Brief survey of the history of hermeneutics – 4. Excursus

by Richard Barcellos | Mar 31, 2011 | Hermeneutics, Historical Theology

Part 1. Intro.

Part 2. Patristics

Part 3. Patristics

4. EXCURSUS: The Hermeneutical Task of the Second-Century Church

At this point in Dockery’s discussion of second-century hermeneutics, he makes this monumental observation:

In a very basic way, the hermeneutical task facing the second-century church was to show the continuity of the Old Testament with the New Testament or, put another way, how the Old Testament could remain the church’s Bible. Galatians, Colossians, John, 1 John, and 1 Peter especially evidence the struggles of the early Christians. During the second century, and especially in the latter half of that century, the rise of heresies became so wide-spread that they provoked in the church at large a reaction that was to be of enormous significance for the history of Christian thought and Christian hermeneutics.[1]

Dockery claims that a hermeneutical shift took place in order to justify the Old Testament as Christian Scripture. Gerald Bray seems to agree with Dockery, when he says:

Patristic biblical exegesis grew up at a time when the church was faced with a number of crucial problems which it needed to solve, and interpretation of the Bible played a key role in this. The main issues confronting the fathers of the church can be set out as follows.

1. It was necessary for them to distinguish Christianity from Judaism. The early church had to explain why it rejected Judaism, without abandoning the Jewish Scriptures. At one extreme were people such as Marcion, who wanted to reject the Jewish heritage altogether, but found that this was practically impossible. At the other were people such as Tertullian, for whom Christianity was a more thorough-going legalism than anything the Jews had attempted. The mainline Christian church could accept neither of the positions, but it had to find a viable interpretation of the Old Testament as Christian Scripture. This task was such a top priority throughout this period that the history of exegesis can very largely be written in terms of it alone.[2]

As will be seen below, a shift took place in the early church in terms of hermeneutical method and goal. The shift was from a moralistic method (i.e., functional hermeneutic) to an apologetic method centering on how the Old Testament can be viewed as a Christian document. What materialized was a sort of mini-pendulum action. On the one hand, there was a tendency toward allegory (the school of Alexandria and later the Middles ages [see subsequent posts]) and, on the other, a tendency toward typology (the school of Antioch and later the Reformation and, especially, the post-Reformation Reformed orthodox [see subsequent posts]). Both allegory and typology had as their primary purpose the Christianization of the Old Testament, though differing in their method in reaching that end.[3]

[2] Gerald Bray, Biblical Interpretation: Past & Present (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 95. Emphases added. This is a claim of mammoth proportions and, I think, helps explain the history of Christian hermeneutics.

[3] Cf. Dennis E. Johnson, Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2007), 100ff. for a similar assessment.

Richard Barcellos

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.