Exegetical Fallacies, 2nd ed.

Top Highlights

“The heart of this fallacy is the assumption that any language so constrains the thinking processes of the people who use it that they are forced into certain patterns of thought and shielded from others. Language and mentality thus become confused.” (Page 44)

“But one should be suspicious of all statements about the nature of ‘the Hebrew mind’ or ‘the Greek mind’ if those statements are based on observations about the semantic limitations of words of the language in question.” (Page 44)

“Here the interpreter assigns to a word in his text a meaning that the word in question used to have in earlier times, but that is no longer found within the live, semantic range of the word.” (Page 35)

“we cannot responsibly assume that etymology is related to meaning” (Page 33)

“If John tells us that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ purifies us from every sin, he is informing us that our hope for continued cleansing and forgiveness rests not on protestations of our goodness while our life is a sham (1 John 1:6, probably directed against proto–Gnostics) but on continual walking in the light and on continued reliance on Christ’s finished work on the cross.” (Page 35)