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TOPIC: Edwards, Jonathan - Rational Biblical Theology (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: Chapt 10 Interpretation & Illumination
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We now have a divine, supernatural revelation miraculously inspired so that every word is inerrant and its canonical limits defined as well. There remains the all important purpose for which it was given - understanding and applying it. This is the hermeneutical question to which we turn in our discussion of Jonathan Edwards and the Bible.
The Interpretation of the Bible
In a sense Edwards was dealing with the interpretation of Scripture almost every day of his life. All his notes in all his writings were directly or indirectly involved in this enterprise. We have never encountered a sermon which did not begin with a text of Scripture and expound and apply it throughout.
Probably the most straight-forward comprehensive statement Edwards ever made about the Bible, its interpretation and its divinity is found in a miscellany written shortly after he had begun his preaching career. We have referred to it before but we now quote in full:
Scriptures. When one enquires whether or not we have Scripture ground for any doctrine, the question is whether or not the Scripture exhibits it any way to the eye of the mind or to the eye of reason. We have no grounds to assert that it was God’s intent by the Scripture, in so many terms, to declare every doctrine that he would have us believe. There are many things the Scripture may support that we know already. And if what the Scripture says, together with what is plain to reason, leads [us] to believe any doctrine, we are to look upon ourselves as taught this doctrine by the Scripture. God may reveal things in Scripture, which way he pleases; if by what he there reveals the thing is any way clearly discovered to the understanding or eye of the mind, ’tis our duty to receive it as his *Rev_1:1-20*
Several things seem worthy of note. First, no specific hermeneutic principle is advocated whether literal, allegorical, eschatological or anagogical. The question is only “whether or not the Scripture exhibits it any way to the eye of the mind. . . .” Presumably any type of interpretation is valid if reasonable. *2* No special disposition, regenerate or unregenerate, is insisted on. Furthermore, second, what “is plain to reason” together with what Scripture teaches justify “doctrine.” This seems to be more than the usual “just and necessary consequence” (which Edwards would surely regard as appealing “to the eye of the mind”). What is plain to reason would seem to include not only the implicit but the self-evident and soundly reasoned extra-biblical data as well. In Freedom of the Will Edwards had justified “metaphysics” as virtually the only way of understanding and justifying any cardinal biblical teaching, specifically the five points of Calvinism. *3* Third, whatever the Bible is found to teach - “’Tis our duty to receive it as his [God’s] revelation.” “Whatever” is an omnibus term which carries authority for every single item which the understanding sees the Bible to affirm. No room for restriction to the “normative,” to the “essential,” to matters pertaining to “faith and morals” here. Finally, it is a matter of “duty” to receive, and for Edwards this means preach and practice. This sentence can explain his entire life and career.
In addition to the metaphysical underpinning of interpretation, there is also a superstructure which Edwards called the “double-sense” of Scripture. *4* This “double-sense” is called “manifold instruction” in another Miscellany:
It is becoming of him who is infinite in understanding and has many things in full and perfect view at once and when he speaks sees all things that have any manner of agreement with his words and knows how to adapt his words to many things and so to speak infinitely more comprehensively than others, and to speak so as naturally to point forth many things, I say it becomes such an one when he speaks to speak as [to] include a manifold instruction in his speech. The expression in the Old Testament “Out of Egypt have I called my Son” has respect to two distinct things, as is manifest beyond all contradiction in many other phrases in the Old Testament applied in the New. *5*
In some cases the human speakers or writers do not themselves understand the second allusion of the “double-sense.” “Divine revelation is like a light that shines in a dark place” is the theme of a lecture and sermon which develop this point. *6*
Edwards was a “literalist.” *7* He explained, “letters” are useless except as they relate to ideas. “So the Old Testament dispensation was unprofitable except as it referred to the Spirit which the New Testament is the minister of.” 2Co_3:17 says that:
The Lord is the Spirit which means that Christ is the spiritual light of the Old Testament. Now we see face to face rather than through types. In so seeing we are changed into Christ’s likeness. So Christ is the sun and the Holy Spirit the rays. The minister in turn tells the people, but only the Spirit makes them see. *8*
According to Edwards the Old Testament was a typological dispensation. He is a literalist in his interpretation even here. This is the sense in which everyone is a literalist and no one is a literalist. That is, literalism has to refer to the very letters or words of a document. When one turns to these words he finds ideas, says Edwards. These ideas relate either to a “literal” or other meaning in the words. For example, suppose we suggest that the word is “wooden.” One thinks immediately of the meaning or idea: “pertaining to wood.” This will fit if the expression is “wooden table.” Suppose the term is “wooden expression.” The meaning “pertaining to wood” will not fit exactly because expressions are not made of wood. But it must fit in some sense or form, that is, in some metaphorical sense. A “wooden expression,” then, is a wood-like, inflexible, non-mobile, static, expressionless expression. This is, in a sense, the “literal” meaning of “wooden” in the term “wooden expression.” This is what the “word” (letters) actually signifies. So we say in the basic meaning of words everyone is a literalist and no one is. Everyone begins with the letters and proceeds first to their ordinary (”literal”) meaning, and if he finds that will not fit, he turns in faithfulness to the letters (words) to the “non-literal” (!), metaphorical meanings dictated by the literal words. So the literal method is not necessarily “literal,” and the metaphorical always is “literal.” If a person construed the term “wooden expression” as referring to a face made of wood, he would not be true to the “literal” meaning.
So it was Edwards’ literalism that made him such a thorough-going typologist. Nevertheless, it was not his own idea but the Old Testament’s: “That the things of the Old Testament are types of things appertaining to the Messiah, his kingdom, his salvation made manifest from the Old Testament itself.” *9* The massive work Types of the Messiah attempts to demonstrate typology in Scripture, and Images and Shadows does the same in nature. *10*
Typology is everywhere in Edwards. We take a random sample from his Notes on Scripture. The very first verse of the Bible on which we have a note is Gen_1:2 :
“The earth was without form and void.” The first state of the earth, or this lower world, shows what it was to be afterwards, viz., a world of confusion and emptiness, full of evil, vanity of vanities. So in the first state of man in his infancy, is an image of what man always is in himself, a poor, polluted, helpless worm. *11*
The preaching of Edwards also was often typological. His sermon on 1Co_10:8-11, for example: “Those awful temporal destructions that we have an account of God‘s bringing on wicked men of old are types and shadows of God’s eternal judgments.” *12* Again the treatment of 1Co_10:11 is typical: “The things that came to pass to the children of Israel in traveling from Egypt through the wilderness to Canaan are resemblances of what comes to pass to souls in their spiritual travel.” *13* The sermon on 2Co_3:18 explains what Edwards understands by the “face-to-face” hermeneutic. *14*
Edwards’ typology, therefore, is not non-literal. He is not departing from the Old Testament Scripture when he finds a great deal of its meaning typological. This, for him, is what the words convey. Not to see this is to miss the literal message of the Bible. To call it, pejoratively, “spiritualizing” is unfair. This “spiritualizing” or “typologizing” is to interpret its literal meaning. Not to do so would be wooden, not literal.
But if this is the literal interpretation of much in the Old Testament, what hermeneutic is implied in the statement: “Now we see face-to-face rather than through types”? “Literal” we know, and “typological” we understand; but what is the face-to-face hermeneutic? This brings us to the fascinating Edwardsian notion of illumination.
Illumination
While the internal evidence and the corroborative external evidence prove the Bible to be the Word of God, this fact is brought home to the individual by divine illumination. The way to know that the Spirit of God was given to Christ is to have him given to you. *15* No other book but the Word of Christ reaches the heart. *16* This fact shows that the internal miracle of illumination is a kind of “external” evidence also. Only the Word can “subdue the heart.” *17* Edwards obviously agrees with the Westminster Confession of Faith which after listing many biblical “arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God” carefully adds the significant reminder that, “yet, notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.” *18*
The point at which God actually engages the human soul savingly is knowledge. *19* Nothing of a religious nature can happen to anyone without knowledge. Unless people hear the gospel and receive the outward call, they will never have convictions, impressions, awakening, seekings or anything. This knowledge must be sound Biblical knowledge. As we have seen, unregenerate persons may have this knowledge - “may yet have an intellectual opinion about divine things, as a man may have some knowledge or opinion about sweet things who has not tasted them.” This is strictly an external or merely speculative knowledge which they have. God communicates himself differently to them than he does to regenerate persons:
The Spirit of God acts in a very different manner in the one case from what he doth in the other. He may indeed act upon the mind of a natural man; but he acts in the mind of a saint as an indwelling vital principle. He acts upon the mind of an unregenerate person as an extrinsic occasional agent ; for in acting upon them he doth not unite himself to them.” *20*
Even the devil may have speculative knowledge. But such speculative knowledge which was possible for unregenerate men and devils was obviously not sufficient for salvation. “Nothing in the mind of man that is of the same nature with what the devils experience, or are the subjects of, is any sure sign of saving grace.” *21*
Men could have sound knowledge without being regenerated, but they could not be regenerated without having sound knowledge. Thorough conviction of the understanding is the root and foundation of all religion. *22* Faith is a rational act, and no man ever yet exercised true faith but that he saw reason that he should do Song of Solomon *23*
It is not according to the nature of the human soul to love an object which is entirely unknown. . . . Such is the nature of man, that nothing can come at the heart but through the door of the understanding. And there can be no spiritual knowledge of that of which there is not first a rational knowledge.” *24*
What, then, is the function of the Spirit in illuminating the minds of men savingly? He “helps us to receive the revelation in the Word.” Men hear of the loveliness of Christ, but until they receive illumination “they have no taste to relish that sweetness any more than an image of stone could taste honey if you should put it into its mouth.” *25* The Spirit does not, Edwards, quoting Stoddard, says, “reveal new truth not revealed in the Word.” The Spirit’s communication is not a “secret whisper,” that is, not the imparting of new propositions. *26*
In other words, the divine and supernatural light is only light - it is not itself knowledge. Religious knowledge comes by the reason, the natural reason, but the “beauty” or “excellency” or “amiableness” of this knowledge is not seen by natural reason until the divine and supernatural light reveals it - to the natural reason. This divine light comes from God, and its experience in the regenerate is called “the sense of the heart” in distinction from - but not apart from - the ratiocination of the mind. Though distinct from the discursive intelligence, it is not separable from it. Only when there is previous doctrinal knowledge in the mind, by means of natural reason, can the “sense of the heart” reveal its beauty. Edwards would say: religious concepts without the sense of the heart are empty; the sense of the heart without religious concepts is blind.
Edwards’ theory of religious knowledge may be represented by the photographic developing process. When the picture is first taken on the emulsion nothing appears or can be seen. When the film is developed the picture is seen. The developer adds nothing to the picture that is not already present, but it makes the picture visible. Natural men may have a religious picture on their mind; they may have many such pictures; they may have many more than regenerate persons and, indeed, much better pictures. But not a one of these fine pictures is ever developed. The divine and supernatural light is the developer God uses to make the beauty and sweetness of divine truth apparent to the regenerate.
The “divine and supernatural light” is the theme of many sermons. “’Tis a sight of the glory of God in Christ is that thing and that only which changes the elect of God and makes them like God.” *27* “There never was any man,” Edwards says in another sermon, “that once came to understand what manner of one Christ was but his heart was infallibly drawn to him.” In still another sermon he affirms that true love and knowledge of God assimilates to God and makes men a partaker of his nature. *28* There is also a “spiritual understanding of divine things, which all natural and unregenerate men are destitute of.” *29* Spiritual knowledge was above all knowledge that the wicked could ever have.
It is because of the nature of this spiritual knowledge that Edwards can say, “There is none that teaches like God.” *30* There are four ways mentioned in which human teachers are inferior to God: None can impart the will to do what is taught; none can impart a knowledge so excellent; none can teach so effectually; none can make the disciple love what he hated.
In spite of the close relation between the divine light and doctrinal knowledge, this light was not primarily intellectual but affectional. While the intellectual was the necessary foundation of this vision the vision was more than the intellectual. What exactly it was, Edwards makes abundantly clear. It was a sight of the “amiableness” of the divine attributes. *31* The attributes could be understood apart from the divine light, but their amiableness could not otherwise be seen. Devils could have a knowledge of the attributes but not of their beauty. Only the godly have a “sensible” apprehension of the main things of the gospel. *32*
Preaching on 2Co_2:14, Edwards discusses this saving experience not in terms of light but of smell. “The spiritual knowledge of Christ is, as it were, a sweet savor that the soul hath of Christ.” Five points of resemblance to the olfactory experience are noted. First, in smelling it is the good and excellent nature of the object that is perceived. Second, in smelling we have an immediate perception of the good. Third, “in smelling or tasting, a sweet savor, a knowledge or idea is obtained of the excellency of a thing perfectly diverse in its nature and kind from all that can be obtained any other way.” Fourth, if we have a savor, the good perceived is perceived as excellent. Fifth, this experience necessarily implies approbation and therein differs from mere speculation. *33*
Not only is the divine light more than speculative knowledge, but it is necessary for fully correct speculative knowledge. This point is not extensively developed in Edwards, and many of his remarks, such as those concerning the excellent speculative knowledge of the devils, seem opposed to it. However, the manuscript sermon on Mat_13:23 speaks of the new judgments of the godly as they see in the Word the “intrinsic signatures of the divinity.”
There are signatures of divine majesty to be seen in the word, and signatures of divine wisdom and of divine holiness, and the evident marks of divine grace, that make it evident that the word of God did proceed from a divine majesty and wisdom and holiness and grace. There are as proper manifestations of divinity in the speech of God as there are manifestations of humanity in the speech of men. God opens the understandings of profitable hearers to see these signatures and manifestations of divinity so that they hear it as the word of God. They do as it were hear God speak. *34*
Illumination is dependent on knowledge. Knowledge is not dependent, in the same sense, on illumination. Illumination does powerfully promote knowledge. Once God has made the knowledge come alive spiritually, the saints develop an eager desire for more of such knowledge in order that more enlivening experience may be possible. The “sense of the heart” promotes the interests of the head. “Spiritual saving knowledge of God and divine things greatly promotes speculative knowledge; as it engages the mind in its search into things of this kind, and much assists to a distinct understanding of them; so that, other things being equal, they that have spiritual knowledge are much more likely than others to have a good doctrinal acquaintance with things of religion. . . .” But Edwards hastens to add that “such acquaintance may be no distinguishing characteristic of true saints.” *35* Mere speculative knowledge must never be confused with saving heart knowledge.
While there is a divine illumination that marks the moment of conversion, these visions are given intermittently throughout the life of the Christian. They are usually brief disclosures of glory comparable to the sun coming from behind clouds. The beloved is like a roe on the mountains. *36* This glimpse is, however, reassuring. It is not the length of time but the nature of the view that guarantees the presence of the beloved. A contemporary Scottish minister, Ebenezer Erskine, spoke much of “blinks” by which he apparently referred to these enriching but infrequent views of the divine glory. As Erskine became older he relied less on them, as indication perhaps of the truth of Edwards’ statement that they are infrequently given. The purpose of these views, discoveries, or blinks is not that beholders should stay on the mount of transfiguration or stand gazing into heaven, but radiate the light to others. Thus, Edwards appeals to “those that have lately been enlightened - don’t only be enlightened but shine.” *37*
Jonathan Edwards and the Bible
What shall we say? For him it was nothing other than the verbally inspired and inerrant Word, and he always, as Isaiah advised, “trembled” at this Word. It had free course in him as he studied it day and night and preached it throughout his ministry. It was certified internally and confirmed by external credentials as well. It was an “awful book” *38* with its dread warnings to the wicked and wondrous promises to the humble penitent. So Edwards, “boxed in” as he was by its authority, preached it in season and out of season, laboring to make its unique and saving message plain and powerful while fully aware that no sinner in Northampton or anywhere would ever see and receive it as God’s very Word until God Himself cast His divine and supernatural light upon its pages and its proclamation.