Rating: 
Summary: Read and sit in the pew...
Review: As a former pastor, now teacher, I find myself amazed at how many pastors use one or more of these. I gave a copy to a friend and she sat and counted them up one month. We now have a a group of people at church who count these up on a monthly basis. Pastors, please use good exegesis and do not fall for these simple things.
Rating:
Summary: Good intro to exegesis
Review: Carson designed this work to be a textbook for seminarians and to serve as an introduction for budding exegetes. Anyone with a basic knowledge of the Bible and the biblical languages has probably found himself wincing on Sunday morning as a deacon or Sunday School teacher, or even the pastor, takes a verse out of context or mangles the original intent of the author. Such mistakes are simply inexcusable, for teachers of the Word ought to take utmost care in handling the text. Souls are in the balance. Carson's Exegetical Fallacies, though only 150 pages long, fires a powerful volley in the battle against exegetical imprecision. Carson covers word-study fallacies, grammatical fallacies, logical fallacies, and presuppositional fallacies, giving examples of each and demonstrating the errors of each. This book serves its purpose well and is excellent for both trained ministers and laymen. Read it and you will never listen to a sermon in the same way again.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent overview of how not to do exegesis
Review: Carson's effort here is something of a gem. This little book is filled with sage advice for exegetes and all levels (layman, student, pastor, professor). What makes the book all the more useful is that each concept is concretized via an actual example of someone committing the fallacy under discussion. Carson's comments are generally fair, sober and accurate. Two cautions are in order however: 1) Carson's own presuppositions sometimes show through (he is a mildly Reformed Baptist) in cases of continuity and discontinuity of the Old and New Testaments and his slightly wooden understanding of the grammatical-historical method, and 2) Just because Carson thinks something is a fallacy does not mean that it actually is! His observations here are his, they do not carry the authority of the fallacies commonly identified by the logicians. Hence, one can rightly disagree with Carson and should at a few points. These reservations do not detract from the immense value of this book as a teaching tool (as long as one keeps in mind that the teacher is not infallible) and a great help to interpreters of Scripture.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Resource for Pastors and Scholars
Review: D. A. Carson is research professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. This book began as a series of lectures sponsored by Western Conservative Baptist Seminary in Portland, OR. Carson also explains that much of what went into the lectures, and so now the book, began as part of his notes given in various classes over the years. This is the second edition of the book, which finds it slightly revised and expanded form the previous edition. Carson divides his book into four chapters that deal with various kinds of fallacies and a fifth chapter that offers some concluding thoughts. The first chapter deals with word-study fallacies. Here, Carson gives a list of the mistakes related to linguistics studies. All of these fallacies occur when interpreters misunderstand the use of certain words by an author. Some involves reading back into the word the meaning of another word which has the original as its root, though the root did not originally mean what its derivative does. For example, while our word `dynamite' may have the Greek 'dunamous' as its root, Paul certainly was not thinking of blasting powder when he spoke of the 'dunamous' [power] of the gospel. Others involve finding a root to words which simply isn't there. For example, we not should interpret the word `butterfly' based on its apparent root words - `butter' and `fly'! Chapter two examines grammatical fallacies. These sorts of mistakes many times come from basing arguments on the mood or tense of words when the language is more flexible than the one arguing will allow. For example, the aorist tense is often abused by some who insist that it always means an `once for all action' that occurs in the past. Heikki Räisänen makes this mistake when commenting on Romans 3:27. Logical fallacies are the focus of the third chapter of this book. Here, Carson attacks the erroneous ways in which one justifies the way he or she may interpret Scripture. These can come in one's inability to recognize distinctions, or perhaps draw distinctions where none exist. Still yet, another fallacy can come when one improperly frames the question he is trying to answer. For example, "When did you stop beating your wife?" is a mis-framed question, for almost any answer will get the innocent man in trouble! The fourth chapter outlines some presuppositional and historical fallacies that often plague exegetes. Some of these mistakes result when one ignores the Bible's storyline. For example, some today would see the Song of Songs as pornographic literature. Obviously, they have missed the point of the book, in part because they have failed to take the plot-line of the Scripture in mind. Some of the historical fallacies that Carson speaks of involve uncontrolled reconstructions of ancient settings, attempted explanations of an author's motive, and the desire to relate the Bible to other disciplines (e.g. sociology or psychology). Carson has put together an excellent handbook on mistakes to avoid in interpreting Scripture. And while Carson himself sees this book as only being supplemental reading, I think that it should be required reading for anyone who studies (or practices!) hermeneutics and Scripture interpretation. The only critique I have to offer is the book's brevity. I would love to see Carson do yet another revision of the book, elaborating further on the various fallacies he has outlined along with adding a comparable section on positive elements for interpreting Scripture. Overall, I found Carson's book to be an excellent read. Granted this is not light reading that one would want to take on vacation with him or her, it is a book that repays serious study and contemplation. On a personal note, I was fortunate enough to meet Carson once. When I did, I told him how much this book sacred me when I read it. He made the comment that he supposed the book was not all that "edifying." After reflecting on the short conversation, I think he was wrong. In fact, the book is very edifying because it teaches the reader that he or she is not interpreting just another book, he is handling the Word of God and great care must be taken. The book is edifying in that it reinforces the value of God's Word.
Rating: 
Summary: A good but flawed work
Review: D.A. Carson has done a great job of labeling and categorizing each and every common exegetical fallacy. I recommend this book for that specific reason. You must be careful however as you go through, because in a near funny (it would be downright hilarious if it weren't so tragic) method, Carson uses many of his own fallacies to bash exegetes that he doesn't like. There is one exegete that he continually bashes that I have in mind but won't mention because I think you'll find it obvious if you look for it. I don't know why he would harp on the importance of context in the Bible and then completely ignore context in extra-biblical literature (and even misquote someone!!). This being said, get this book, read the exegetical fallacies he lists along with their definitions and be aware of them in your own studies and in works of those theologians and exegetes you like or don't like. But don't by any means just take his word for who does what fallacy. Carson is too theologically biased to be objective in this area.
Rating: 
Summary: Not impressed
Review: D.A. Carson is overly biased. He uses most of this book to bash views he doesn't like. Some of his categories are good but the examples he provides ought to be less polemical.
Rating:
Summary: a welcome slap in the face
Review: Erroneus exegesis is rampant in virtually every religion that ties its beliefs to some form of holy writ. Although there are many books available which make the same treatise as Carson's work, this book is handy for the Christian Biblical exegete. It's refreshing, modern, erudite, and very helpful to caution those that perform exegesis of some of the more common errors we sometimes (consciously or subconsciously) commit. Carson's work should be welcomed to pastors and laypersons that are perhaps unaware of the errors we make when explaining biblical text. D. A. Carson deftly points out some of the more common exegetical fallacies (hence the title) extant in modern (and ancient) Christianity that he has experienced in the classroom, in writing, and in homily. This book is not an exhaustive work of all major exegetical fallacies, but rather a few of the more prominant with some working examples. Carson is aware of this, and pardons himself in the beginning of the book. This work may be difficult for those not versed in hermeneutics or with little grasp of basic biblical Hebrew and Greek (Carson does provide transliterations of the words/phrases he gives, however). The reader must also have had a basic understanding of college-level logic in order to follow some of the logical fallacies Carson presents. Some college-level training in semantics may also assist the reader. Additionally, a firm grasp of Pauline and Johannine theology would prove helpful for the reader. My only gravamen about this book is the frequent polemic attacks Carson uses to illustrate examples. (He justifies this by oftimes attacking himself, which is a fallacious reason to polemically attack others in and of itself). In most instances, Carson makes individual attacks against certain Evangelist scholars to show examples (Carson himself being Evangelist), but at other times, he uses common exegetical interpretation among an entire denomination to illustrate fallacy instead of singling out one particular scholar from said denomination (like Catholics, Mormons, Lutherans, and even the Council of Churches), showing that his gruntwork in finding viable references maybe wasn't as extensive as he would like you to believe (a fallacy he points out later in the book). Also, Carson has a rather heated debate with himself over his interpretation of Matt. 24:24 (pages 112-115), subconsciously telling this reader that perhaps Carson thought he was beat and is attempting to overjustify himself to make his point. The issue is centered on whether or not "the very elect"--which could quite possibly be something different than a common believing Christian, a point Carson fails to acknowledge--can ultimately be deceived, in which case he actually agrees with his interlocutor in the process (and ignores key passages which strengthen his interlocutor's argument like 2 Peter 1:10, Rom. 8:28; Matt. 22:14; Rev. 17:14, etc.). He ends his argument by utilizing one of his own descriptions of fallacy (equivocal argumentation, see page 118-120), and even caustically demonstrates the fallacy of the "cavalier dismissal" in footnote #43 of the same argument (p. 114). I award the book 4 stars for a well-written attempt to illustrate common fallacies utilized in modern exegesis, but I also advise the reader that Carson frequently employs fallacy within his own argumentation.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Introduction to Exegetical Fallacies
Review: If one wants to know how some fine Christian scholars make exegetical mistakes and what the correctives are, this book should be the first place to start. Carson tackles exegetical flaws that commonly abound in commentaries and theological works and does it with pin-point accuracy and straightforwardness. He exposes flaws not only committed by non-evangelical scholars, but those considered evangelical! He shows how exegetical fallacies are committed by the choice of words used, improper grammer use, improper use of logic, and ones presuppositions and historical attachments. This book will make you think about how you've always read the Bible and make you rise above the typical wooden way of reading the Scriptures. This book is easy to understand for the laity and seminary student, but also scholarly enough for
theologians to use as a reference tool. This book is important for those trying to understand how to avoid making exegetical mistakes when reading the Bible.
Rating:
Summary: Guide to Understanding Biblical Language
Review: Many people are keen to be able to read the bible in the original languages, but do not understand how to apply their new-found knowledge.
There are some excellent books to assist in this regard, including Moises Silva's Biblical Words and Their Meaning, Cotterell and Turner's Linguistics and Biblical Interpretation and David Alan Black's Linguistics for Students of New Testament Greek, It's Still Greek To Me and Using New Testament Greek in Ministry. But Don Carson's Exegetical Fallacies is a great start. It is reasonably easy to understand, and shows how language works and how we can easily get tripped up in our efforts to interpret it, in a stimulating and entertaining manner. His book is short, and definitely worth reading a few times. If you find yourself disagreeing with his conclusions, think carefully about what yours are based on. Is it a great sermon or a cherished theory, or is it based on careful biblical study? Other thought-provoking books by Carson which give examples of his exegetical method include his "Inclusive Language Debate: a plea for realism,""The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God" and "Showing the Spirit," which is an exposition of 1 Corinthians 12-14. Carson is bilingual, having been brought up in Canada where he and his father preached in both English and French. He shows how this has helped in his study of language and of the Bible in his book on the inclusive language debate. The insights he has discovered make him well worth reading. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Good basic handbook
Review: Pinned to the wall of my cubicle is an inspirational postcard with the dazzling picture of the bow of a sunken ship sticking out of the water. The caption reads, "Mistakes: It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others." Carson's short selection of exegetical mistakes should be required reading for anyone attempting to interpret Scripture, for he gives one a taste of the kinds of mistakes that can be made by both rank amateurs and seasoned scholars. The work is in no way (nor was it intended to be) exhaustive, but gives some small tastes of bad exegesis. It's not quite a classic, but it's a useful little handbook of what not to do when exegeting the Word. It should be on every pastor, seminary student, and bible study leader's shelf, dog-eared and fingerprinted from use.
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