אבנימ

Biblical Hermeneutics Part Third Chapter 3

Coming now to a discussion of the earliest Christian exegesis, Terry first points out that our Lord and His apostles habitually appealed to the Old Testament Scriptures as authoritative. Moreover, they cited them in a way which was quite out of character with the hermeneutics of the time. Our Lord condemns the allegorizing Talmudist Pharisees (Matthew 15.1-9 et al., cf. Paul in Titus 1.14, et al.), rebukes the rationalist Sadducees (Matthew 22.19) and corrects the hyper-literalist misunderstanding of His disciples concerning the coming of Elijah (Matthew 11.14).

Taking the apostolic writings of the New Testament as a whole we find them sound and trustworthy, treating Scripture according to the natural and reasonable meaning of the texts cited. This is regrettably not the case with many of the earliest church fathers, who were to a greater or lesser degree influenced by the Hellenistic practices of allegorizing what seemed offensive to philosophy, and searching for hidden meanings.

Terry fairly observes that the exigencies of the first and second centuries were such that the handling of Scriptures was primarily apologetical and polemical rather than exegetical. The Church was largely occupied in responding to persecution and addressing internal factions, and therefore tended to take readily what came to hand in terms of hermeneutics. The author provides an analysis of the earliest fathers, the greatest of whom he names Irenaeus, whose principal work was Against Heresies. In summary of this period, he observes that there was no uniform and established hermeneutical method as the Church dealt with persecution, controversy and heresy.