VI. DOCTRINAL INTERPRETATION

In rising a stage higher in our pyramid to doctrinal interpretation, we must part company with the Protestant scholastics, for which we have been prepared, as were Abraham and Lot, by previous minor contentions. The Bible contains a divine revelation. The Bible gives the rule of faith. It is to be interpreted in accordance with the analogy of faith. This analogy is the substance of Scripture doctrine found in the plainest passages of Scripture. This was the view of the Reformers. But the scholastics substituted for this internal rule of faith an external rule of faith, first in the Apostles' Creed, then in the symbols of the churches, and finally in the Reformed or Lutheran, or some other sectarian system of doctrine. And thus the Sacred Scripture became the slave of dogmatic systems. The modern exegete finds a Biblical Theology in the Bible itself which he has learned to carefully distinguish from Dogmatic Theology. He has found that Saint Peter and Saint John and Saint James and Saint Paul were all disciples of Jesus Christ, and have in Him their centre and life; that no one of them can be relied on in the writings attributed to him for a complete statement of Christian doctrine and Christian life, that all have to be comprehended in a large synthesis for a complete understanding of Christianity. The modern interpreter has learned that the Old Testament is an organic whole, in which priests and prophets, sages and poets find their centre and life in the theophanies of God. He has learned that Yahweh and Jesus are one, and that in the Messiah of prophecy and history the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments become an organic whole. With this bringing forth of the internal substance of the Scriptures in its unity and variety, theological exposition finds its satisfaction and delight, and the analogy of faith is harmonized with the principles of interpretation which have prepared the way for its advance and achievements.1 Francis. Roberts saw this in part and stated it fairly well in the seventeenth century.2

"Now that we may more successfully and clearly understand Scripture by Scripture, these ensueing particulars are to be observed: (1) That Jesus Christ our mediator and the salvation of sinners by Him is the very substance, marrow, soul, and scope of the whole Scriptures. What are the whole Scriptures, but as it were the spiritual swadling cloathes of the Holy child Jesus. (1) Christ is the truth and substance of all the types and shadows. (2) Christ is the matter and substance of the Covenant of Grace under all administrations thereof; under the Old Testament Christ is veyled, under the New Covenant revealed. (3) Christ is the centre and meeting-place of all the promises, for in him all the promises of God are yea, and they are Amen. (4) Christ is the thing signified, sealed, and exhibited in all the sacraments of Old and New Testaments, whether ordinary or extraordinary. (5) Scripture genealogies are to lead us on to the true line of Christ. (6) Scripture chronologies are to discover to us the times and seasons of Christ. (7) Scripture laws are our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ; the moral by correcting, the ceremonial by directing. And (8) Scripture gospel is Christ's light, whereby we know him; Christ's voice, whereby we hear and follow him; Christ's cords of love, whereby we are drawn into sweet union and communion with him; yea it is the power of God unto salvation unto all them that believe in Christ Jesus. Keep therefore still Jesus Christ in your eye, in the perusal of the Scripture, as the end, scope, and substance thereof. For as the sun gives light to all the heavenly bodies, so Jesus Christ the sun of righteousness gives light to all the Holy Scriptures."

VII. PRACTICAL INTERPRETATION

In rising now to the highest stage of interpretation practical interpretation-we part company with the mystics as well as the scholastics. The Bible is a book of life, a people's book, a book of conduct. It came from the living God. It tends to the living God. Here is the apex of the pyramid of interpretation. He who has not reached this stage has stopped on the way and will not understand the Bible. The Bible brings the interpreter to God. We can understand the Bible only by mastering it. We need the master key. No one but the Master Himself can give it to us. It is necessary to know God and His Christ in order to know the Bible. The Scriptures cannot be understood from the outside by grammar, logic, rhetoric,

and history alone. The Bible cannot be understood when involved in the labyrinth of its doctrines. The Bible is to be understood from its centre - its heart-its Christ. Jesus Christ does not reveal Himself ordinarily aside from the Bible, by new revelations outside of it casting new light upon it from the exterior, as the mystics suppose. But the Messiah is the light-centre of the Scriptures themselves. He is enthroned in them as His Holy of Holies, as was Yahweh in the ancient temple. Through the avenues of the Scriptures we go to find Christ - in their centre we find our Saviour. It is this personal relation of the author of the entire Scripture to the interpreter that enables him truly to understand the divine things of the Scripture. Jesus Christ knew the Old Testament and interpreted it as one who knew the mind of God. He needed no helps to climb the pyramid of interpretation. He ever lived at the summit. The apostles interpreted the Sacred Scriptures from the mind of Christ, read by the Spirit He had given them.2 We have no such divine help. These who claim such help are mistaken. They mistake the ordinary guidance of the Divine Spirit, always given to the devout Christian, for His extraordinary guidance given to the founders of the Church. They are presumptuous in assuming to rank with the founders of the Church. We cannot use their a priori methods, but we may climb toward them. We may have all the enthusiasm of the quest all the joy of discovery.

It is not necessary for us to complete our studies of the lower stages of exegesis ere we climb higher. The exegete is not building the pyramid. He is climbing it. Every passage tends toward the summit. Some interpreters remain forever in the lowest stages. Others spring hastily to the higher stages and fall back crippled and are flung down to the lowest. The patient, faithful, honest exegete climbs steadily and laboriously to the summit.

The doctrine that the Holy Spirit is the supreme interpreter of Scripture is the highest attainment of interpretation. The greatest leaders of the Church in all ages have acted on this principle, however defective their apprehension of it may have 2 See p. 443.

1 See p. 442.

been, and however little they may have consciously used it in the interpretation of the Holy Scripture. It was this consciousness of knowing the mind of the Spirit and having the truth of God that made them invincible. It was Athanasius against the world. With the Divine Truth of the blessed Trinity he was mightier than the world. It was Luther against pope and emperor. He could do no other. The Word of God in his hands and in his heart assured him of forgiveness of sin and justification by faith; and poor, weak man though he was, he was mightier than Church and State combined.

It is this principle "that the supreme judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture,' ,"1 that made the Puritan faith and life invincible.

Let us cling to it as the most precious achievement of British Christianity; let us raise it on our banners, and advance with it into the conflicts of the day; let us plant it on every hill. and in every valley throughout the world; let us not only give the Bible into the hands of men and translate it into their tongues, but let us put it into their hearts, and translate it into their lives. Then will biblical interpretation reach its culmination in practical interpretation, in the experience and life of mankind.

1 Westminster Confession, I. 10.

CHAPTER XX

HISTORY OF THE STUDY OF BIBLICAL HISTORY

THE historical material contained in Holy Scripture must be tested and verified just the same as all other historical material. Until this historical criticism has done its work, faithfully, thoroughly, and well, the material may have religious value for all who are willing to accept it on the testimony of the Church or because of its religious influence upon themselves or others, but it cannot have any scientific value; it cannot be used as a reliable part of human knowledge.

The historical criticism of biblical history has the same methods and principles as those employed by historical criticism in all other departments. In the study of Holy Scripture these principles and methods should be used reverently, because of the holy character of the material, but with all the more scrupulous thoroughness and accuracy.

The historical material contained in Holy Scripture has been used for many centuries by Jew and Christian, and employed not only for religious purposes but also for historical purposes. But it is only in quite recent times that any serious attempt has been made to study biblical history in a scientific spirit and by the use of historical criticism.

I. THE USE OF BIBLICAL HISTORY PRIOR TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

Josephus is the father of Biblical History outside the Bible. In his Antiquities (20 books), and Jewish War (7 books), he endeavours, as an advocate of the Jewish people, to set forth their history in the most favourable light before the Greek and Roman world of his time. He was an excellent and, indeed,