Brief survey of the history of hermeneutics – 1. Intro.
Brief survey of the history of hermeneutics – 2. Patristics
a. Clement of Rome (circa A.D. 96): Clement wrote 1 Clement in about A.D. 100. He wrote it to the troubled church in Corinth. Dockery says that 1 Clement contains various hermeneutical approaches. His use of the Old Testament is primarily for moral use. Even when he utilizes it to find Christ, he uses it to apply to moral situations.[1] Dockery says:
Clement interpreted Scripture in a christological fashion, not unlike his predecessors [i.e., Christ and the New Testament writers]. Yet he did not so much seek to discover the Old Testament’s message concerning the work of Christ, but offered the pictures of Christ as basis for moral obedience.[2]
Clement is also remembered for finding the blood of Christ pointed to by the scarlet thread of Rahab in Joshua 2.[3]
b. Ignatius of Antioch (circa A.D. 35-110): Two issues are of interest in Ignatius’ seven letters – 1) he rarely quoted the Old Testament (unlike the New Testament) and 2) he relied heavily on Paul, especially 1 Corinthians. Dockery notes, “In comparison with Clement, it is remarkable how little use Ignatius made of the Old Testament. There are only two actual quotations, though there are possibly eight other allusions. Both quotations are introduced by the formula gegraptai (it is written).”[4] This displays that he viewed the Old Testament as authoritative, yet was apparently not steeped in it as were the New Testament authors (either that or he did not know what to do with it?). His functional hermeneutic may help explain the claim by Thiselton that in Ignatius we see “…neither allegory nor typology.”[5]
As far as his dependence on 1 Corinthians goes, he quoted it more than any other Pauline letter, almost 50 times. His use of Paul does not display a careful, contextual hermeneutical method. He appears to have taken what Paul said and applied it in his own context irrespective of the original context from which it came.[6] This is what Dockery calls a functional hermeneutic. One reason for this method was to combat heretics.
[1] Dockery, Biblical Interpretation, 50.
[2] Dockery, Biblical Interpretation, 50.
[3] Thiselton, Hermeneutics, 98.
[4] Dockery, Biblical Interpretation, 52.
[5] Thiselton, Hermeneutics, 98.
[6] Dockery, Biblical Interpretation, 52-54.
Dr. Richard Barcellos is associate professor of New Testament Studies. He received a B.S. from California State University, Fresno, an M.Div. from The Master’s Seminary, and a Th.M. and Ph.D. from Whitefield Theological Seminary. Dr. Barcellos is pastor of Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Palmdale, CA. He is author of Trinity & Creation, The Covenant of Works, and Getting the Garden Right. He has contributed articles to various journals and is a member of ETS.
Courses taught for CBTS: New Testament Introduction, Biblical Hermeneutics, Biblical Theology I, Biblical Theology II.
