(%^Uiyt'*4ct( tt ^H*^tAi^ / . / LIBRARY OF THE Theological Seminary, PRINCETON, N. J. C««c,..'IB^^47.6f .P'^'^'°" -Sf^e^/;. ., Mi2. Section Booh, No ^ MANUAL SACRED INTERPRETATION SPECIAL BENEFIT JUNIOR THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS : BUT INTENDED ALSO FOR PRIVATE CHRISTIANS IN GENERAL. By ALEX. McCLELLAND, PH.0FE3S0B OF BIBLICAL LITEBATUS.S IN THS THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT ITSW-BBUNSWICE:. NEW-YORK: ROBERT CARTER, 58, CANAL-STREET. 18 4 2. E. LUDWIG, PRINTKB, 73 Veaey at, W. Y. PREFACE. The following little work was drawn up with exclusive reference to the wants of the Junior Class in the Theo- logical Semuiary with which the author is connected, and was intended as a general introduction to the subject of which it treats. His design in publishing it, is to spare the young gentlemen some weary hours in writing im- perfect and erroneous transcripts, while he thinks that it may be useful to others in their situation. He has attempted to give a faithful statement of the general laws and principles of sacred interpretation, in a form so popular and devoid of technicality, that the stu- dent fresh from a literary institution can comprehend the whole at two or three sittings, and make an immediate use of them in reading the Scriptures. It will be seen at once, that the treatise, both in its plan and the details of its exe- cution, differs entirely from Professor Stuart's Translation of Emesti. That, is certainly an excellent work, but I think that it is wanting in simplicity, " lucidusordo," and appropriate illustrations. Young minds are not success- fully addressed by dry apothegms and abstractions. Cases IV PREFACE. must be adduced, which will give them hue and colouring, and the form of composition should be that of continued argument, both to satisfy the understanding and impress the memory. Whether I have made a happy selection of examples, the reader may judge. They are for the most part such as occurred to me at the time of writing. I have only to add that there are scarcely three pages in the whole volume, so exclusively addressed to theological stu- dents, that the unlearned reader can derive no advantage from them. It is hoped therefore, that private Christians will not find their money thrown away in purchasing it. To them as well as to the ministry, our blessed Lord addresses the command, " Search the Scriptures ;" and the manner of their performing the duty, will be a solemn item in the account which they must render. CONTENTS. Page. Definitions, 7 MAXIM I. The object of interpretation is to give the precise thoughts which the writer intended to express, . . 8 MAXIM II. Scripture is to be interpreted in the same method, we employ in ascertaining the meaning of any other work, 10 MAXIM III. The sense of Scripture is (in general) one; in other words we are not to assign many meanings to a passage, 14 MAXIM IV. The interpretation of Scripture requires suitable pre- paration, , 18 SPECIAL RULES. RULE I. Carefully investigate what is called the " Usus Lo- quendi;" or the meaning which custom and common usage attach to expressions, 21 VI CONTENTS. RULE II. Examine the parallel passages, 27 RULE III. The consideration of the author's scope greatly facili- tates interpretation, 33 RULE IV. Examine the Context, 39 RULE V. We must know the character, age, sect, and other pe- culiarities of the writer, 53 RULE VI. Let there be a constant appeal to the tribunal of com- mon sense, Gl RULE VII. Study attentively the tropes and figures of the Sacred Scriptuies, 73 RULE VIII. Attend to Hebrew and Hebraistic idioms, 102 RULE IX. Much of Scripture being Prophetical, we should ac- quaint ourselves with the nature and laws of that kind of composition, 115 Addresis to Theological Students 143 MANUAL &c. Hermeneutics is the Science of Interpre- tation. Sacred hermeneutics, has for its ob- ject, the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Exegesis is the practical appli- cation of the Science. This, gives us the laws — the former, executes them. Thus, we speak of the Exegesis of a passage, accord- ing to Hermeneutical principles. All that we purpose to say on the subject in this brief treatise, shall be arrranged un- der two Heads : I. We shall lay down some general Max- ims, useful to be fixed in the mind as a pre- paration for the study ; II. Give the rules in detail by which we should be guided. O SCRIPTURE NJT TO BB MAXIM I. The object of Interpi'etation, is to give the precise thoughts ivhich the sacred writer intended to express. No other meaning is to be sought, but that which hes in the words themselves, as he employed them. In all cases, we should take a sense from Scripture rather than bring one to it. This rule is fun- damental : and yet how often is it violated ! Some, will allow no other sense but what has been baptized in their philosophy, or abstract notions of moral fitness. These, in reading the Bible, make one as they go. Thus, they nowhere find the doctrines of the Trinity, or Original Sin, of Atonement, Justification by Faith, or Divine Influence : some even, are unable to discover Miracles. Hence the bloody violence which they practice on every thing that comes in their way. A Socinian can read the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, without perceiving any trace of Vicarious Suffering ; can turn the \ ccpx^ in the begin- ning of John, into the " commencement of the Christian dispensation ;" and refuses to the TRIED BY OUR OPINIONS. 9 Only Begotten of the Father, any higher di- ploma than that of an accomplished teacher of morals. Nothing is too absurd or arbitra- ry, for one who brings the word of God to the touchstone of his own speculative opin- ions. To him it is no- revelation at all ; for it teaches only what he knows already. Others, make it speak invariably according to their theological systems. When they sit down to interpret, they think of nothing but what they call the "Analogy of Faith." Provi- ded they explain the passage consistently with it, all is well. The Analogy of Faith is, within certain limits, exceedingly useful. — But it has been carried too far ; and made to include all that a man thinks or guesses at on the subject of religion. Undoubtedly there are certain truths in the Bible, which we are at liberty to assume, and by which we may reason analogically concerning the meaning of dubious passages. Such are the doctrines of the Unity and Perfections of God, Man's Moral Accountability, the Fall, Redemption by Grace, and Divine Influence. Any expo- sition of a text contradicting these, we may 10 THE BIBLE TO BE EXPLAINED put down at once as disagreeing with the Analogy of Faith. This rule is a good one, and applied in the interpretation of all wri- ters. But surely we have no right to set up our whole system of religious belief, includ- ing the minutest of our sectarian peculiari- ties, as a criterion of truth ! This, is to make our creed expound the word of God, instead of letting the word of God frame our creed, and establishes a principle as arbitrary and odious as that of the Socinian. Our ordina- ry Commentaries are greatly disfigured with the fault just mentioned — being rather dog- matical paraphrases, than expositions of Scrip- ture itself. In few do we discover an unfet- tered and liberal spirit. The Romanist, Lu- theran, and Calvinist, peep out at the end of every line. MAXIM II. Scripture is to he interpreted in the same method which we e?nploy, in discovering the 7neaning of any other book. It was indited LIKE ANY OTHER BOOK. 11 to men ; it speaks to men, in the language of men ; and was understood by those to whom in ancient times it was addressed, as they un- derstood any other communication. The de- sign of God in giving it, was to communicate certain ideas — in order to which, he must speak to us, just as do others. Words call up ideas, not by any native significance, but by compact, and every one in speaking is supposed to conform to the bargain. If he does not, but employs language in a sense different from that established by common use, he is, to all intents and purposcj, a Cov- enant Breaker. In reading Scripture, there- fore, we are to use the same appliances and aids employed in other cases. Inspiration gives it no spc_ial privileges. Rather may we suppose, that a revelation of God's will to the great world of mankind, must be pe- culiarly susceptible of popular interpretation, and positively require it. This rule sweeps away at once a host of errors : We shall specify two. 1st. That of the Papists, who contend that the Exposition of Scripture is entirely sui 12 THE BIBLE TO BE EXPLAINED generis, and supernatural — being committed to Holy Mother Church, consisting of the Pope, Decrees of Councils, and the ancient Fathers. The pretension is rejected by all sound Protestants with disgust. While we say that the Bible is the book of God, we af- firm with equal emphasis, that it is the Book of Man, and can be understood by man in the use of the ordinary means. We also af- firm that Holy Mother, with her Councils and Fathers, has given too many proofs of something worse than mere fallibility, to be entrusted with the authoritative exposition of it. The Patristic interpretations of Scripture are, with a few exceptions, contemptible. Je- rome, Theodoret, and Chrysostom, are all that a modern can quote, and absurdities of every kind are found even in them. They were all ignorant of Hebrew, except Jerome : The later Fathers knew httle of Greek. When they used citations in controversy, they took any thing (as Jerome himself acknowledges) which seemed likely to confound their oppo- nents ; and there was scarcely one, who did not prefer an allegorical explanation, or some LIKE ANY OTHER BOOK. 13 frigid and far-fetched conceit, to the plain sense of a passage. 2dly. The errors of Fanatics and Enthu- siasts ; such as Quakers and Swedenborgians, who boast of certain immediate revelations, which they call the " Word of God within" This interior light is the supreme rule, which entirely dispenses with every thing else — with the knowledge of languages, philoso- phy, logic, and common sense. With it, every shoe-black is abundantly qualified to expound all mysteries. Without it, " all the learning in the world,^' says the famous Bar- clay, " will only make light darkness, and turn the truth into a lie." How the Bible fares in such hands, their writings show. — Yet it would be folly to reason with such peo- ple. sThey are above reason : theirs is the little Goshen where all true light is found : darkness blacker than that of Egypt covers *he whole world without. 14 THE SENSE IS, MAXIM III. TJie sense of Scripture is {i?i general) ONE : in other words, ive are not to assign many meanings to a passage. Words indeed have a variety of significations ; but they cannot have this variety at the same time. A single sense must be chosen, in doing which, one expositor may differ from another, and it may be dubious which is right. They cannot, however, be hoth right. If we ap- prove the one, we must, if they really differ, disapprove the other. The transgressors of this rule, are the Mys- tics and Allegorists. Their fundamental max- im is not unlike that of the Papists ; for they consider the Bible to be a book so different from others, that its depth of meaning can never be reached by the ordinary laws of in- terpretation. Being from God, they insist that it must in all respects be worthy of him, and contain a richness of thought suited to his infinite understanding. Hence their fa- vourite maxim; Verha Scripturce tantum ubi- que signijicare, quantum signijicare possunt : IN GENERAL, OUe. 15 i. e. whatever a word 7nay mean, it does mean. A single noun could thus have twenty differ- ent senses in the same place, and refer to twenty different things. This odd theory was a great favourite with the Jews in the time of our Lord and his apostles, who oc- casionally allegorized to please them, though by no means frequently. See an instance in Oal. iv. 22 ; where the Apostle makes Sarah and Hagar types of the two covenants. So far did the Jews carry their love of it, that their rabbles all maintained — " There is not a letter in Scripture, or apex of a letter, which does not contain wdiole mountains of meaning." They even had a science or art called the Caballa, which by changing, dis- joining, or transposing letters, or by calcula- ting their value as arithmetical signs, elicited worlds of profound mystery ! The Jews communicated their mania to the old Christian Fathers, whose writings abound in mystical expositions of all kinds. Every thing in sacred history, was metamorphosed into type and symbol. Origen denied even the literal truth of history, contending that 16 THE SENSE IS, its whole and only meaning was allegorical. Thus he pronounced it absolutely absurd to suppose, that the world was created in six days. The creation signified the renovation of the soul by the gospel, and the six days, intimate that it is carried on by degrees. Israel in Egypt, he makes to be the soul liv- ing in error ; and the seven plagues are its purgations from various evil habits — the frogs deneting loquacity, the flies carnal appetites, the boils pride and arrogance, &c. This mode of expounding continued through the different ages of the church, and has been formally adopted by the Papists, who recog- nize three different senses besides the literal, viz. the allegorical, tropological, and ana- gogical. Nor was it put down by the re- formation, Cocceius, a celebrated Dutch di- vine, carried it almost as far as Origen did. He held that the whole of the Old Testament was an anticipative history of the Christian church, containing a full recital of every thing which should happen to the end of time. — Even the Lord's Prayer was a prophesy, and its six parts denoted six great epochs in his- IN GENERAL, OUe, 17 tory. Every good man in the Old Testa- ment, was a t)^pe of Christ, or his apostles : Every bad man, of the devil, or the unbe- lieving Jews. Such schemes are to be utterly rejected. They destroy all certainty of interpretation. They take the ground from beneath our feet ; and make scripture a nose of wax which ev- ery one may twist into the shape that pleases him best. Thomas Woolston, a celebrated English infidel, attacked Christianity itself with these arms, insisting that the narratives of Christ's miracles were not designed to be histories, but are pure allegories. Volney, a French writer, has turned the evangelic histo- ry into a system of astronomy — Christ being the sun and moon, and the twelve apostles the twelve signs of the zodiac. Without affirming that there are no secondary senses in scripture, we believe that (tlie phrase being properly understood) there are very few. — Generally, the meaning is, as in other books, one ; and that, lies near the surface. Who ever heard of a man in common conversation, attaching different significations to the words 2* 18 SUITABLE PREPARATION. he used — unless indeed he was playing a game at riddles, or double ent^endres ? MAXIM IV. The interpretation of Scripture requires suitable preparation. The languages in which it is written, are strange — difficult ; and both are dead. In every page, there are references to times, places, transactions, with which we must be well acquainted. The history of the world is given, with a few breaks and interruptions, from the beginning to the four thousandth year. Not only are there accounts of the Hebrew nation, but of many others with whom 'var or peaceful in- tercourse brought them in connection ; Syri- ans, Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Romans : cities, lakes, rivers, hills, valleys, are continually mentioned. So are natu- ral productions — as plants, trees, precious stones, animals. Hence arises the necessity of being well acquainted with — 1st. Hebrew and Greek : and also the cog- nate languages, Chaldee and Latin. SUITABLE PREPARATION. 19 2d. History, civil and political ; especially of the Israelites, Egyptians, Phoenicians, As- syrians, and Greeks. If the student has no time for extensive investigation, he should at least make himself master of Josephus and Prideaux, who are accessible to all, and full of entertainment as well as instruction. 3d. Chronology ; which ascertains the dates and order of events. There is great uncertainty and difficulty in this science, but it must not be neglected. A general know- ledge of its principles, and a clear view of the great epochs into which sacred and pro- fane history is divided, with an ability to re- fer every important transaction to its proper time, is indispensable. Chronology is one of the eyes of history. The other is — 4th. Geography. That of Palestine is of special moment, for obvious reasons. But that of Egypt, Idumea, Arabia, and Mesopo- tamia, m.ust not be passed by. 5th. Customs and manners, or archaiolo- gy. These exercise a mighty influence on the ideas of a people, and their mode of ex- pressing them. There is in scripture, a 20 SUITABLE PREPARATION. constant allusion to Hebrew usages, and near- ly all its tropes are borrowed from them, in connection with the natural features of the country. 6th. Logic and general literature ; which invigorate the mind, and inure to habits of accurate discrimination. Every study that improves the thinking faculties — especially the judgment, and enlarges our mental hori- zon, will make its value felt in explaining the word of God. What blunders have been committed by commentators, simply because they did not know that they were reading poe- try ; and who would not have been benefit- ted by the discovery, as they knew nothing of the laws of that kind of composition — their whole reading having been confined to the mellifluous jingle of Dr. Watts ! The remark of Cicero concerning the orator, is tjuite as true of the sacred interpreter: — ■'* Quod debet omnibus disciplinis instructus esse." Let no student of theology allow himself to think, that when he occasionally, or -even frequently, opens the page of a Mil- USUS LOQUENDI. 21 ton or a Locke, he is wasting time, or steal- ing it away from his proper work. We proceed to the Special Rules which should guide us in the interpretation of Scrip- ture. RULE L Carefully investigate the Usics loquendi. By this is meant what the words literally ex- press, the custom of speech. The mean- ing of words is for the most part perfectly arbitrary. They call up certain ideas, be- cause men have agreed that they shall do so, and for no other reason. General usage, therefore, is the great standard, " quem penes arbitrium est et jus et norma dicendi." In living languages, we ascertain the usage from conversation and personal intercourse. In those long since dead, as the Hebrew and Greek, we draw on various sources : 1st. Contemporary writers. With respect to the Old Testament, we have none such — all the Hebrew extant being contained in our 22 USUS LOQUENDI. volume. In place of them, we have a tole- rably clear and ample Jewish tradition. It cannot be doubled, that the rabbles have preserved with good fidelity much of their old national language. As to the New Tes- tament, we have all the Greek writers from Homer to Longinus ; though they must be used with caution, as the New Testament is written in a Hebraistic idiom, and not in the classical language of Demosthenes. 2d. Scholiasts and glossographers. These were men Avho lived after the death of the writers ; but while the language was still liv- ing, and who must have understood the mean- ing of words better than we. Scholia were short notes inserted in the margin of the work explained, illustrating some phrase or turn of expression. Scholia on the New Testament are very numerous, and some of them have come down from remote antiquity. A noble edition of the New Testament, containing a large collection of them, has been published by Matthai, a distinguished German profes- sor. Glossaries (from yXoiTtrct a form of speech) are dictionaries, containing explan- USUS LOQUENDI. 23 aliens of certain words arranged in alpha- betical order. They differ from common dictionaries, in containing remarks on such words only as are difficult and obscure. The principal works of this kind are those of Hesychius, Suidas, Phavorinus, andPhotius. 3d. Ancient translations, made when the languages were still living. Such is the Sep- tuagint version of the Hebrew Bible, made nearly three hundred years before Christ ; when the language was well understood, though not spoken with perfect purity. The value of this work to the student of the New Testament, as well as the Old, is incalcula- ble. Without the steady light which is cast by it on the meaning and force of expressions, the interpreter could scarcely advance a step. The Chaldee paraphrase, is another venera- ble translation of the Old Testament. It pre- sents the views concerning the meaning of that part of scripture, entertained by the learned Jews contemporary with our Lord. It was composed a little before his birth, and in the dialect spoken at that time by the na- 24 USUS LOQUENDI. tion. The old Syriac version is also ex- tremely valuable. 4th. Kindred dialects. This source of aid is peculiarly useful wdth respect to that part of scripture which most needs it — the Old Testament. The Hebrew has three sis- ters, so like her, that there can be no mistake as to their common parentage. They are the Arabic, Chaldaic or East Aramaean, Syriac or West Aramaean. In two of these — the Syriac and Arabic — there are numerous writings still extant, and the Arabic is a liv- ing language. The use of dialects in deter- mining the sense of words, requires skill and judgment ; as it by no means follows that the precise signification is the same in both, be- cause they are sisters. Yet its great value as a subsidiary, is general^ confessed. Proofs of it you have in every page of Gesenius's dictionary. 5th. Etymology ; or the examination of roots. When other expedients fail, we may sometimes derive considerable assistance from tracing an expression to its original element. But after all, etymology is slippery ground. USUS LOQUENDI. 25 Words in the process of derivation or compo- sition, often deviate from their original im- port, so that the child loses nearly all resem- blance to its parent. Thus the English word villain, in our old writers means a slave ; rascal, in Saxon, a lean beast ; hostis, in Latin, originally signified (according to Cice- ro) a stranger ; pagan, which with us is equivalent to heathen, denoted nothing worse in the language last mentioned from which we obtained it, than a farmer or inhabitant of the country. tJI.P ^^ "^ Hebrew verb sig- nifying to he holy ; the noun "^^Ip, one of its derivatives, is the common term for pros- titute. Two instances may be given from the New Testament to illustrate the danger of reasoning from etymological significations. The verb Trpoynary.a is compounded of the the preposition t/jo, before, and yauTKu^ to Jcnoiv. It should therefore always denote simple foreknowledge, and many Arminians contend that it does so ; yet whoever impar- tially examines the usus loquendi of the New Testament, will see at once, that it is some- times fully equal in strength of meaning to 3 26 USUS LOQUENDI. our English word foreordain : see Rom. ii. 2, Acts ii. 23, 1 Pet. i. 20. The adjective utuno^^ is commonly used by the Greeks for " eternal" or " everlasting," and is the strong- est term they can employ. In this sense it is constantly used in the New Testament, with perhaps one or two exceptions. But the Universalist reminds us, that it comes from ccio)v an age, and mubt therefore be translated " having age'^ or *' enduring for an ageT So too ctimi 2. T-t? ¥