Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 52:4 (Dec 2009)
Article: “The Only Rule Of Our Faith And Practice”: Jonathan Edwards’s Interpretation Of The Book Of Isaiah As A Case Study Of His Exegetical Boundaries
Author: David P. Barshinger

---

JETS 52:4 (December 2009) p. 811

“The Only Rule Of Our Faith And Practice”: Jonathan Edwards’s Interpretation Of The Book Of Isaiah As A Case Study Of His Exegetical Boundaries

David Barshinger*

* David Barshinger is a doctoral student at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2065 Half Day Road, Deerfield, IL 60015.

In addition to his many roles, including pastor, theologian, author, and missionary, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) was also a devoted student of the Bible.1 At age nineteen, he resolved “to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.”2 His massive output of sermons expositing biblical passages and of treatises addressing theological matters using Scripture testifies to his dedication to this task, and his personal manuscripts on the Bible further demonstrate his unswerving discipline in studying the Old and New Testaments.

The nature of Edwards’s biblical interpretation, however, has attracted some debate over the liberty he used in making sense of the Scriptures. Stephen J. Stein, a leading scholar on Edwards and the Bible,3 argues that Edwards’s spiritual interpretation was boundless. He acknowledges that “Edwards shared certain assumptions with the Reformed tradition,” but qualifies that “in other ways he departed from prevailing patterns of Protestant exegesis.”4 Specifically,

JETS 52:4 (December 2009) p. 812

[i]n contrast to the Reformation accent upon the sufficiency of the singular literal sense of the Bible, he underscored the multiplicity of levels of meaning in the text and the primacy of the spiritual. Edwards spoke of the Bible as the source and the norm of his theology, but often it appears that the Scripture was more the occasion than the origin or measure of his reflections. For him the biblical principle was an open and expansive factor.5

Stein suggests that Edwards’s “exegetical creativity was constrained only by the length of his attention.” Given this “free reign” that Edwards allowed himself, Stein concludes that “the Bible did not function for him as a theological norm or source in any usual Protestant fashion because the literal sense of the text did not restrict him. On the contrary, the freedom and creative possibilities of the spiritual sense beckoned, and he pursued them with abandon.”6

visitor : : uid: ()