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Biblical Hermeneutics Part Second Chapter 29

In this brief chapter Terry addresses the so-called accommodation theory, and shows what kinds of “accommodation” are legitimate and which are not. The accommodation theory as it is popularly propounded by rationalist theologians asserts that all Old Testament citations by New Testament writers are applied by them in some way that is foreign to the original meaning, and that this is done in order to adapt them to the understanding and prejudices of the hearers and readers. Some accommodation theorists go so far as to say that our Lord Himself took this approach in order to suit the widely held errors and superstitions of the common people, as in the matter of demon possession. This idea is not to be lightly tossed aside, but vigorously hurled away by the reasonable exegete, since it makes our Lord and his messengers the willful propagators of error.

There are however ways in which the words of Scripture may be said to be “accommodated” to particular situations. Particular prophetic Scriptures have repeated fulfillments throughout history. An example is Isaiah 6.9-10, which finds fulfillment not only in Isaiah’s time, but also in Ezekiel’s (Ezekiel 12.2) and our Lord’s (Matthew 13.14-15). Prophecies such as these should not be thought to have a “double sense,” but rather one sense with manifold applications. They are not for one time and situation only, but for many, or perhaps all. Likewise with typological passages there is but one meaning of the text, which is determined and understood by the typological correspondence. The contemporaneous fulfillment is in the type, and the subsequent greater fulfillment is in the antitype.