Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I EXEGESIS AND THE UNITY OF THE SCRIPTURES
- PART II THE BIBLE AS CLASSIC
- PART III LANGUAGE AND REFERENCE
- PART IV THE BIBLE AND THE LIFE OF FAITH
- Conclusion and retrospect: towards an outline historical account
- Bibliography
- 1 Index ofbiblicaI references
- 2 Index of modern scholars
- 3 Index of subjects
PART I - EXEGESIS AND THE UNITY OF THE SCRIPTURES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- PART I EXEGESIS AND THE UNITY OF THE SCRIPTURES
- PART II THE BIBLE AS CLASSIC
- PART III LANGUAGE AND REFERENCE
- PART IV THE BIBLE AND THE LIFE OF FAITH
- Conclusion and retrospect: towards an outline historical account
- Bibliography
- 1 Index ofbiblicaI references
- 2 Index of modern scholars
- 3 Index of subjects
Summary
The unity of the scriptures is recognised to have been a ‘dogma’ among the Fathers. The effect of this on exegesis, however, has not previously been discussed. Yet exegesis cannot but reflect fundamental hermeneutical principles which derive from the larger process of reception and appropriation. This is evident as soon as one articulates the interaction between understanding particular sentences or passages and discerning the perceived overarching plan, plot or argument of a literary work. The one affects the other: if the one modifies or confirms the other, then we may speak not of a hermeneutical circle, but rather a hermeneutical spiral as the whole and parts are brought into meaningful coherence.
Part I shows how the dogma was formed by considering how second-century readers received and read the scriptures; and then how exegesis was slanted by the assumption that the scriptures formed a unity.
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- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997