Exegetical Fallacies

        I.            Word Fallacies –

1.       Root – defining a word by the sum of its root words, or assuming its meaning is determined by its etymology

2.       Semantic anachronism – reading a meaning or picture which developed later or the meaning of a derivative word back into the original

3.       Semantic obsolescence – reading a meaning or picture which had already disappeared or become outdated forward into the original

4.       Appeal to unknown or unlikely meanings – inventing or stretching definitions to avoid the obvious meaning

5.       Careless appeal to background material – assuming a meaning attested only in a different context

6.       Verbal parallelomania – finding supposed parallel usages of words and assuming the meaning is the same

7.       Linkage of language and mentality – assuming that the language used so constrained the thinking process of the author who used it that he was forced into certain patterns of thought and shielded from others

8.       False assumptions about technical meaning – assuming that a word always has a certain technical meaning, usually derived from a subset of the evidence or from the interpreter's personal systematic theology

9.       Problems surrounding synonyms and componential analysis –

                                                             a.      taking different words in parallel settings as synonyms, then using them to define each other

                                                            b.      finding a difference in precise meaning between two synonyms, then assuming they can never be used synonymously in a given context

10.   Selective and prejudicial use of evidence – limiting evidence to limit meaning

11.   Unwarranted semantic disjunctions and restrictions – false dichotomy

12.   Unwarranted restriction of the semantic field – ignoring homonyms and metaphors

13.   Unwarranted adoption of an expanded semantic field – assuming the meaning of a word in a given context takes into consideration all dictionary definitions at once

14.   Problems relating to the Semitic background of the Greek New Testament –

                                                             a.      defining Greek words by finding Hebrew equivalents (using Septuagint)

                                                            b.      generally assuming the content of the Greek New Testament is limited by Semitic languages presumably underlying parts of it

15.   Unwarranted neglect of distinguishing peculiarities of a corpus – assuming that a given New Testament writer's usage of a given word is roughly the same as that of all other New Testament writers

16.   Unwarranted linking of sense and reference – assuming every word must refer to a real entity (rather than an abstract concept such as ‘beautiful’)

      II.            Grammatical Fallacies –

1.       Fallacies Connected with Various Tenses and Moods –

                                                             a.      The aorist tense – does not necessarily imply the action was once for all (but does not have no influence on meaning)

                                                            b.      The first person aorist subjunctive – grammatical category masks as much as it reveals

                                                             c.      The middle voice – does not necessarily mean that the subject acts of itself

2.       Fallacies Connected with Various Syntactical Units –

                                                             a.      Conditionals –

i.          in a first-class condition the protasis is assumed true for the sake of the argument, but the thing actually assumed may or may not be true

ii.       third-class conditions do not necessarily have some built-in expectation of fulfillment

                                                            b.      The article: preliminary considerations – assuming that because the Greek has an article, the translation should, and vice versa

                                                             c.      The article: the Granville Sharp rule – if  two substantives are connected by taxi and both have the article, they refer to different persons or things; if the first has an article and the second does not, the second refers to the same person or thing as the first (too simplistic, does not apply to plural nouns, the converse does not hold, etc)

                                                            d.      The article: the Colwell rule and related matters – the noun with the article is the subject, even though it is placed after the verb (does not say anything about the noun without the article)

                                                            e.      Relationships of tenses – ignoring differences in tenses between adjacent clauses

    III.            Logic –

1.       False disjunctions – improperly excluding a middle ground

2.       Failure to recognize distinctions – assuming because things are alike in certain respects they are alike in all respects

3.       Appeal to selective evidence – ignoring evidence that does not agree with your conclusion

4.       Improperly handled syllogisms – an invalid syllogism

5.       Negative inferences – assuming that if a proposition is true, the converse is also true

6.       World-view confusion – think that your own experience and interpretation are the complete and only ground for interpreting a text

7.       Fallacies of question-framing – requiring an explanation for something that is not proved; leading questions; posing false dichotomies

8.       Unwarranted confusion of truth and precision – accuracy does not require precision

9.       Purely emotive appeals – emotive appeals must be accompanied with logical accuracy, not substituted for it

10.   Unwarranted generalization and overspecification – taking an example as a universal rule; interpreting a text too broadly; reading into a text specific details or limitations which are actually part of the baggage you brought in

11.   Unwarranted associative jumps – combining different passages on disparate subjects to produce the desired conclusion

12.   False statements – misinformation or disinformation

13.   The non sequitur – making claims that do not follow from the arguments given

14.   Cavalier dismissal – writing off an argument instead of dealing with it rationally

15.   Fallacies based on equivocal argumentation – assuming valid arguments are necessarily conclusive; using intentionally ambiguous language

16.   Inadequate analogies – relying on analogies that are not parallel to the point at issue

17.   Abuse of “obviously” and similar expressions – unfounded claims of certainty

18.   Simplistic appeals to authority – a quote from someone who agrees with you is not a substitute for a reasoned defense, it only proves you’re not crazy

    IV.            Presuppositional and Historical Fallacies –

1.       Presuppositional Fallacies –

                                                             a.      Fallacies arising from omission of distanciation in the interpretative process – reading one’s personal theology into the text

                                                            b.      Interpretations that ignore the Bible's story-line – denying that the Bible fits together

                                                             c.      Fallacies that arise from a bleak insistence on working outside the Bible's "givens" – conforming the text to your social agenda

2.       Historical Fallacies –

                                                             a.      Uncontrolled historical reconstruction – forgetting that the best record of the early church’s struggles is the New Testament; using your own imagined history to reject the text

                                                            b.      Fallacies of causation –

i.         post hoc, propter hoc – the mistaken idea that if event B happened after event A, it happened because of event A

ii.       cum hoc, propter hoc – mistaking correlation for cause

iii.      pro hoc, propter hoc – putting the effect before the cause

iv.     the reductive fallacy – reducing complexity to simplicity, or diversity to uniformity, in causal explanations

v.       the fallacy of reason as cause – mistaking a causal for a logical order, or vice versa

vi.     the fallacy of responsibility as cause – confusing a problem of ethics with a problem of agency in a way which falsifies both

                                                             c.      Fallacies of motivation – attempting to psychoanalyze the past

                                                            d.      Conceptual parallelomania – reading your field of interest into the text

      V.            Opportunities for Even More Fallacies –

1.       Problems related to literary genre – not taking genre into account

2.       Problems related to the New Testament use of the Old – authority, literalness, context

3.       Arguments from silence – weak

4.       Problems relating to juxtapositions of texts – linking texts without justification

5.       Problems relating to statistical arguments – bad

6.       Problems in distinguishing the figurative and the literal – not

Outline taken from D.A. Carson,  Exegetical Fallacies, 2nd Edition.