The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation

By Grant R. Osborne

Book Overview

Recipient of a Christianity Today 1993 Critics Choice Award!In this comprehensive and up-to-date volume, Grant R. Osborne provides seminary students and working pastors with the full set of tools they need to move from sound exegesis to the development of biblical and systematic theologies andto the preparation of sound, biblical sermons.Osborne contends that hermeneutics is a spiral from text to context--a movement between the horizon of the text and the horizon of the reader that spirals nearer and nearer toward the intended meaning of the text and its significance for today.He develops his thesis in each of three sections: the first covering general hermeneutics (grammar, semantics, syntax, backgrounds), the second covering hermeneutics and genre, and the third covering applied hermeneutics. Along the way, he offers assessments of recent developments from redaction criticism to reader response criticism. In two appendixes he also addresses the contemporary philosophical challenges to fixed meanings in texts and discusses the implications of this debate for biblical authority.Covering the wide spectrum from exegesis to sermon preparation, Osborne's up-to-date and comprehensive text should prove to be the standard evangelical work in the field for years to come.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830812881
• ISBN13: 9780830812882
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: InterVarsity Press
• Length: 499 Pages
• Weight: 1.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.2" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The Hermeneutical Spiral

Grant Osborne is an excellent writer and scholar. His desire that the book help people study the biblical text correctly comes through well. Readers can use this textbook regardless of depth of biblical languages. Osborne provides information on the kinds of criticisms under which many study and how those should be incorporated appropriately.

Provides a Solid Foundation for Biblical Interpretation

The size of the book may seem daunting to many (500+ pages), but the knowledge contained within will be worth your time if you are considering to properly study the Bible. This book pretty much covers the wide range of subjects necessary to properly interpret the biblical texts. It doesn't address each of these subjects in extensive details, but it does provide a solid foundation for further investigation. Most of the material contained within the book can be very dry - like any other textbook or instruction manual, but it is invaluable for properly studying the Bible. I would recommend reading the book straight through the first time, and then put it on your shelf as a handy reference tool.

The Hermeneutical Spiral: A Comprehensive Introduction to Biblical Interpretation

As of 9-5-08, I have not had time to do any reading in this book. This book is actually one of the text books I will be using for a Masters level course that I am currently enrolled in.

Comprehensive and practical.

This book is aptly subtitled, for comprehensive it is! Osborne goes the length in this book from explaining how to study the Biblical text in its original language to advice on delivery of sermons.A basic thesis he mentions a number of times throughout the book is that the goal of hermeneutics is not the commentary but the sermon. This textbook is very detailed and yet practical: almost everything he writes is aimed at how to write a relevant sermon for a congregation today.Part one deals with General Hermeneutics. Here he addresses matters of context, grammar, semantics, syntax, and historical and cultural backgrounds.In part two Osborne discusses extensively the different genre of the Bible which he divides as narrative, poetry, wisdom, prophecy, apocalyptic, parable, and epistle. A preacher will do well to consult the different chapters when preaching on a text of a particular genre.In Part 3, the author deals with Applied Hermeneutics. He writes about the place of Biblical Theology and Systematic Theology in the interpretation of Scripture. The second to last chapter is about contextualization-showing a congregation today how the text is relevant for them. The book comes together in the last chapter, "The Sermon," in which Osborne gives both theoretical and practical instruction in preparing the sermon and preaching.Osborne promotes what is often called the textual-thematic (also known as textual- reconstructive or expository) sermon. He does not, however, totally reject the topical sermon.This is a very good book. It would serve well as a textbook for a seminary course on hermeneutics. Considering its size (500 pages of dense type), a minister in a busy pastorate might be a bit intimidated to take it on. But then, that's what sabbaticals are for!

This book should be a guide book for all Christian

This is the book for pastor, layman, student, college student or any Christian want to know the biblical truth, the often words "bible speak". I have many "how to" books on intepretation but overall to me this is most practical how-to that when I put it in practice; simply "It work". When I go to theology SWC school, so often my professor use it's methods for our assignments; eventhough he not use that book, the reason it: "too many pages for a semester". I highly recommended for anyone love God and His Living Word - Word of Life...I John 1