Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 93:369 (Jan 1936)
Article: A Syllabus of Studies in Hermeneutics Part 2
Author: Rollin Thomas Chafer

BSac 93:369 (Jan 36) p. 110

A Syllabus of Studies in Hermeneutics
Part 2

Rollin Thomas Chafer

(Continued from the October-December number, 1934

{Editor’s note: Footnotes in the original printed edition were numbered 4–11, but in this electronic edition are numbered 1–8 respectively.}

II. Historical Sketch

Brief historical outlines of the development of Biblical Hermeneutics are found in several of the standard texts on this science.1 These writers agree that Hermeneutics as a formulated science had no existence before the Reformation. Comparatively speaking, it is a newcomer in the family of subjects constituting Theological Encyclopedia and Methodology. However, principles claimed to have hermeneutical value, howbeit fraught with destructive elements, emerged in the third century and with accretions during the following centuries persist today.

Cellérier divides the historical development of Hermeneutics into eight periods. As it is advantageous in this study to give consideration only to the governing principles of systems that have had a marked effect upon Biblical interpretation, details of some of these periods which did not seriously change the trend of the science will not receive more than cursory mention. It is of prime importance, however, to note the sources and following development of systems that have made permanent contributions, destructive as well as constructive, to methods which are defended and employed by their respective endorsers up to the present moment.

FIRST PERIOD. This may be disposed of in a few words. During the first two centuries of the Christian era

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“Hermeneutics did not exist, and could not exist.” Several reasons contributed to this state. The church was harrassed by persecutions, having little time for speculation in the realm of interpretative thought. “The Church of this era was, moreover, so near to the time of the preaching of the Apostles and of the publication of their writings, that these were sufficiently perspicuous and fully explained by the oral traditions so carefully sought for at that time.” A questionable system of interpretation is demanded only when there is a desire to avoid the application of the plain truth. On the other hand, a sound system of hermeneutics is essential to counteract such methods. The fact that an elaborate system of interpretation was not needed in the immediate post-Apostolic period is of important, nay determining, significance. It was an indication that Apostolic authority had not in the main been abandoned, although here and there departures from the truth were beginning to be manifested.

SECOND PE...