were present before its origination?  The throne room scene between God and Satan would not be fully understandable unless we were able to get clues of who Satan was and what was his purpose from later written texts.  God, the Divine author of Job, also inspired through His Holy Spirit the rest of the Bible, so that the meaning of one text is explained by another, even when it appears earlier or later than the text in question. 

Conclusion

Overall, this book is helpful for having a better integration of exegesis and homiletics.  Kaiser certainly recognized the need of having a more theologically informed and practically oriented sermon, and for the most part he accomplished his goal.  His method of five analyses is very helpful when considering how to prepare for a sermon, and his diagramming method is also helpful when attempting to craft a message that follows the text.  The biggest strengths of the book are the simplicity of reading and argumentation, as well as the emphases on proper analysis when expositing a passage.  As noted above, the biggest weaknesses are his inability to understand the multiple meanings as guided by the Holy Spirit, as well as the denying of the full analogy of faith of the Reformers.  The book could be improved by adding a more full example of taking a passage through his stages of analysis to the end stage of sermonic form; this proposal would also help strengthen his purpose to extend exegesis through the stage of preaching.  Also, another improvement would be to have a chapter on application, which was noticeably missing from his discussion, which directly affects his purpose to take the original text and bring it properly into the modern context.  A book that is similar in purpose, but that I think reaches the goal more fully is Graeme Goldsworthy's Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture.  In it, he addresses literary style, context, and the inclusion of the gospel in all Christian preaching.  He doesn't go as far as Kaiser into the methodology of analysis, which was the biggest strength of Kaiser's book, but the two together would be a good balance.

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