God's word... Or, putting my words into God's mouth?

Those of us who preach, or who teach other people to preach, know the great temptation of putting our words in God's mouth!

I can't tell you how many times I've heard people preach absolute nonsense, abusing the intention and meaning of a text in the Bible, perhaps even preaching a heresy, and at the end of their sermon they proudly say "This is the word of God!" I think God wants to run a mile!

So, here's little resource that may be of some use to preachers, or teachers of the Bible (such as Bible study leaders).

It is a very basic introduction to Biblical Exegesis and Hermeneutics (that is, how we can responsibly study and interpret the Bible so that we get to hear God's word, rather than putting our words into God's mouth)!

Please give me feedback, comments, suggestions, and corrections. This pamphlet is based on an original pamphlet by the Revd Tim Attwell from 1999.

The link below is for the file in Adobe PDF format (if you don't have an Adobe reader you can download it for free at http://www.adobe.com/reader

If you would like an MS Word copy of the file please email me.

Basic principles of Exegesis for preachers and teachers 2007.pdf

Here's the MS Word version:

Basic principles of Exegesis for preachers and teachers 2007.doc