A History of Biblical Interpretation, vol. 1: The Ancient Period
Overview
At first glance, it may seem strange that after more than 2,000 years of biblical interpretation there are still major disagreements among biblical scholars about what the Jewish and Christian Scriptures say, and about how one is to read and understand them. Yet the range of interpretive approaches now available is the result both of the richness of the biblical texts themselves and of differences in the worldviews of the communities and individuals who have sought to make the Scriptures relevant to their own time and place. A History of Biblical Interpretation provides detailed and extensive studies of the interpretation of the Scriptures by Jewish and Christian writers throughout the ages.
Top Highlights
“Thus, he provides an example of the early Christian tendency to see events in the New Testament mysteriously prefigured in the Old when he states that the scarlet thread hung from Rahab’s house prefigures the blood of Christ (12.7).” (Pages 308–309)
“The major added feature in early Christian interpretation was the presupposition that Jesus was the Christ, and this reconfigured the intertextual connections of Jewish tradition and created new ones, often through typological interpretation.” (Page 40)
“Thus, Philo frequently interprets the same text on two or three different levels” (Page 16)
“A key concept for Philo is the transcendence of God” (Page 16)
“The two powers ‘God’ (theos) and ‘Lord’ (kyrios) bridge the gap between God’s simultaneous transcendence and immanence. Philo’s ‘eclecticism consists in being a Platonist about transcendence, and a Stoic about immanence’ (Siegert 1996, 170).” (Page 119)
- Title: A History of Biblical Interpretation, Volume 1: The Ancient Period
- Authors: Alan J. Hauser, Duane F. Watson
- Series: A History of Biblical Interpretation
- Volume: 1
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2003
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Era: era:Contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Bible › Criticism, interpretation, etc.--History
- ISBNs: 9780802863959, 0802863957
- Resource ID: LLS:HSTBBNTRPRTTN01
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:02:15Z
Reviews
1 rating
Glenn Crouch
6/5/2018
This is the first volume in a set looking at Biblical Interpretation throughout the History of the Church (and includes handling by Judaism). It is quite a scholarly work - not aimed at the novice - and has a different author for each "chapter". So better to think of these as more like the essays you would read in an Academic Journal. This is in no way a criticism, rather an explanation as multi-volume works can be done in a variety of ways. The essay approach does mean that there is quite some difference between one "chapter" and another. I would say that I enjoyed the Jerome chapter the most - and whilst I got something out of every "chapter", some authors I found a little too arrogant in their scholastic approach (no consideration or thought given to any academic thoughts that might be a bit more conservative than the authors). Thus I felt a bit like each author was arguing (and often well) for his/her topic - but there really were no other views even mentioned, let alone argued for - and this can tend to give that indication that everyone in the field agrees with the author. To counter-balance this, each "chapter" has an extensive bibliography, thus allowing the reader to read further on the topic - and I do like that :) I haven't made the next volume a high priority on my reading list at this time.