Biblical Interpretation by Edwin Cyril Blackman

This book on biblical interpretation deals with the issue of biblical authority and surveys the history of biblical interpretation. According to the blurb on the dustjacket the author “…shows the Bible is still the Word of God for mankind, and the work of the scholars enables it to be more easily understood and proclaimed by this generation”. Edwin Cyril Blackman is perhaps best known for his classic work Marcion and His Influence (SPCK, 1948).

This book is still in copyright. Permission to reproduce it on-line has been granted by E.C. Blackman’s family and the United Reformed Church. It can be used for educational purposes, but not sold for profit without permission from the copyright holders.

Edwin Cyril Blackman, Biblical Interpretation. The Old Difficulties and the New Opportunity. London: Independent Press Ltd., 1957. Hbk. pp.212. [Click to visit the download page for this title]

Contents

• Preface
  1. Introductory
  2. The Question of Authority
  3. The Development of Exegesis
  4. Modern Criticism
  5. The Present Task in Biblical Interpretation
• Index

Preface

The aim of this book is to serve ‘the cause of true exposition. The three longer chapters IV-VI are more obviously related to that purpose than the others. Chapter IV is historical, and tries to give an impression of how Christian teachers and preachers through nineteen centuries have in fact expounded the Bible. Chapter VI is intended to be a climax in that it ventures to lay down canons of exegesis for the preacher today. It seemed advisable to preface these larger chapters with some discussion of issues about which it is essential for the preacher to have a right judgment: the significance of the Bible as Revelation, the authority of the Bible in the setting of the general problem of moral and spiritual authority, and the function and limits of historical criticism as applied to the Bible….

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