Interpretation of the Scriptures in the Sermons of the Early Church - From the Perspective of the Jewish Synagogue Sermons -

Abstract

This study examines whether there is any pattern to interpret the Scriptures in the sermons of the early church from the perspective of the Jewish synagogue sermons. Since both Paul and Jesus preached at synagogues based on the Scriptures, it is significant to examine the use of the Scriptures in the New Testament sermons from the perspective of the Jewish synagogue sermons. Previous studies on the Jewish synagogue sermons for the understanding of New Testament sermons show that each sermon either explicitly or implicitly quotes several Scriptural passages interpreting one with the other. This pattern of the use of Scriptures in the synagogue sermon has been confirmed such a pattern in our analysis of the sermons in Acts. Use of Scriptures for sermon could be traced back to the cases of the Old Testament. Of course, we could not expect that Moses had used Scriptures for sermon; nevertheless, he wrote down what had been given from God for future preaching. Prophets proclaimed based upon the Law; and later preachers used the previously given Scriptures such as the Law and the Prophets for their sermons. Likewise, New Testament preachers preached based on the Scriptures, using different divisions of the Old Testament, interpreting one Scriptural passage with other passages. Even from the very beginning of sermons in the Old Testament, sermons were proclaimed based on what had been given from God and later based on the previously given Scriptures such as the Law and the Prophets. This tradition began in the Old Testament period, and continued in the New Testament sermons and also later in the synagogue sermons. This is why sermons are preached from the Scriptures even in modern preaching. Then, if our findings are correct as seen in the sermons in Acts as well as in the Jewish synagogue sermons, it is right to follow the pattern of the use of Scriptures in modern preaching in that sermons are to be preached on the basis of the interpretation of the Scriptural text with other Scriptural passages.