Book Recommendations on Hermeneutics from Seminary Professors
March 27, 2025
March 27, 2025
How can we be sure that we are reading our Bibles correctly? That’s what hermeneutics is all about—reading and understanding rightly what God has revealed in his Word.
9Marks asked four seminary professors to each recommend five of their favorite books on biblical hermeneutics. Their lists include both popular level and academic resources.
Dr. Wellum is professor of Christian Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
This book is written for anyone in the church to help them understand what the Bible is and how to interpret it, along with the basic storyline of Scripture. Part of the task of hermeneutics is to know how the parts of Scripture fit with the entire whole, and to discover the main message and point of Scripture.
This book helps the reader to understand the presuppositions undergirding biblical interpretation, which are foundational to a proper approach and reading of Scripture. One must know what Scripture is before one can interpret it properly, and this book helps the reader think through these important issues. It also contrasts a proper interpretation with misguided approaches employed throughout the history of the church.
This book is very helpful in giving basic information about Scripture, canon, and interpretation. All people would benefit from it since it will help them appreciate basic issues in biblical interpretation. It helps people think through the literary forms of Scripture along with other crucial matters.
These books were written to complement each other. Together they help the reader move from exegesis to theology, with a specific focus on the Old Testament and the New Testament respectively. These books offer the basic nuts and bolts of biblical interpretation and help the reader to think of how the Bible fits together as an entire canon.
This book helps the reader think through the postmodern challenges regarding hermeneutics, and specifically a defense of authorial intention in reading Scripture. It is not an easy read, but it will pay dividends in thinking through intellectual history to understand the challenges of our day. It will also provide a solid theological grounding to biblical authority.
Dr. Vanhoozer is research professor of systematic theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.
Lubeck is a wonderful guide for anyone who wants not simply to read the Bible but to understand and follow it—its words, its arguments, its overarching storyline, and the one it is about, Jesus Christ. The whole book is a great entry-level preparation for understanding what it means to follow Christ. (Honorable mentions go to Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart for How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth and to J. Scott Duvall and J. Daniel Hays for Grasping God’s Word: A Hands-On Approach to Reading, Interpreting, and Applying the Bible).
I cannot not recommend my friend and late colleague’s textbook, which more than lives up to its subtitle. Osborne deals with everything from philosophical assumptions through grammar and genre to homiletics and contextualization. (Honorable mention goes to Craig Bartholomew, Introducing Biblical Hermeneutics: A Comprehensive Framework for Hearing God in Scripture).
The quickest way to appreciate the challenges of biblical interpretation is to study its history. Stanglin is an excellent guide, distilling the principles of premodern and modern exegesis and assessing their respective strengths and weaknesses. A must for anyone interested in the relation between literal and spiritual interpretation.
Though dated, Ramm’s book is somewhat unique in setting forth the “Protestant system” of hermeneutics in contrast to other systems. A theologian rather than biblical scholar, he also devotes chapters to the devotional and doctrinal uses of the Bible, and to the problem of how to make sense of biblical claims in an age of secular science.
My attempt to build a bridge between biblical studies and theology in order to do justice both to what the biblical authors say and to what they’re talking about. Jesus’s Transfiguration shows us the hermeneutical way forward, namely, how we can glorify the letter by discerning the light of Christ shining through it—and by being transfigured by what we behold.
Dr. Naselli is professor of systematic theology and New Testament at Bethlehem Seminary.
An accessible and thorough how-to book by my favorite Old Testament scholar.
The second half of this article is titled “How to Interpret the Bible” (pp. 10–19).
Colorfully explains common errors that people make when interpreting the Bible.
My attempt to explain how to interpret and apply the Bible (with a focus on the New Testament).
A master teacher clearly and accessibly introduces readers to hermeneutics.
Dr. Gladd is executive director of The Carson Center for Theological Renewal (and former professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary).
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For more book recommendations from pastors, professors, and counselors on a variety of topics, click here.
Those who preach should preach their Bibles.
The Scriptures are sufficient. I know they are. God told me.
While reading this book on biblical theology, you will taste and see something of the wonder and awe and profound privilege of being able to know and love Jesus Christ as he has been revealed in all the Holy Scriptures.
