Exegesis of Gospels 

❖ Pointers: 

◉ (1) Jesus himself did not write a gospel; they were written    by others, and
thus do not come directly from him. (2) And There are four gospels, three of
which have remarkable similarities, while that by John tells the story in a
quite different way. 

◉ Understand the historical context of Jesus (i.e., An awareness of the culture

and religion of the first century, Palestinian Judaism, in which he lived and
taught, as well as an attempt to understand the particular context of a given
saying or parable) and the authors. 

◉ Many of his teachings are presented in the four gospels with very little
context. The reason for this is that Jesus’ word deeds were handed on orally,
during which at the time whole gospels did not yet exist. Rather, the content of
the Gospels was being passed on in individual stories and sayings called
“pericopes”. Many of Jesus’ sayings were also transmitted along with their
original contexts. Scholars have come to call such pericopes “pronouncement
stories,” because the narrative itself exists only for the sake of the saying that
concludes it. 

◉ Identify Jesus’ audience for a given teaching (whether it was his close
disciples, the larger crowds, or his opponents). 

◉ Read (or exegete) with understanding a given saying or narrative in its

present context. 
 
◉ Understand the nature of the composition of the gospels as wholes, and
thus to interpret any one of the Gospels itself, not just isolated facts about the
life of Jesus. 

◉ One must take seriously not only the evangelists’ interest in Jesus per se —
what he did and said — but also their reasons for retelling the one story for their
own readers. 

◉ When studying a pericope in any one gospel, it is usually helpful to be

aware of the parallels in the other gospels. 
     
◉ Not all the sayings we label as parables are of the same kind. 
     
◉ Parables function as a striking way of calling forth a response on the part
of the hearer. 

◉ The keys to understanding are the points of reference — those various

parts of the story with which one automatically identifies as it is being told.

◉ The key to good exegesis is the ability to ask the right questions Of the
text in order to get at the author's intended meaning. Good exegetical questions
fall into two basic categories:

❖ Questions of content (what is said):

➢ Historical Context - has to do both with the general historical-sociological-
cultural setting of a document (e.g., the city of Corinth, its geography, people,
religions, social environment, economy) and with the specific occasion of the
document (i.e., why it was written).
➢ Literary Context - has to do with why a given thing was said at a given point
in the argument or narrative.

❖ Questions of context (why it is said):

➢ Textual Criticism - the determination of the actual wording of the author.
➢ Lexical Data - the meaning of words.
➢ Grammatical Data - the relationship of words to one another.
➢ Historical-Cultural Background - the relationship of words and ideas to the
background and culture of the author and his readers.

◉ Writing an Exegesis Paper:

❖STEP 1: Survey the historical context in general.

➢ 1.1. Read the entire document through in English in one sitting.

◈ 1.1.1. Discover everything you can about the recipients. Are they Jews or
Gentiles? or a combination? What relation do they have with the author? Are
there any hints of their socioeconomic situation?

◈ 1.1.2. Discover everything you can about the purpose. Does the author
explicitly say anything about it? What is implied?

◈ 1.1.3. Note special emphases or concerns that emerge. What words or

ideas are frequently repeated? What unusual vocabulary recurs? What, if
anything, might these tell you about the occasion or purpose?

◈ 1.1.4. Work out an annotated outline of the whole book (to be revised on
further study).

➢ 1.2. Check your observations against the secondary literature.

❖STEP 2: Confirm the limits of the passage.

➢ Determine whether the passage you have chosen for exegesis is a genuine,
self-contained unit. To do this, check the paragraphing of the two primary
critical editions of the Greek text (NA27 and UBS4; you will notice that they
sometimes differ) against two or more modem translations (e.g., NRSV and
TNN).

❖STEP 3: Become thoroughly acquainted with your paragraph/pericope.

➢ For those who use English: Before skipping down to your part of the various
steps, you should read through the part for Greek exegesis. Learn the Greek
alphabet

➢ 3.1. Make a provisional translation.

➢ 3.2. Make a provisional list of exegetical difficulties.

➢ 3.3. Read the paragraph through in several translations.

◈ 3.3.1. Secure at least seven different translations.

 ◈ 3.3.2. Mark well the differences between/ among your translations.

◈ 3.3.3. Determine which of these differences is exegetically significant.

◈ 3.3.4. Try to determine whether the differences are matters of textual

criticism (Step 5), grammar (Step 6), or lexicography (Step 7).

❖STEP 4: Analyze sentence structures and syntactical relationships.

➢ It is crucial very early on in the exegesis of your passage that you also have
a good sense of the flow of the argument (or narrative) and that you recognize
the basic structures and syntax of each sentence. To do this well, there is no
substitute for writing out the passage in its entirety in a structured form.

➢ 4.1. Make a sentence flow.

➢ 4.2. Make a sentence diagram.

❖STEP 5: Establish the text.

❖STEP 6: Analyze the grammar.
❖STEP 7: Analyze significant words.
❖STEP 8: Research the historical-cultural background.
❖STEP 9: Determine the formal character of the pericope or saying.

➢ 9.1. Identify the general literary type.

➢ 9.2. Identify the specific literary form.

❖STEP 10: Analyze the pericope in a Gospel synopsis.

➢ 10.1. Selectivity

➢ 10.2. Adaptation

➢ 10.3. Arrangement

➢ 10.4. Consider possible life settings in the ministry of Jesus.

❖STEP 11: Analyze the pericope in its narrative context.
❖STEP 12: Consider the broader biblical and theological contexts.
❖STEP 13: Consult secondary literature.
 ➢ 13.1. Investigate what others have said about the passage.

➢ 13.2. Compare and adjust.

➢ 13.3. Apply your discoveries throughout your paper.

➢ 13.4. Know when to quote.

◈ 13.4.1. Quote when it is necessary or important to use the very words of

an author so as not to misrepresent.

◈ 13.4.2. Quote when it is necessary for a clear or convincing presentation

of an option.

◈ 13.4.3. Quote when it is useful for the psychological impact on the

reader.

◈ 13.4.4. Quote when an author clearly says something better than you
could, or when it is said in a clearly memorable way.

➢ 13.5. Know the uses of annotation.

◈ 13.5.1. Use notes to list additional bibliographical material.

◈ 13.5.2. Use notes to compare differing opinions.

◈ 13.5.3. Use notes to acknowledge technical difficulties that are important

but beyond the scope of the paper or beside the immediate point.

◈ 13.5.4. Use notes to develop peripheral arguments or implications.

◈ 13.5.5. Use notes to display longer lists of primary source citations or

references or for diagrams.

◈ 13.5.6. Use notes to refer to another section of the paper.

❖STEP 14: Provide a finished translation.

❖STEP 15: Write the paper.

➢ 15.1. Opening

➢ 15.2. Context
 ➢ 15.3. Sitz im Leben Jesu

➢ 15.4. Meaning

◉ Take the point (or the several points) of the passage as you have exegeted it
and to make that point a living word for a present-day congregation:

❖ The task of the exegete is to discover that Word and its meaning to the first-
century church; the task of the preacher is to know well the people to whom that
Word is now to be spoken again. It would begin at either:

➢ With the biblical text that is then brought to bear on the people.

➢ With the needs of the people to which this text is going to speak.

❖ Before writing out the sermon, one should sit down and hammer out three
things-in writing-as guidelines for the sermon:

➢ The main point or points of the biblical text that you want to proclaim.

➢ The purpose of the present sermon, that is, how the above points are seen to
be applicable.

➢ The response that one hopes the sermon will achieve.

❖ Write out the outline and keep it in view, along with the three guidelines, as
you write.

❖ If the course requirement calls for summary do all of the above and give
enough of the content so that your professor can not only see your outline but
"feel" the urgency of your message.

◉ Textual Criticism- is the practice of comparing the various copies of a work in

order to determine, as best as possible, the exact wording of an original text that
is either undiscovered or no longer exists.

❖ Ancient documents used to reconstruct the New Testament:

1. Greek manuscripts
1.1. Papyri- is an ancient form of paperlike material.
 1.2. Majuscules/Uncials- are the earliest codices (pages bound into
books and were written in capital letters, for the most part without
spacing, word division, or punctuation.
1.3. Minuscules- are manuscripts written in the later lowercase, cursive
style that was developed in the eighth or ninth century to speed the
copying process. begin to introduce some occasional spacing
between sections of text and a little punctuation.
2. Ancient translations
2.1. Latin (esp. the Vulgate)
2.2. Syriac
2.3. Coptic
2.4. Armenian
2.5. Others
3. Patristic citations.
3.1. Irenaeus
3.2. Clement of Alexandria
3.3. Origen
3.4. Athanasius
3.5. Others

❖ Textual Variants/Variant Readings- different copies of New Testament

manuscripts generate different readings of the same passages. Variant readings
may involve changes in a letter, a word, a phrase, or even additions and
omissions of whole sentences or paragraphs, although changes of this magnitude
are extremely rare.

❖ Preferred Reading- after weighing the options, the textual critic will
establish which of the variant readings is the preferred reading.

❖ Text Type- certain distinguishing characteristics occur in the copies of the

New Testament, allowing experts to group the numerous copies into a particular
text type.

❖ Dimensions of Originality:

1. Pre-canonical Original- which represents the earliest stages in the

composition of what later would become the canonical text.
2. Author’s Original- the text as it was when it left the hand of the author
and was delivered to the recipients.
3. Canonical Original- is the text when a given writing was recognized as
authoritative or its canonicity was established.
4. Interpretive Originals- is Scripture as it came to be known and used in the
life, instruction, and worship of the church throughout its history.

❖ Types of Textual Variants:

1. Insignificant variants that do little to change the meaning of the text (e.g.,
scribal errors of omission or addition of letters, misspellings, “movable
nu”).
2. Variants that affect the meaning of the text but are unattested or poorly
attested in the best manuscripts (e.g., scribal decisions to add or omit
words in order to make certain texts harmonize more easily, especially
among Gospel parallels).
3. Variants that significantly affect the meaning of the text and are well
attested.

❖ Guidelines for Weighing the Evidence:

1. Evaluating External Evidence

1.1. Prefer the reading attested by the earliest reliable manuscripts.
1.2. Prefer the reading that occurs across a wide geographical spread in
a number of different text types or kinds of sources.
1.3. Prefer the reading that originates from the more accurately
preserved textual traditions.
2. Evaluating Internal Evidence: Transcriptional Principles
2.1. Prefer the more difficult reading (the lectio difficilior) as original.
2.2. Prefer the shorter reading.
3. Evaluating Internal Evidence: Intrinsic Principles
3.1. Prefer the reading that most easily fits with the author’s style and
vocabulary.
3.2. Prefer the reading that best fits in the context and in the author’s
overall theological and narrative framework.
3.3. Where parallel passages with variants exist (such as in the
Gospels), prefer the less-harmonious reading.

❖ The Relationship between Internal and External Evidence

1. Reasoned Eclecticism- It gives equal consideration to both external and

internal evidence and seeks to establish whether external, internal, or
some combination of both types of evidence answers the question of which
reading accounts for the rise of the others.
 2. Rigorous/Thoroughgoing Eclecticism- prefers to determine the probable
original by giving almost exclusive consideration to the contextual
demands and the style of the author.
3. Radical Conservatism/Majority Text/Byzantine Priority Approach- They
consider only external evidence and give priority to the Byzantine text
type, arguing that the text should be established according to the support
of the majority of manuscripts.

◉ Translations

❖ Functional/Dynamic Equivalence- translates using words or expressions

that duplicate the original function even if less exactly equivalent word by word.

❖Formal Equivalence- preserves the form of the original language as much as

the new “receptor” language into which one is translating permits.

◉ Historical-Cultural Analysis

❖Historical-Context Analysis- History behind the text (diachronic,

throughout time).

❖Social-Scientific Analysis- History at the same time as the text

(synchronic, within time).
1. Social Description- this branch of sociology is entirely a subcategory of
historical-context criticism that is interested in the pervasive sociological
and cultural values of the New Testament world.
2. Sociological Clarification- Any sociological practice that looks at
phenomena in the New Testament and attempts to explain it in light of
other known phenomena throughout history.
3. Sociological Analysis- This approach takes a theoretical model that is not
supported in any culture or society with significant parallels to the New
Testament world and applies it to biblical phenomena.
◉ Literary Context

❖ Contextual Relationships
1. Immediate Context (the words or sentences immediately preceding and
following the text to be interpreted.)
2. Paragraphs or Series of Paragraphs in which the Text is Embedded
3. Subsection of the Biblical Book (chapter or multiple chapters)
4. Main Section of the Biblical Book
4.1. “A repeated term, phrase, clause, or sentence” may indicate the
beginning or the end of a section.
4.2. “Grammatical clues such as transitional conjunctions or adverbs”
like “then, therefore, wherefore, but, nevertheless, meanwhile” may
highlight a section break.
4.3. One or more rhetorical questions may start a new unit of material.
4.4. “A change in the time, location, or setting is a frequent device,
especially in narrative contexts, to indicate a new theme and
section.”
4.5. Especially in letters, a vocative—a noun of direct address—may
mark off a new section.
4.6. Changes in “tense, mood, or aspect of the verb, perhaps even with a
change in the subject or object” may suggest a break.
4.7. Sometimes what we today would call topic sentences actually tip
the writer’s hand as to the theme or main point of a new section
that is beginning.
5. Entire Contents of the Biblical Book
6. Other Biblical Writings of a given author
7. Other Books in the New Testament by a different author

❖ Major New Testament Literary Genres

1. Gospels: parables, proverbs, pronouncement stories, healing miracles,

nature miracles, etc.
2. Acts: travel narratives, more miracles, speeches or sermons by early
Christian leaders, etc.
3. Epistles: early Christian creeds or hymns, virtue and vice lists, diatribe,
etc.
4. Apocalypse: early Christian hymnody, visions of the present and future in
highly symbolic form, letters to seven churches, etc.

❖ Figures of Speech
1. Figures of Comparison- include metaphor and simile, the latter making the
comparison explicit by use of “like” or “as,” with the former leaving the
comparison without a specific comparative word (e.g., “Go tell that
fox . . .” [Luke 13:32]).
2. Figures of Addition or Completion- include pleonasm, a form of verbal
redundancy (someone “answered and said,” without implying two
separate actions); paronomasia, or plays on words (“faith without works
doesn’t work [lit., “is workless”—James 2:20]); epanadiplosis, or
repetition for emphasis (e.g., Gal. 1:8 and 9); hyperbole, or rhetorical
exaggeration (e.g., gouging out an eye if it offends you [Matt. 5:29]); and
hendiadys, two mutually defining terms to express one concept (Saul
breathes threats and murder [= murderous threats] in Acts 9:1).
3. Incomplete Figures of Speech- include ellipsis (leaving out words that
must be supplied [e.g., “Submit(ting) to one another out of reverence for
Christ, wives . . . to your own husbands,” in which the verb “submitting”
has to be repeated—Eph. 5:21–22) and aposiopesis (when a portion of a
sentence is omitted for emphasis [e.g., Luke 13:9 on the barren fig tree,
which reads literally, “and if, on the one hand, it produces fruit in the
coming (year). . . . But on the other hand if not, cut it down!” Translations
typically complete the first sentence by adding a word like “good” or
“fine”]).
4. Figures Involving Contrast or Understatement- include irony (“Fill up,
then, the measure of the sin of your ancestors!” [Matt. 23:32]), litotes (a
negative of the contrary—e.g., “no small city”), euphemisms (e.g., “sleep”
for “death”), and antitheses (“You have heard it said of old, but I say to
you,” repeatedly in the Sermon on the Mount).

5. Figures Centering on Association or Relation- include Synecdoche (the

part for the whole) and metonymy (one object substituted for a closely
related one). Luke’s version of Jesus’ command expressed as “be perfect” in
Matthew 5:48 may employ synecdoche (“be merciful” [Luke 6:36]), while
Philippians 1:17 speaks literally of the rival teachers as thinking they can
 create affliction for Paul’s chains, metonymic for Paul in his
imprisonment.
6. Figures Stressing the Personal Dimension of Something- include
Personification (e.g., “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is
your sting?”—addressing death in 1 Cor. 15:55 as if it could hear and act)
and apostrophe (addressing people not present to hear you [e.g., James
5:1]).

❖ Reader-Response Criticism- revels in the diverse number of creative yet

coherent interpretations of a text that can be generated when one is not
concerned with an author’s original intent.

❖ Deconstructionism- showing how competing interpretations can be

played off against one another and/or how different parts of a detailed text
appear to be in conflict with one another, further destabilizing any supposed
fixed meaning.

❖ Rhetorical Criticism- the analysis of the kinds of rhetoric involved in a

New Testament document.

❖ Standard Outlines of an Ancient Speech

1. Epistolary Prescript (1:1–5)

2. Exordium—Statement of Problem (1:6–11)
3. Narratio—Thesis to be demonstrated and demonstration of facts (1:12–
2:14)
4. Propositio—Summary of points of agreement and what remains contested
(2:15–21)
5. Probatio—Proofs or support (3:1–4:31)
6. Types of Arguments

6.1. Logical
6.2. Emotional
6.3. Illustrative
6.4. Figurative
7. Exhortatio—parenesis (5:1–6:10)
8. Epistolary Postscript (6:11–18)

❖ Species of Rhetoric
 1. Judicial/Forensic Rhetoric- argued for a certain understanding of an event
and was often found in settings where the approach taken to a
controversial issue was now being defended.
2. Deliberative Rhetoric- could also seek to persuade but did so more
indirectly, usually with reference to future events, perhaps considering the
relative merits of several options; often this would take the form of
raising key questions that listeners needed to decide how they would
answer.
3. Epideictic Rhetoric- praised or blamed an individual or group for their
views or actions.

❖ Narrative Criticism- looks at biblical books much like students do in

Bible as Literature courses—examining plot, characterization, narrative time,
peaking, and so on.

◉ Greek Language

❖ Periods of Greek

1. Mycenaean Greek
2. Classical/Ancient Greek
3. Koine/Hellenistic Greek
4. Medieval/Byzantine Greek
5. Modern/Neo-Hellenic Greek
 Hermeneutics of the Gospels
❖ Pointers: 

      ➢ A text cannot mean what it never could have meant to its author or
readers. 

➢ Whenever we share comparable particulars (i.e., similar specific life

situations) with the first-century hearers, God’s word to us is the same as his
word to them. 

      ➢ The hermeneutical key to much in the New Testament, and especially to
the ministry and teaching of Jesus, is to be here; For them the events of Jesus’
coming, his death and resurrection, and his giving of the Spirit were all related
to their expectations about the coming of the end. 

➢ We concern ourselves basically with the parables in their present biblical

contexts.

➢ Immerse yourself in the meaning of the kingdom in the ministry of Jesus.