CONTENTS |
An Introductory Note by the Editor
Preface -Showing that to teach rules for the
interpretation of Scripture is not a superfluous task
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1. |
The
interpretation of Scripture depends on the discovery and
enunciation of the meaning, and is to be undertaken in
dependence on God's aid. |
2. |
What a thing
is, and what a sign |
3. |
Some things
are for use, some for enjoyment |
4. |
Difference
of use and enjoyment |
5. |
The Trinity the true object of
enjoyment |
6. |
In what sense God is ineffable |
7. |
What all men understand by the
term God |
8. |
God to be esteemed above all else
because He is unchangeable Wisdom |
9. |
All acknowledge the superiority of
unchangeable: wisdom to that which is variable |
10. |
To see God, the soul must be
purified |
11. |
Wisdom becoming incarnate, a
pattern to us of purification |
12. |
In what sense the Wisdom of God
came to us |
13. |
The Word was made flesh |
14. |
How the wisdom of God healed man |
15. |
Faith is buttressed by the
resurrection and ascension of Christ, and is stimulated by His
coming to judgment |
16. |
Christ purges His church by
medicinal afflictions |
17. |
Christ, by forgiving our sins,
opened the way to our home |
18. |
The keys given to the Church |
19. |
Bodily and spiritual death and
resurrection |
20. |
The resurrection to damnation |
21. |
Neither body nor soul extinguished
at death |
22. |
God alone to be enjoyed |
23. |
Man needs no injunction to love
himself and his own body |
24. |
No man hates his own flesh, not
even those who abuse it |
25. |
A man may love something more than
his body, but does not therefore hate his body |
26. |
The command to love God and our
neighbour includes a command to love ourselves |
27. |
The order of love |
28. |
How we are to decide whom to aid |
29. |
We are to desire and endeavour
that all men may love God |
30. |
Whether angels are to be reckoned
our neighbours |
31. |
God uses rather than enjoys us |
32. |
In what way God uses man |
33. |
In what way man should be enjoyed |
34. |
Christ the first way to God |
35. |
The fulfilment and end of
Scripture is the love of God and our neighbour |
36. |
That
interpretation of Scripture which builds us up in love is not
perniciously deceptive nor mendacious, even though it be
faulty. The interpreter, however should be corrected. |
37. |
Dangers of mistaken interpretation |
38. |
Love never faileth |
39. |
He who is mature in faiths hope
and love, needs Scripture no longer |
40. |
What manner of reader Scripture
demands
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1. |
Signs, their nature and variety |
2. |
Of the kind of signs we are now concerned with |
3. |
Among signs, words hold the chief place |
4. |
Origin of writing |
5. |
Scripture translated into various languages |
6. |
Use of the obscurities in Scripture which
arise from its figurative language |
7. |
Steps to wisdom: first, fear; second, piety;
third, knowledge; fourth, resolution; fifth, counsel; sixth,
purification of heart; seventh, stop or termination, wisdom |
8. |
The canonical books |
9. |
How we should proceed in studying Scripture |
10. |
Unknown or ambiguous signs prevent Scripture
from being understood |
11. |
Knowledge of languages especially of Greek and
Hebrew, necessary to remove ignorance of signs |
12. |
A diversity of interpretations is useful.
Errors arising from ambiguous words |
13. |
How faulty interpretations can be emended |
14. |
How the meaning of unknown words and idioms is
to be discovered |
15. |
Among versions a preference is given to the
Septuagint and the Itala |
16. |
The knowledge both of language and things is
helpful for the understanding of figurative expressions |
17. |
Origin of the legend of the nine Muses |
18. |
No help is to be despised even though it come
from a profane source |
19. |
Two kinds of heathen knowledge |
20. |
The superstitious nature of human institutions |
21. |
Superstition of astrologers |
22. |
The folly of observing the stars in order to
predict the events of a life |
23. |
Why we repudiate arts
of divination |
24. |
The intercourse and agreement with demons
which superstitious observances maintain |
25. |
The intercourse and agreement with demons
which superstitious observances maintain |
26. |
What human contrivances we are to adopt, and
what we are to avoid |
27. |
Some departments of knowledge, not of mere
human invention, aid us in interpreting Scripture |
28. |
To what extent history is an aid |
29. |
To what extent natural science is an
exegetical aid |
30. |
What the mechanical arts contribute to
exegetics |
31. |
Use of dialectics. Of fallacies |
32. |
Valid logical sequence is not devised but only
observed by man |
33. |
False inferences may be drawn from valid
seasonings, and vice versa |
34. |
It is one thing to know
the laws of inference, another to know the truth of opinions |
35. |
The science of definition is not false, though
it may be applied to falsities |
36. |
The rules of eloquence are true, though
sometimes used to persuade men of what is false |
37. |
Use of rhetoric and dialectic |
38. |
The science of numbers not created, but only
discovered, by man |
39. |
To which of the above-mentioned studies
attention should be given, and in what spirit |
40. |
Whatever has been rightly said by the heathen,
we must appropriate to our uses |
41. |
What kind of spirit is required for the study
of Holy Scripture |
42. |
Sacred Scripture compared with profane authors |
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