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tachment to the new Platonic philosophy , gave him an additional motive to the use of allegorical interpretation . Among Christian authors of the first century , Barnabas interprets the Old Testament in the same mystical manner : and his expositions are so many examples of the Jewish Medrash . * Contemporary and immediately succeeding writers afford little matter for a history of biblical interpretation , because their quotations from Scripture are generally unaccompanied by explanation , f
In the second century , Justin Martyr , who , before his conversion to Christianity , had been a Platonic philosopher , considered the words of Scripture , especially in the Old Testament , as containing mystical meanings , which were concealed from the view of those who regarded only the literal sense . His works abound in instances of this sort of exposition ; shewing alike his feebleness of judgment , and the absurdity of his principles of interpretative criticism .
Irenaeus justly objects to the allegorical interpretations employed by the Gnostics , although his own interpretations are sometimes as fanciful as those of his opponents . But the principle of interpretation upon which he chiefly insists , is a kind of traditio hermeneutica , to which he appeals as authority for the interpretation of Scripture . He appeals also to a Kavuv rvjq aKvjOeiaq , or regula veritatis . A formulary of faith laid down by him accords in substance with the corresponding articles in the Apostles' Creed : and with this formulary his regula veritatis was identical .
The Recognitiones Clementis , written by some author of the second century , declate the sentiments which then prevailed in the Latin Church respecting biblical interpretation . This author speaks of the veritas tradita , and the regula suscepta ex divinis Scripturis . " It was not an authority , " says Bishop Marsh , ' * distinct from Scripture , but Scripture itself interpreted by authority . "
Clement of Alexandria , being greatly attached to that species of the Platonic philosophy which prevailed there , had a strong predilection for allegorical interpretation , and carried it so far as even to put a mystical or allegorical sense on the precepts of the decalogue . The fifth commandment , for instance , relates , according to Clement , not to our natural parents , but to our heavenly Father , and the divine Gnosis .
Still , notwithstanding his regard for the Greek philosophy and his propensity to allegorical interpretation , Clement , like Irenaeus , appeals to kocvm t * k a \ v ) 6 ua , q , which he terms also Kavecv £ KK \ 7 j ( jiocg-iKoq . This was professedly founded on Scripture . $ We come now to the Latin fathers of the end of the second century . Of these Tertullian is the most ancient , and one of the most important . He was not addicted to allegorical interpretation . The rule by which he appears
to have been chiefly guided in the interpretation of Scripture , is that which he calls the regula fidei : not the tradition of the Church of Rome , not the doctrina tradita , which is called by Bellarmine , Verbum Dei rion scriptum , but a rule which has no other foundation than in Scripture , and by which in controversies of faith the sense of Scripture should be determined . § In the third century the most distinguished among the fathers were Origen in the Greek Church , and Cyprian in the Latin . Origen had really but two modes of interpretation , the grammatical and
* See Buxtorf . Lex . Rabb ., &c , in verb . t Pp . 4 , 5 X Pp . 5—14 . § Pp . 14—18 .
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Bishop Marsh s Lectures . 24 7
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1829, page 247, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2571/page/23/
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