bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Edwards's Ezekiel: The Interpretation of Ezekiel in the "Blank Bible" and "Notes on Scripture"
Authors: Tooman William A. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
The recent publication of Jonathan Edwards's Blank Bible together with his previously published Notes on Scripture has provided historians of biblical interpretation for the first time with an unrestricted view of Edwards's interpretation of individual biblical books. Utilizing these resources, this paper inductively examines Edwards's dramatic and imaginative reading of the book of Ezekiel to uncover the exegetical techniques and hermeneutical principles Edwards applied to it. As his interpretation of Ezek 1, 4–5, and 38–39 reveals, Edwards departed from traditional Puritan exegesis. He highlighted layers of meaning lying beyond the literal sense, layers that bridge the divide between the textual world and the ostensive world. Beneath Edwards's complex exegesis, we can observe a guiding principle at work, namely, the providential harmony of all things. For Edwards, similarities between things—whether biblical texts, natural phenomena, historical events, institutions, doctrines, or human experiences—revealed the unity that undergirds the created order. Scriptural interpretation, in Edwards's view, was much more than an exposition of words on a page. To him, it was a vast enterprise that set the interpreter to the extraordinary task of mapping the mind of God.
Charles Hodge, Hermeneutics, and the Struggle with Scripture
Authors: White Michael D. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
Charles Hodge continues to garner interest in contemporary theology, though sometimes for unlikely ends. This article assesses one example of this interest. William Placher finds in Hodge a distinction between what a biblical writer teaches under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and what the writer assumes as a fallible human. In Placher's judgment, this distinction provides warrant to set aside certain ethical injunctions when they demonstrably originate in fallible human assumptions and not inspired teaching. A priori, Hodge appears to make such a distinction. In order to assess this reading, I develop case studies of Hodge's biblical interpretation with respect to two pressing issues in his day—slavery and the challenge of science to the Bible—and then consider Hodge's explicit teaching on the doctrines of inspiration and Scripture. I argue that while Placher's interpretation does not sustain the weight of scrutiny, Hodge's hermeneutic evidences surprising sophistication. Based on the case studies, I note that a form of the trajectory hermeneutic may be detected in Hodge, and additionally I find points at which Hodge views the biblical text as scientifically undetermined. I conclude by offering an evaluation of Hodge's hermeneutic, which commends his approach to the challenges of science for biblical interpretation but raises questions about his method for resolving ethical challenges. Scriptural openness to homosexuality is chosen as a contemporary crucible for Hodge's hermeneutic.
Reformation "Redivivus": Synergism and the New Perspective
Authors: Yinger Kent L. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
Debates over the New Perspective on Paul show a great deal of similarity to Reformation-era debates over synergism. In fact, synergism has become one of the more common charges made against the New Perspective by its critics. After documenting the charge in these modern debates, this article explores the details of synergistic controversy surrounding the Reformation. Among other things, various wings of the Reformation appear to have understood, and reacted to, synergism in quite-different ways. The article then highlights some aspects of New Perspective debates that are reminiscent of earlier theological debates over synergism and suggests ways in which greater attention to some aspects of theological interpretation might help move this part of the New Perspective debate forward.
The Inscripturated Word: The Fourth Gospel as the Continuing Speech of the Incarnate Word
Authors: Quan Keith A. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
This essay attempts to sketch the contours of the multileveled understanding of the Word of God in the Fourth Gospel. On one level, Jesus Christ is the eternal, incarnate Word sent from the Father, who accomplishes the work given to him, laying down his life so that his own, those who receive him by receiving his words, might have life. Yet, on another level, the Fourth Gospel is both (1) distinct from the incarnate Word, a witness to the Word, and (2) the continuing speech of the glorified Word through which, by the Spirit, he continues to dwell with his own, who receive his words even though they are unable to "see" him, so that the Beloved Disciple and his written testimony, the Fourth Gospel, are analogous with, even while servant to, the incarnate Word. Although this sketch resembles traditional dogmatic formulations, it is fleshed out in Johannine idiom, paying attention to the themes and literary dimensions of the Fourth Gospel.
God, Greek Philosophy, and the Bible: A Response to Matthew Levering
Authors: Rowe C. Kavin 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
This article examines the way we think about the meaning of scriptural words and their connection to larger questions about theological knowledge. In order to do this, the article focuses not only on the way words mean but also on the lived character of ancient philosophy, the "pressure" the scriptural texts exert on our accounts of theological knowledge, and the importance of ordering modes of thought for knowledge about the world.
Jonathan Edwards, Paul, and the Priority of Holiness: A Variant Reading
Authors: Hamilton Catherine Sider 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
Against the background of Reformation-inspired readings of Paul as the great prophet of justification by faith and "New Perspective" challenges to this reading, Jonathan Edwards proves an interesting interpreter of Paul. He stresses neither justification–though he is a staunch Calvinist–nor the Gentiles. Rather, he finds in Paul a spokesman for the priority and beauty of holiness and for a grace that is in conception more organic, more mystical, than juridical. This paper follows Edwards, in several of his key sermons, through the letters of Paul to discover in the Puritan preacher a rich variant reading of Paul's theology. It is a reading, this paper proposes, that opens Paul for the contemporary eye in unexpected and illuminating ways, drawing attention to the often lyric character of the letters and allowing otherwise neglected themes–of light and holiness, Spirit and communion, the nature of love, and the possibility of transformation—to emerge. Jonathan Edwards, that is, proves a valuable interlocutor in the quest for a full and nuanced understanding of Paul.
Theological Interpretation and the Spiritual Sense of Scripture: Henri de Lubac's Retrieval of a Christological Hermeneutic of Presence
Authors: Storer Kevin 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
Despite their many similarities, a division exists between proponents of the theological interpretation of Scripture and proponents of the recovery of a spiritual sense of Scripture. This article suggests that one key difference lies in the way each group articulates the relationship of the present, risen Christ to the texts of Scripture. Those who advocate a recovery of the spiritual sense typically place more emphasis on Christ's present encounter of readers, while proponents of theological interpretation of Scripture are often quite reticent to describe such an encounter. This article will contrast the proposals for a theological interpretation of Scripture by revisionist David Tracy, postliberal Hans Frei, and evangelical Kevin Vanhoozer with the proposal to recover Scripture's spiritual sense by ressourcement theologian Henri de Lubac in order to suggest that de Lubac's recovery of the spiritual sense provides the necessary Christological framework to speak of Christ's present encounter of readers. It is suggested that de Lubac's recovery of the spiritual sense could advance the theological interpretation of Scripture to a more distinctly Christological hermeneutic.
The "Johannine Thunderbolt" in Luke 10:22: Toward an Appreciation of Luke's Narrative Sequence
Authors: Sousa Mathew E. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
In contrast to a number of studies that examine Luke 10:22 from a source-critical or redactional approach, this essay strives to hear the communicative intent of Luke-Acts. Accordingly, it interprets v. 22 within its cotext and reads 10:17–24 in light of the presupposition pool assumed by the narrative and its model reader. My contention is that, when vv. 17–20 are read in light of the apocalyptic literature of Second Temple Judaism, the result is a new figuration of meaning that suggests an intimate relation between Jesus and God. This figuration of meaning then finds its confirmation and explication in the ensuing revelatory discourse of vv. 21–24. It is not only Jesus' dramatic speech in vv. 21–22, then, that contributes to the development of Jesus' identity. The cohesive sequence of 10:17–24 itself, in concert with Jesus' speech, plays a crucial role. It is only when both facets of Luke's narrative are appreciated that Luke's portrait of Jesus and, thereby, his presentation of God, fully emerge.
"Present and Accommodated For": Calvin's God on Mount Sinai
Authors: Kibbe Michael H. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
This essay attempts to bring together John Calvin's doctrine of accomodation (i.e., that God accommodates, or adjusts, himself to human capacity in order to reveal himself to us) and the theophany narratives of Exod 19-34. First, it argues that the doctrine of accommodation may shed light on some of the perennial difficulties of the theophany texts, specifically the general ambiguity of Exod 19-20 and the mysterious claim that the elders "saw the God of Israel" in Exod 24:10. Second, it argues that those texts may nuance the doctrine of accommodation so as to enable a response to some of its critics, particularly regarding the question of differentiating between God in se and God quoad nos. The doctrine of accommodation is not derived from Exod 19–34 in the way that some envision the movement from exegesis to theology. It is rather a tool brought to the text, albeit one whose appropriateness is demonstrated by its exegetical results. This essay contends that a dialogue between Calvin's doctrine of accommodation and the Sinai narratives will be profitable for our understanding of both, and that Calvin's doctrine is a valuable, though not infallible, tool for those wishing to speak well of God on the basis of Scripture.
Mission, Hermeneutics, and the Local Church
Authors: Rynkiewich Michael A. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
An earlier generation of missionaries set as their goal the development of independent churches: self-supporting, self-propagating, and self-governing. Now it is becoming clear that, to be independent, a church should also be self-theologizing. I argue here that, because a church is established in a particular location, the people must look to their own hermeneutical principles in order to interpret Scripture in that context. As their own theological project develops, although they may be in conversation with the universal church, they will establish their own distinctives. Then they will be in a position to continue the theological discourse of the age as well as engage the long tradition of the church. How might their hermeneutical practices differ from the practices that Europe and America have developed? As a beginning, I suggest that we consider the impact of orality, colonization, cultural diversity, and social organization on hermeneutics.
Christ in All the Scriptures? The Challenge of Reading the Old Testament as Christian Scripture
Authors: Moberly R. W. L. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
The issue of responsible Christian reading of Israel's Scriptures as the OT is posed in relation to the characteristic modern historical-critical erosion of traditional Christian approaches informed by Luke 24:25–27. It is argued that many of the insights of modern historical criticism are sound and should be retained, despite widespread resistance or ignorance. Two case studies in support of this are (1) an examination of renewed attempts to understand Gen 3:15 as a protevangelium and (2) Michael Drosnin's Bible Code. However, an appreciation of the possibilities afforded by our contemporary "postmodern" situation enables us to see that historical criticism may sometimes need to take a more modest role in biblical interpretation; recognition of the many recontextualizations of the biblical text and the varying contexts, purposes, and perspectives of interpreters should change the shape of the interpretive debate. In this light, it is suggested that classic premodern Christian interpretation of the OT, as expounded by Henri de Lubac, can again become a real resource for understanding. Finally, a brief study of Isa 2 illustrates how a renewed approach to the OT in the light of Christ might look in practice.
Can Narrative Criticism Recover the Theological Unity of Scripture?
Authors: Hays Richard B. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
It has become increasingly difficult to talk about the unity of Scripture. Under the impact of modernist historical criticism, the Bible has seemed to fall apart into a cacophony of disparate voices. More recently, however, it has sometimes been suggested that narrative criticism might help us recover the unity of Scripture. But narrative criticism, taken by itself, cannot solve the problem of canonical unity. Instead, following the lead of the "Nine Theses" of the Scripture Project, this essay explores the claim that Scripture can be understood in light of the church's rule of faith as a complex but coherent dramatic narrative. If so, the practice of narrative criticism is necessary, though not in itself sufficient, to articulate the elusive unity of the biblical witness. This proposal is exemplified through a reading of the story of Jesus as sketched in Hebrews, Paul, Matthew, and John. Attention to the narrative pattern found in these four authors demonstrates a surprising coherence in their understanding of the purpose and effect of Jesus' death. Specifically, all four authors narrate Jesus' death on the cross as an act of radical faithfulness to God's redemptive purpose; further, in each of the four authors, this act of faithfulness provides a normative paradigm for the ongoing narratively shaped identity of all who trust in Jesus and find themselves reconciled to God through him.
The Trinitarian Shape of πίστις: A Theological Exegesis of Galatians
Authors: Congdon David W. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
This article is a theological contribution to the debate over the contested Pauline expression πίστις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. I begin by assessing Karl Barth's christological conception of faith in his Church Dogmatics, focusing on the themes of history, obedience, and imitation. Except for a significant passage in CD 2/2, Barth consistently employs the objective genitive, but his christocentric pisteology enables it to do the same work accomplished by the subjective genitive argued for by Richard Hays. Barth, however, does not connect his trinitarian theology to the text of Galatians, and Hays does not give sufficient attention to the life of Christ or to the agency of the Spirit. In the bulk of the paper, therefore, I explore the missional-trinitarian shape of faith through a theological exegesis of Galatians in order to supplement the insights of Barth and Hays. I argue that Paul presents a missional narrative in which Father, Son, and Spirit are each involved in actualizing the faith of the community. We can thus speak of the faithfulness of the Father, the faith of the Son, and the faith-producing Holy Spirit. A trinitarian interpretation of Galatians is able to ground the distinction between the objective and subjective dimensions of faith in the mission of the triune God.
The Nondivisive Difference of Election: A Reading of Romans 9–11
Authors: Ticciati Susannah 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
This article reads Rom 9–11 as an articulation of the "divine difference" (or the difference between God and creation). It argues that the distinction between Israel and the nations made by God's election of Israel is precisely a manifestation of the divine difference within creation. It shows, further, that this sort of reading is able to counter anti-Jewish appropriation of Paul, arguing that the binary logic of anti-Judaism is fundamentally at odds with the logic of Paul's nondivisive difference between Israel and the nations.
Prosopological Exegesis in Cyprian's "De opere et eleemosynis"
Authors: Downs David J. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
Cyprian of Carthage's treatise De opere et eleemosynis represents an important contribution to the emerging early Christian discourse about the redemptive value of almsgiving. Throughout the treatise, Cyprian draws on the language of Scripture in order to develop his claim that almsgiving purges the postbaptismal sins of the donor. This article demonstrates Cyprian's use of the hermeneutical strategy known as "prosopological exegesis" in De opere et eleemosynis. Prosopological exegesis is a literary and grammatical method of interpretation that discerns the identity of speakers, or πρóσωπα, in inspired texts. This interpretive practice allows Cyprian to name the Holy Spirit as the "speaker" of certain biblical texts (e.g., Prov 16:6 and Sir 3:30 in Eleem. 2), thus grounding Cyprian's ethical exhortation in divine speech. Moreover, Cyprian frames the Holy Spirit as delivering, through Scripture, a declarative speech act that supports both Cyprian's theological assertion that almsgiving and acts of mercy alleviate postbaptismal sin and Cyprian's paraenetic activity of encouraging eleemosyna. Therefore, the speech of the Holy Spirit in De opere et eleemosynis authorizes both the message and the messenger.
Rethinking "History" for Theological Interpretation
Authors: Green Joel B. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
In recent years, theological interpretation of Christian Scripture has often been distinguished by its wholesale antipathy toward history and/or to historical criticism. Working with a typology of different forms of "historical criticism," this essay urges (1) that historical criticism understood as reconstruction of "what really happened" and/or historical criticism that assumes the necessary segregation of "facts" from "faith" is inimical to theological interpretation; (2) that this form of historical criticism is increasingly difficult to support in light of contemporary work in the philosophy of history; and (3) that contemporary theological interpretation is dependent on expressions of historical criticism concerned with the historical situation within which the biblical materials were generated, including the sociocultural conventions they take for granted.
The Interpretation of John 10:30 in the Third Century: Antimonarchian Polemics and the Rise of Grammatical Reading Techniques
Authors: DelCogliano Mark 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
This study provides an exhaustive survey of the exegesis of John 10:30 in the third century, a verse whose meaning was contested between monarchians (such as Noetus of Smyrna and Callistus of Rome) and antimonarchians (such as Hippolytus, Tertullian, and Novatian). It argues that in the course of this debate Greco-Roman grammatical reading techniques came to function as the criteria for superior exegesis. Although monarchians were not ignorant of grammatical reading techniques, anti-monarchians employed a particular selection of these techniques with such skill that their exegesis of John 10:30 became standard by the middle of the third century, rendering the monarchian interpretation of the same verse obsolete. Mid-third-century authors such as Cyprian, Origen, and Dionysius of Rome adopted the antimonarchian interpretation without question, showing the success of the grammatical exegetical methods of their predecessors.
The Church as Israel and Israel as the Church: An Examination of Karl Barth's Exegesis of Romans 9:1–5 in "The Epistle to the Romans" and "Church Dogmatics" 2/2
Authors: Hill Wesley A. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
The prefaces to Karl Barth's Epistle to the Romans highlight Barth's desire for his commentary to be judged as a genuine piece of biblical interpretation. Likewise, in the preface to Church Dogmatics 2/2, Barth suggests that the viability of his reworking of the Reformed doctrine of election stands or falls on its strength as a reading of Scripture. Recent interpreters of Barth have rightly attempted to take seriously Barth's desire to be assessed as a biblical interpreter and have begun to engage his theological exegesis accordingly. Building on that work and pressing beyond it to look at a specific textual test case, this article (1) sketches Barth's reading of Rom 9:1–5 in The Epistle to the Romans, (2) compares the reading there to the later treatment of this text in the Church Dogmatics 2/2, and (3) suggests a model for understanding Barth's exegetical efforts that avoids both dismissing him as an "eisegete" as well as unqualifiedly praising his interpretive efforts. The concept of the "double agency" of biblical text and theological interpreter offers a heuristic model for plotting Barth's widely differing readings of Rom 9:1–5 on a spectrum of divergent realizations of the semantic potential of the biblical text. In the Romans commentary, the agency of the interpreter threatens to overwhelm that pf the text, while in the Church Dogmatics the agency of the biblical text exerts more obvious influence as Barth attempts to wrestle seriously with Paul's references to Israel in their historical particularity.
Biblical Criticism and Religious Belief
Authors: Moberly R. W. L. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
Moberly discusses John Barton's Nature of Biblical Criticism and takes issue with Barton's portrayal of theological interpretation as hostile to the values of biblical criticism. After showing how Barton misrepresents theological interpretation, not least because of a failure to do justice to the changing frames of reference of critical scholarship, Moberly extends the discussion to include the preunderstandings that interpreters inevitably bring to the Bible in ways analogous to how one reads a classic; the way in which appreciation of deep literature relates to personal maturity; and the way in which theological dogma, rightly understood, can make truer one's perception of reality.
A Looser "Canon"? Relating William Abraham's "Canon and Criterion in Christian Theology" to Biblical Interpretation
Authors: Treier Daniel J. 
Published: May 2022

Abstract
In his important book, William Abraham criticizes "a long-standing misinterpretation of ecclesial canons as epistemic criteria." He also defines "canon" in such a way that Scripture is not the canon but rather one entity in a network of "materials, persons, and practices officially or semi-officially identified and set apart as a means of grace and salvation by the Christian community." This paper discerns and evaluates the entailments of Abraham's viewpoint for biblical interpretation. Although Abraham's approach offers the opportunity to explore a more classic and even Eastern Orthodox perspective, biblical and historical considerations should moderate his critique of the Western heritage. His theological emphasis on means of grace is a helpful corrective. Yet we must avoid false dichotomies between soteriology and epistemology: Regulating the church's dogmatic and ethical teaching is a crucial way in which biblical texts mediate grace. A brief example from Eccl 12:9–14 enables us to see more clearly what it means to read Scripture "canonically": one of Scripture's gracious functions is goading us to read soteriologically, yet we do so in light of the pressure exerted by the received wisdom teaching that is passed on to us through biblical texts.