A Handbook

of

New Testament Exegesis

Craig L. Blomberg

with Jennifer Foutz Markley

Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

Grand Rapids, Michigan

© 2010 by Craig L. Blomberg

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakeracademic.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Blomberg, Craig.

A handbook of New Testament exegesis / Craig L. Blomberg with Jennifer Foutz Markley.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8010-3177-9 (pbk.)

1. Bible. N.T.—Hermeneutics. I. Markley, Jennifer Foutz. II. Title.

BS2331.B56 2010

225.601—dc22

2010021512

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE, TODAY’S NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. TNIV®. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

for Jonathan and Jonathan

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Abbreviations

1. Textual Criticism

2. Translation and Translations

3. Historical-Cultural Context

4. Literary Context

5. Word Studies

6. Grammar

7. Interpretive Problems

8. Outlining

9. Theology

10. Application

Summary

Appendix: Checklist for Doing Biblical Exegesis

Select Bibliography

Scripture Index

Subject Index

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Jim Kinney, editorial director at Baker Academic, for convincing me of the need for this volume and for supporting us throughout the project. When he first approached me, I had just completed most of the work for a book that I coauthored with a recent graduate of Denver Seminary who had been my research assistant for two years. I had such a good experience that I was hoping for a chance to work on another book with one of our “best and brightest.” At that time, I suggested the idea to Jennifer Foutz, a brand new MDiv graduate, and she was eager to be involved. She worked as a research assistant for me for half a year and then for a year as a New Testament department graduate assistant. She was then accepted into a well-known PhD program in New Testament but deferred that acceptance as her life circumstances changed. For the past three years she has been an admissions officer for the seminary. Having written exemplary exegetical papers for several classes, Jenn was well poised to be the primary author for five of the ten chapters, and I tackled the first drafts of the other five. We read and commented on each others’ chapters, but I took over the project at the stage of creating the final drafts, to complete a few small sections of chapters Jenn did not have time to finish, to add some clarifying comments to her work, to create uniform style throughout the whole manuscript, ...