Edwards the exegete : biblical interpretation and Anglo-Protestant culture on the edge of the enlightenment

407 Pages·2016·2.776 MB·English

by  Sweeney, Douglas A

Edwards the Exegete

Edwards
the Exegete
Biblical Interpretation
and Anglo-Protestant Culture
on the Edge of the Enlightenment
z
DOUGLAS A. SWEENEY
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sweeney, Douglas A.
Edwards the exegete : biblical interpretation and Anglo-Protestant culture on the edge of the
enlightenment / Douglas A. Sweeney.
p. cm.
ISBN 978–0–19–979322–8 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Edwards, Jonathan, 1703–1758.
2. Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc.—History—18th century. I. Title.
BX7260.E3S93 2016
220.6092—dc23
2015011485
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
to
Wilhelmina,
the love of my life

Contents
Preface ix
PART ONE: Prolegomena
1. The Biblical World of Jonathan Edwards 3
2. The Character of Scripture—and of Its Best Interpreters 27
PART TWO: A Canon of Scripture
3. The Harmony of the Old and New Testaments 53
4. A Priest Forever after the Order of Melchizedek 76
PART THREE: A Cradle of Christ
5. The Excellency of Christ 95
6. Let Him Kiss Me with the Kisses of His Mouth 113
PART FOUR: A Sacred Record of Redemption
7. The Grand Design of God 137
8. Things Which Must Shortly Come to Pass 160
viii Contents
PART FIVE: A Guide to Faith and Life
9. The Importance and Advantage of a Thorough Knowledge
of Divine Truth 187
10. Accounted as One by the Judge 202
Last Things 219
Notes 225
Index 379
Preface
The book you hold in your hands has been a long time in the making—
roughly twelve years, in fact. This is due, of course, in large part to the
limits of its author. It is also due, however, to the nature of Jonathan Ed-
wards’ vast literary corpus. I will argue in what follows that we fail to com-
prehend Edwards’ life, thought, and ministry when viewing them apart
from his biblical exegesis. But before I make this case, I need to state
for the record that Edwards never published a treatise on the meaning
of revelation, or the nature of the Bible, or his method of exegesis. He
never even wrote a standard commentary on Scripture. He spoke at great
length about interpreting the Bible. He understood his work in largely
“exegetical” terms. But not once did he use the English word hermeneutics,
let alone offer a comprehensive theory of the task.1 In order to write this
book I have had to glean from myriad leaves of manuscript material—
mainly unpublished sermons and a variety of notebooks—making sense
of Edwards’ manner of interpreting the Bible more coherently than he had
time to do for himself. To accomplish this goal without misconstruing
Edwards has required an immense amount of energy and patience. But
the effort has been worth it. As I demonstrate herein, Edwards really was,
from first to last, an exegete.
This is not a recommendation of Edwards’ biblical conclusions, or an
effort to repristinate his early-modern views. I am not an Edwardsean.
Nor do I teach biblical studies. As a historian, I have tried to transport
thoughtful readers into Edwards’ biblical world, helping them understand
and sympathize with Edwards’ exegesis, from the inside out, before re-
suming critical distance and evaluating his work from a late-modern per-
spective. I assume that Edwards’ context was different from our own, and
that no one wants to replicate his exegetical labors. I believe that we can
learn from Edwards’ biblical endeavors—about God, the Christian Bible,
and the nature of reality. But I harbor less interest in deciding for my