Edwards's Ezekiel: The Interpretation of Ezekiel in the "Blank Bible" and "Notes on Scripture"

Abstract

Abstract The recent publication of Jonathan Edwards's Blank Bible together with his previously published Notes on Scripture has provided historians of biblical interpretation for the first time with an unrestricted view of Edwards's interpretation of individual biblical books. Utilizing these resources, this paper inductively examines Edwards's dramatic and imaginative reading of the book of Ezekiel to uncover the exegetical techniques and hermeneutical principles Edwards applied to it. As his interpretation of Ezek 1, 4–5, and 38–39 reveals, Edwards departed from traditional Puritan exegesis. He highlighted layers of meaning lying beyond the literal sense, layers that bridge the divide between the textual world and the ostensive world. Beneath Edwards's complex exegesis, we can observe a guiding principle at work, namely, the providential harmony of all things. For Edwards, similarities between things—whether biblical texts, natural phenomena, historical events, institutions, doctrines, or human experiences—revealed the unity that undergirds the created order. Scriptural interpretation, in Edwards's view, was much more than an exposition of words on a page. To him, it was a vast enterprise that set the interpreter to the extraordinary task of mapping the mind of God.