A History of Biblical Interpretation, vol. 2: The Medieval through the Reformation Periods
Overview
This second installment of A History of Biblical Interpretation contains essays by 15 noted scholars discussing major methods, movements, and interpreters in the Jewish and Christian communities from the beginning of the Middle Ages until the end of the sixteenth-century Reformation. The authors examine themes such as the variety of interpretive developments within Judaism during this period, the monumental work of Rashi and his followers, the achievements of the Carolingian era, and the later scholastic developments within the universities, beginning in the twelfth century. Included are bibliographical references for even deeper study.
Top Highlights
“Instead of a preoccupation with the comments of the fathers, Luther called for a commitment to their method, namely, an engagement with the words of the passages themselves in the context of the entire Bible. Rather than using the comments of the fathers to explain difficult passages, Luther encouraged his students and others to use the biblical context—comparing ‘what precedes with what follows’ (WA 18.713.3–7 = LW 33.181; WA 40/2.36.25–37.8 = LW 27.29; WA 45.555.23–33 = LW 24.104)—and especially to use other clearer passages of Scripture that deal with the same issue to explain the difficult passages. ‘One must know that Scripture without any glosses is the sun and the whole light from which all teachers receive their light, and not vice versa’ (WA 7.639.1–2 = LW 39.164).” (Page 304)
“Before such mystery, only learned ignorance is appropriate, a humble ascent from the simpler historical sense to the more obscure spiritual senses. Gregory’s reputation as an exegete has suffered in some circles because his followers often imitated his preference for the extended meanings and ignored his insistence on the historical/literal meaning. Isidore of Seville, for instance, hurries on intentionally to the spiritual, as he tells us explicitly in his preface to the Quaestiones in Vetus Testamentum (PL 83, 208B, C; see Wasselynch 1965).” (Page 96)
“Byzantine Christianity inherited from the earlier Greek fathers, especially the Alexandrians, less a ‘theory’ of divine inspiration of Scripture than a theology of the mystical presence of the divine Logos within the text that conditions the whole dynamic of interpretation. The Logos ‘incarnates’ himself in the flesh of Scripture, while the Holy Spirit authors the text and models its every detail to salvific ends. For Origen, the Logos embodies himself such that the text becomes a filter of his divinity (Comm. on Matt. frag., in PG 17.89A–B; Comm. on John 1.19, Preuschen 1903: 23) and a means for drawing pious souls toward the sublime mystery of his identity as the exalted Son of God (see Gögler 1963: 260–70; Behr 2001: 169–78).” (Page 173)
- Title: A History of Biblical Interpretation, Volume 2: The Medieval through the Reformation Periods
- Authors: Alan J. Hauser, Duane F. Watson
- Series: A History of Biblical Interpretation
- Volume: 2
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2009
- Logos Release Date: 2014
- Era: era:Contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Bible › Criticism, interpretation, etc.--History
- ISBNs: 9780802842749, 0802842747
- Resource ID: LLS:HSTBBNTRPRTTN02
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:02:16Z