Overview of Biblical Interpretation History: Early Church & Middle Ages
Overview of Biblical Interpretation History: Early Church & Middle Ages
Any overview which tries to summarize the histories of the many aspects involved in biblical interpretation, over the course of 2000 years can only scratch the surface of the many complexities represented there. But as people of the 21st Century, we make a grave mistake if we fail to realize that even the perception of reality we have as the “norm” would not necessarily be that shared by all those who came before us.
Our ability to fly in a powered craft and see clouds from above is a luxury we share with only a fraction of those who have ever lived on this planet. Knowing we are on a planet, and have the ability to call up, on our devices, a picture of the “blue planet” in the blackness of space is an even greater luxury still. These go into our perceptions of what we mean when we say “the world”, as opposed to those who would have written Scripture and those who studied its meaning over the centuries before such perspectives were available.
Thus, when it comes to perceiving “reality” from the texts of the Bible, it does matter if we are referring to those who were more apt to “hear” the Scripture recited to them, along with those who did not have a complete edition, to those who read it in Hebrew, Greek, or, later, Latin. Some treated the text as fixed, others tried to make some adjustments, or provide running commentaries along with the text with the result that such definitions of what the text meant came to be what the doctrine arising from that text would become.
We stand on the shoulders of those who meant for us to have these texts, and to pass them on in meaningful ways to our descendants.
We’ll look at major interpretive trends found in 1) The Early Church and The Middle Ages, 2) The 16th and 17th Centuries, 3) The 18th and 19th Centuries, and 4) The 20th Century in Europe and North America.
An important point to keep in mind throughout this review is the many cultures, languages, and belief systems through which the Bible comes to us today. This, in itself, is a marvel and perhaps a tribute to how the Holy Spirit may have superintended the process of how these materials were valued over time.
Reformation: 16th & 17th Centuries
Biblical Interpretationshould be seen in the context of its time. It is both an ‘art’ and ‘science’, very much fueled by the needs and trends of historical movements around it. The fertile time of the 16th and 17th centuries were times when both the Reformation (1500-1565) and Renaissance affected the ways in which the Bible, and authority itself, was appropriated into cultural life.
The Reformation produced a greater sense of the importance of the literal meaning of the text. It presupposed the unity of the divine text and held a high view of inspiration. It was a pre-critical time, accepting the received text of the canon without a heavy emphasis on origins of the text beyond that which was available to the interpreter.
A major influence toward an appreciation of the biblical languages was the increasing concern that some interpretations of scripture primarily served contemporary political and ecclesiastical purposes. Along with this emphasis on the text itself was the desire to make it available in a purer version of the original languages, and then create newer Latin versions beyond the Vulgate, and other versions in the vernacular of the people at large.
Major figures such as Martin Luther, Desiderius Erasmus and others created their own translations of the texts. In addition, the creation of “Polyglotts” (multiple languages) were popular, with several languages of the biblical text, and commentaries, collected together for study purposes.
Clearly this was a time for renewed, and independent, study of Scripture. This would give rise to a more diverse understanding and open the door to what would become a more modern, critical, approach to the Bible.
Biblical scholarship moved in several directions, though the basic presupposition continued to be that the divine inspiration of the text created a timeless message to the contemporary societies to which it was read. Though the Protestant split was significant, there was no disagreement as to biblical inspiration and authority of the text. God was seen to be the primary author and the authors of the individual books were secondary.
However, the strong desire to get back to the very texts themselves also opened up the opportunity for new critical analyses such as (later named) “textual criticism” where such scholars as Theodore Beza (1519-1605) would try to determine systematic ways to decide the better text when ancient codices failed to always agree. This new type of investigation allowed scholars to consider that the received text (often called the Textus Receptus), which often failed to make a decision on disputed texts, needed to be re-examined.
Classical/ Modern: 18th & 19th Centuries
The next two centuries were marked by a fascination with applying the methods of scientific inquiry to the study of language and history. This was often displayed through the classification of many aspects of language into charts, graphs, systems, and taxonomies so as to better study the meanings of words in their original historical contexts.
Scholars began to see the Scripture more as a description of God’s encounter with people rather than the actual encounter itself. “Revelation” is, then, represented in the text rather than presented. This period of interpretation emphasized the human element with an understanding of the authors as active participants rather than more passive facilitators.
The era also began to see what would be called the “critical” element of biblical study. Borrowing from literary analysis, scholars such as Johannes Bengel began to prioritize the various readings of the text in the original languages, giving greater weight to those terms that would be seen as older. This “textual criticism” would only grow through the work of archaeologists whose findings would add to the amount of materials that could be studied.
Following soon after, scholars would provide critical examinations of the sources of texts (source criticism), the work of redactors or later editors within texts (such as John 21:24; redaction criticism), and the divergence between the way in which history was recorded in the ancient and modern worlds (historical criticism).
In an area of life where certainty seemed to be assured, these scholarly movements served to be strong disruptions for the average ‘person in the pew.’ Such set up what has been an on-going suspicion of academic renderings of theology over against a more devotional approach. We continue to have this division of perceptions in our own day.
It might be said that we see a movement, in this time frame, from the practice of applying Scripture to scholarly pursuits, to having the trend operate in the opposite direction. Science, history, literature, philosophy, and later, the theories of Charles Darwin, these centuries see the rise of other disciplines being directed toward the study of the Bible. The trend also marks a time when in western civilization, these modern disciplines were felt to be more reliable than previous Bible interpretations.
The thought leaders of the time were men such as Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, George W.F. Hegel and Soren Kierkegaard and, of course, Charles Darwin.
Their impact, and the rise of counter, more conservative movements in the United States and Britain, would set up the “Modernist/Fundamentalist” controversies that would set much of the tone for biblical scholarship into the 20th century.
Modern to Present: 20th Century Europe and North America
The cumulative effect of the critical analyses of the previous centuries created a great divide in scholarship around both the integrity of the Scriptures and their authority. Particularly found in German universities, new scholarly inquiries tended to see the Bible less as a unique collection of documents, and more as products of their own times. In addition, through the work of scholars such as Julius Wellhausen and his Documentary Hypothesis (JEDP Theory),biblical materials such as the Pentateuch, previously thought to be authored by Moses, were described as being a compilation of several sources edited over the course of several centuries.
The early 20th century also marked the end of the primacy of the Post-millennial interpretation of eschatology which had dominated Christianity for centuries. The view that the Christian message would create a better world which, when completed, would usher in the return of Jesus, came to a hard stop with the tragic brutality of World War I. Seeing “Christian” nations slaughtering one another sent many biblical scholars to find alternative interpretations to the optimism they previously supported.
“The Great War” marked a significant break between views that would suggest Christianity would unify the world under Christ’s rule, thus, seemingly, fracturing the compelling idea of “Christendom.”Bible students were then motivated to reappraise if such was the direction the mission of Christ was meant to follow. Christianity, particularly toward the end of the 20th century, moved from a dominating position over the political and academic spheres within the West, to a more isolated position of just one other viewpoint in a “secular” environment. Such called for fresh interpretations of the Scripture and some new definitions of the place of the church in society.
In response to events like World War I, movements such as Neo-Orthodoxy, associated with the work of Karl Barth and, later, Paul Tillich, attempted to find compromises between the trajectory of the biblical materials and modern realities. At the same time, a movement from Britain found fertile ground in the United States with the coming of the Plymouth Brethren led by John Nelson Darby, which presented a view of God’s work in Dispensations which would have the world end in cataclysmic violence.
These movements and those associated with them, such as Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism, arose out of the attempts to reconcile the ancient texts and the modern challenges in a unified systematic approach. Scholarship in Germany and Europe, generally, accepted a more critical and less authoritative stance toward the Scriptures, while in Britain and the United States, more conservative elements persisted in trying to secure the authoritative hold for the Bible in society. These trends continue into our century and often create a polarization between academic and devotional approaches to reading the Bible.
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