David Steinmetz on the Value of Precritical Exegesis
Nestled at the end of the reprint of his classic history of interpretation of Isaiah 6,1 Steinmetz offers a timely word to our collective enterprise at S&T. In response to Frederick Farrar’s charge that “old” exegesis is of use only to the degree that it adumbrates modern, critical methods, Steinmetz writes,
The principle value of precritical exegesis is that it is not modern exegesis; it is alien, strange, sometimes even, from our perspective, comic and fantastical. Precisely because it is strange, it provides a constant stimulus to interpreters, offering exegetical suggestions they would never think of or find in any modern book, forcing them again and again to a rereading and reevaluation of the text. But if they immerse themselves not only in the text but also in these alien approaches to the text, they may learn in time to see with eyes not their own sights they could scarcely have imagined and may learn to hear with ears not their own voices too soft for their own ears to detect.
- ”John Calvin on Isaiah 6: A Problem in the History of Exegesis,” Int 36 (1982): 156-70; reprinted as “Calvin and Isaiah,” in Calvin in Context (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 1995): 107. [↩]
Tags: Calvin, Farrar, precritical exegesis, Steinmetz
March 27th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Great quote, Seth. Thanks for sending it in.