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"THE PROCESS OF THE TEXT"
“The scripture giveth record to himself and ever expondeth itself by another open
text. If the Pope cannot bring for his exposition the practicing of Christ or of the
Apostles and prophets or an open text, then is his exposition false doctrine.”!°
THE "PROCESS OF THE TEXT"
In the age of “word-processors” Tyndale’s idea of the “process of the text” strikes
us as surprisingly modern. To my knowledge the English reformers William
Tyndale and John Frith are quite unique in using this terminology. Though it
conforms to the idea of sacra scriptura sui ipsius interpres and the analogia fidei
principles of the main reformers, there is no similar terminology either in Latin
or in German. I hope to show how modern the term is.
Tyndale in the Obedience recommends his reading of Scripture according to
the “process of the text” as it corresponds to Christ as the foundation (chris¬
tological reading) and the “common articles of faith” (confessional reading)
and the “open scriptures” (hermeneutical reading). He makes it clear that this
sense is obtained by the Holy Spririt and this reading is for the benefit of the
congregation:
“Prepare thy mind therefore unto this little treatise; and read it discreetly; and judge
it indifferently. And when I allege any scripture, look thou on the text whether I in¬
terpret it right: which thou shalt easily perceive by the circumstance and process
of them, if thou make Christ the foundation and the ground...”""
In the last part of The Obedience Tyndale writes:
“... when we have found out the literal sense of the scripture by the process of the
text, or by a like text of another place, then go we, and as the scripture borroweth
similitudes of worldly things, even so we again borrow similitudes or allegories of
the scripture, and apply them to our purposes; which allegories are no sense of the
scripture, but free things besides the scripture, and altogether at the liberty of the
Spirit”?
10 TYNDALE, Obedience, 172.
1° TYNDALE, Obedience, 30. The bold text is always my addition: TF.
2 TYNDALE, Obedience, p. 158.