1. THE GRAMMAR of any science is a development of the principles by which
it is governed. As the science of interpretation must be founded on some
fixed and uniform laws, the unfolding of these is the first step in the
study of prophecy.
2. BIBLICAL EXEGESIS and SACRED HERMENEUTICS, are terms applied to the
science of interpretation, or of learning the meaning of Biblical words
and phrases.
3. THE USUS LOQUENDI, is the usual mode of speaking. When applied to the
Scriptures, it denotes the general _scriptural use_ of words.
4. To learn the meaning of scriptural terms, their general use must be
ascertained, by comparing their contexts in the several places of their
occurrence.
5. PROPHECY is the prediction of a future event. The term sometimes
denotes a book of prophecies (Rev. 22:18); and sometimes a history.—2
Chron. 9:29.
6. CONSECUTIVE Prophecy gives the succession of future events in the order
in which they will transpire. _Examples._—See Dan. 2d, 7th, 8th, 11th, and
Rev. 6th and 7th, 9th to the 11th; 12th and 15th, &c.
7. DISCURSIVE Prophecy presents future events, irrespective of the order
of their occurrence. _Examples._—ISAIAH and the minor prophets.
8. CONDITIONAL Prophecy is when the fulfilment is dependent on the
compliance of those to whom the promise is made, with the conditions on
which it is given. _Examples._—“_If_ ye walk in my statutes and keep my
commandments, and do them: then I will give you rain in due season, and
the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield
their fruit.” Lev. 26:3, 4. “But _if_ ye will _not_ hearken unto me, and
will _not_ do all these commandments; and _if_ ye shall despise my
statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all
my commandments, _but_ that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto
you, I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning
ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall
sow your seed in vain; for your enemies shall eat it.” _Ib._ 14-16.
“And it shall come to pass, _if_ thou shalt hearken diligently unto the
voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which
I command thee this day: that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above
all nations of the earth: and all these blessings shall come on thee, and
overtake thee, _if_ thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy
God.” Deut. 28:1, 2. “But it shall come to pass, _if_ thou wilt not
hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his
commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day: that all
these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee,” &c. _Ib._ 15.
Predictions of mere national prosperity, or adversity, are usually
conditional. When the condition is not expressed, it is implied.
_Example._—The Lord said unto Jonah, “Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great
city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.... And Jonah began
to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty
days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed
God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of
them even to the least of them.... And God saw their works, that they
turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that he had said
that he would do unto them: and he did it not.”
For all cases of this kind, the Lord has given the following general RULE:
“At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a
kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it: if that nation
against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil, I will repent of the
evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak
concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent
of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them.” Jer. 18:7-10.
9. UNCONDITIONAL Prophecy includes all predictions which are absolute in
their nature. _Examples._—“But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be
filled with the glory of the Lord.” Num. 14:21.
“For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the
people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen
upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the
brightness of thy rising.... For the nation and kingdom that will not
serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted....
Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for
ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be
glorified.” Isa. 60:2, 3, 12, 21.
“But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the
house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it
shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.” Micah
4:1.
10. A VISION is a revelation from GOD, supernaturally presented. Future
events are made to pass before the mind of the _seer_, as if actually
transpiring. _Examples._—See the prophecies of ISAIAH, AMOS, OBADIAH, &c.
11. A SYMBOLIC VISION is where the future events, instead of being
presented to the mind of the prophet, are represented by analogous
objects. _Examples._—The prophecies of EZEKIEL, DANIEL, ZECHARIAH, and
JOHN, are of this kind.
12. A LITERAL Prophecy is where the prediction is given in words used
according to their primary and natural import. _Examples._—Num. 14:21-35;
Jer. 25:1-33.
13. Prophecy is _figurative_ when it abounds in tropes, as in much of
ISAIAH and the minor prophets; and it is symbolic, when symbols instead of
the objects themselves are presented—as in DANIEL and JOHN.
14. POETRY is writing thus constituted by the metrical or rhythmical
structure of its sentences; and is not necessarily any more figurative or
obscure than prose writing. It is, also, a term sometimes applied to the
language of excited imagination and feeling.
The Poetry of the Bible consists in Hebrew parallelisms, where the idea of
the preceding line is repeated, or contrasted, in the succeeding one.
_Examples._—The Psalms, ISAIAH, and other prophets.
15. HIGHLY FIGURATIVE, or SYMBOLIC Prophecies—the laws and use of _Tropes_
and _Symbols_ being understood are not necessarily more equivocal,
enigmatical or obscure, than those which are literal.
16. LITERAL FULFILMENT of prophecy is prophecy fulfilled in accordance
with the _grammatical interpretation_ of its language.
17. LITERAL INTERPRETATION, when _technically_ applied to the
interpretation of prophecy, is not opposed to tropes or figures of speech,
but to _spiritual_ interpretation. It interprets the language of the
Scriptures, as similar language would be interpreted _in all other
writings_.
18. SPIRITUAL INTERPRETATION (_mystical_) seeks, in the language of
Scripture, a meaning that is not expressed by any of the ordinary rules of
language. It sets at defiance all the laws of language, and makes fancy
the interpreter of prophecy. “It subjects clear predictions to an
exegetical alembic that effectually subtilizes and evaporates their
meaning.”—_Bush._
19. ULTRA LITERAL INTERPRETATION is a disregard of the peculiarities of
symbols and of the several kinds of tropes—understanding them as if they
were _literally_ expressed.
20. SYMBOLS and TROPES are _literally_ explained, when interpreted in
accordance with the _grammatical laws_ which respectively govern their
use.
21. PROPHETIC SYMBOLS are objects, real or imaginary, _representative_ of
agents or objects possessing analogous characteristics. All agents or
objects _seen_ in symbolic visions are symbols. The inspired
_explanations_ of symbols are always literal, except when they are
affirmed to be the same as some other symbol which represents the same
object, as in Rev. 17:9.