Seite 57 [57]
OCR
"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 (christological 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 interpret 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.
