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Biblical Exegesis: 6. Finding Books

Biblical exegesis is the process by which one comes to understand a Biblical text. One begins by identifying key passages, terms, and concepts and uses specialized library resources during the research process.

LibrarySearch book search

Results here are limited to books, ebooks, and book chapters.

Schools of Bible Criticism

Use LibrarySearch to explore critical schools of Bible scholarship.  Use a keyword approach as much as possible.


Overview:
Guides to Biblical Scholarship series

  • General series
  • New Testament series
  • Old Testament series

Examples of critical schools:

  • Redaction Criticism
  • Feminist criticism
  • Socio-rhetorical criticism
  • Rhetorical criticism 
  • Narrative Criticism
  • Reader-response criticism
  • Social scientific criticism

Common topics for critical schools:

  • narration in the bible
  • bible canon
  • bible social conditions
  • bible comparative studies
  • bible and literature
  • bible as literature
  • bible language style
  • bible criticism interpretation 16th century
  • exodus hermeneutics
  • islamic interpretations
  • synoptic problem
  • two source hypothesis synoptics 
  • q hypothesis synoptics

Search for Topics in LibrarySearch

Use keywords in LibrarySearch and look at your results. There are thousands of subjects but here are some common ones and how they are "formed." Note the N T and O T and quotation marks. 

Patterns to follow: 

  • bible n t Matthew feminist criticism 
  • bible n t john
  • Palestine social conditions
  • bible o t psalms
  • ethics in the bible
  • "women in the bible" 
  • bible contemporary events
  • marriage biblical teaching 
  • "slavery in the bible"
  • healing in the bible
  • Jesus Christ passion
  • lord's supper bible
  • messiah n t 
  • dead sea scrolls
  • Judaism history post-exilic
  • history inter-testamental
  • temple Jerusalem
  • bible canon
  • Adam biblical figure
  • Mary blessed virgin
  • Sarah biblical matriarch  

LC Subject Heading to Search by Old and New Testament Books

To find books about specific parts of the Bible, use the following format for a subject search

For Old Testament books:

Bible O.T. [Name of Book] -- Commentaries

Bible O.T. [Name of Book] -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.

For New Testament books:

Bible N. T. [Name of Book] -- Commentaries

Bible N. T. [Name of Book] -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Commentary Search - Terms in LC Subject Headings to us to search for Individual Books/Parts of the Bible

Here are the three main patterns for searching the catalog by subject:

[name of book] AND commentaries
[name of book] AND criticism
[name of book] AND theology

Genesis AND theology
Pentateuch AND commentaries
Gospels AND commentaries 
John AND commentaries 
John AND criticism
John AND theology

Critical Treatment of the Bible


Use LibrarySearch to locate books on texts, passages and sections of the Bible. Be sure to use commentaries to review critical approaches to texts.

Critical treatments of Bible texts:

  • bible n t criticism interpretation
  • bible o t  job criticism interpretation 
  • bible n t epistles paul criticism interpretation 
  • bible women criticism interpretation 
  • bible criticism textual
  • bible n t mark narrative
  • bible n t hermeneutics 

Note also that you can combine subjects with criticism interpretation” in keyword searches.

  • bible evil criticism 
  • biblical teaching family criticism 
  • bible early criticism interpretation

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