Oldal 59 [59]
"THE PROCESS OF THE TEXT"
concerning the Last Supper cannot be interpreted in the literal sense, but only
in a figurative way : "... but now, in our matter, the process of Scripture will
not stand with the literal sense, as shall hereafter appear. And therefore neces¬
sity compelleth us to expound it figuratively, as doth St Austin and other holy
doctors...”'
If the literal sense is absurd, or, gross, the dynamic process of the text teaches
us to take it figuratively:
“... because the literal sense is impossible, and cannot be true; meaning that cannot
stand with the process of scripture but that other texts do of necessity constrain
me to construe it spiritually”’... I say that this gross imagination may not stand with
the process of Scripture which is received, as it shall appear by certain texts...””
TYNDALE’S AND FRITH’S “PROCESS OF THE TEXT” IN A PATRISTIC,
REFORMATION AND MODERN LITERARY CONTEXT
Tyndale’s idea of the “process of the text” is analogous to the idea of the “scope”
used by the Athanasius of Alexandria (296-373) and by the famous Reforma¬
tion theologian Matthias Flacius Illyricus (1520-1575). Athanasius said:
“Now the scope and character of Holy Scripture, as we have often said, is this, it
contains a double account of the Saviour; that he was ever God, and is the Son, being
the Father’s Word and radiance and wisdom; and that afterwards for us he took flesh
of a Virgin, Mary Bearer of God, and was made man. And this scope is to be found
throughout inspired Scripture, as the Lord himself has said, Search the Scriptures,
for they are which testify of me.””
One of the hermeneutical rules of Matthias Flacius Illyricus’ monumental
Clavis Scripturae is that the literal sense was to be disclosed “by the scope,
purpose, or intention of the whole book”. “Scope” was meant to express how
the part of a book interrelated, how they corresponded to the perspective of the
total work. The Reformers’ use of “scope”, said Gerald T. Sheppard, is not an
19 WRIGHT, The Work of John Frith, 352.
20 WRIGHT, The Work of John Frith, 383.
2° WRIGHT, The Work of John Frith, 391.
22. Quoted by MrHoc, Vasil, Basic Principles of Orthodox Hermeneutics, in M. Mayordomo (ed.),
Die prägende Kraft der Texte. Hermeneutik und Wirkunsgeschichte des Neuen Testaments, (Ein
Symposium zu Ehren von Ulrich Luz), Suttgart, Verlag Katholishes Bibelwerk GmbH, 2005, 60.
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