אבנימ

Biblical Hermeneutics Part Third Chapter 5

From Gregory the Great, circa A.D. 600, until the Reformation, there was no significant progress in hermeneutics. According to the author this was due primarily to the superstition and ignorance, prevalent in the Middle Ages, which effectively quenched critical inquiry. This period produced the catenists, who were mainly compilers of the works of the early fathers, but who did not produce much in the way of original thought. Notable among these were Bede, Alcuin, Rhabarus Maurus, Oecumenius and Theophylact. While most of the catenists in the main followed the allegorizing practices of the fathers they cited, one exception was Christian Druthmar, surnamed Grammaticus, who fostered a revival of the grammatical hermeneutical principles of the school of Antioch.

The scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages reached its fullest expression in Thomas Aquinas, but this did nothing to advance sound exegesis. But there were through these dark years some who gave preference to the literal sense, and whose work helped to prepare the way for the Reformation. These included Nicholas de Lyra at the beginning of the fourteenth century, John Wycliffe, the first English translator of the Scriptures, and his Bohemian student John Huss. The Italian scholar Lorenzo Valla is regarded as the best interpreter of the fifteenth century. He strongly emphasized the original languages and his work exposes the absurdity of the subtleties of scholasticism. As interest in the study of the original texts grew, the work of men like Reuchlin, Erasmus and LeFevre did much to lay the groundwork for a more reasonable and scientific exposition of Scripture, which would eventually break the fetters of Rome and lead to the Reformation.