HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION EIGHT LECTURES PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD IN ON THE FOUNDATION OF THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON BY FREDERIC W. FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S., "Damnamus veteres minime. Sed post priorum studia in domo Domini London : MACMILLAN AND CO. 1886 The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved. Gen. Res. 25 Aug 51 Sigmund Weiss VICE-CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, I Dedicate these Lectures, WITH SINCERE RESPECT FOR THE SERVICES WHICH HE HAS RENDERED TO THE CAUSE OF EDUCATION, THEOLOGY, AND LITERATURE, AND IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF MANY YEARS OF PERSONAL KINDNESS. PREFACE. IN publishing these Lectures there are two remarks which I ought at once to make, because they may serve to obviate much criticism which will have no relation to the objects which I have had in view. 1. By Exegesis I always mean the explanation of the immediate and primary sense of the sacred writings. If I were treating the subject from an entirely different point of view it would be easy to show that much of the material which has furnished forth many hundreds of commentaries remains practically unchanged from early days. But this material is mainly homiletic. It aims almost exclusively at moral and spiritual edification. In such practical instruction the writings of the Fathers and the Schoolmen abound, and it is often of the highest intrinsic value even when it has but a slender connexion with the text on which it is founded. When I speak of Scriptural interpretation I am using the phrase in its narrower and more limited meaning. 2. It is obvious that within the compass of Eight Lectures an exhaustive treatment of so wide a subject would be impossible. To write a full history of Exegesis would require a space of many volumes. I here only profess to deal |