grammatical (including the logical) interpretation of Scripture,
meaning of a clause rather than a precise or minute specification." In employing it the interpreter must be sure of the relative lucidity of the parallel members, lest he should make the mistake of trying to throw light on that which is less obscure by means of that which is dark and difficult to understand. If one member is figurative and the other literal, the latter should be used to elucidate the former.
A few examples may serve to illustrate its use. In Ps. 22:27 we read: "All the ends of the earth (world) shall remember and turn into the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee." The parallelism makes it perfectly evident that "the ends of the earth" refers to the distant nations, or Gentiles. Ps. 104:6 contains the enigmatic expression: "Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment"; but this is elucidated by the following words: "the waters stood above the mountains." In John 6:35, Jesus says: "I am the bread of Life; he that cometh to me shall never hunger." Here the question arises as to what kind of coming the Lord refers, and the following member of the parallelism answers this: "and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." 2 Cor. 5:21 contains an antithetic parallelism: "For He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Does the apostle mean that Christ was made sin for us in an ethical or in a legal sense? The antithesis, "that we might be made the righteousness of God in him," contains the answer, for this can be understood only in a legal sense.
G. External Helps for the Grammatical Interpretation
1. VALUABLE EXTERNAL HELPS. The external helps for the grammatical (including the logical) interpretation of Scripture, consist of the following:
a. Grammars
(1) For the Old Testament: Ewald, Gesenius-Kautzsch, Green, Wilson, Davidson, Harper, Noordtzij.
(2) For the New Testament: Winer (Eng. Winer-Moulton and WinerThayer), Buttmann (Eng. Buttmann-Thayer), Blass, Moulton, Robertson, Robertson-Grosheide.
b. Lexicons
(1) For the Old Testament: Gesenius-Buhl (Eng. translation of an earlier edition of Gesenius by Tregelles), Fuerst, Siegfried-Stade, Koenig, Brown, Driver and Briggs.
(2) For the New Testament: Robinson, Thayer, Harting (Dutch), Abbott-Smith, Souter, Cremer (Biblisch-Theologisches Woerterbuch, 10th ed. by Koegel, English tr. of fourth ed.), Baljon, GriekschTheologisch Woordenboek.
c. Concordances
(1) For the Old Testament: Fuerst, Mandelkern (both have the Hebrew Text)
(2) For the New Testament: Brueder (based on the Textus Receptus), Moulton and Geden (based on the text of Westcott and Hort). Both have the Greek text.
(3) General: Trommius (Dutch), Cruden, Walker, Strong, Young (all have the English text)
d. Special works
(1) On the Old Testament: Driver, Hebrew Tenses; Adams, Sermons in Accents; Geden, Introduction to the He-Brew Bible; Girdlestone, Old Testament Synonyms; Kennedy, Hebrew Synonyms.
(2) On the New Testament: Burton, Moods and Tenses; Simcox, The Language of the New Testament; same, The Writers of the New Testament; Trench, New Testament Synonyms; Dalman, The Words of Jesus; same, Jesus-Joshua; T. Walker, The Teaching of Jesus and