Biblical Exegesis

Scripture focus

So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

Nehemiah 8:8 KJV

At a glance

Summary of the chapter

Modern readers often approach Edwards through Religious Affections or Freedom of the Will, yet McClymond and McDermott note that his most extensive body of writing was devoted to interpreting the Bible itself — commentaries, notebooks like the Blank Bible and Notes on Scripture, an unfinished Harmony of the Old and New Testaments, and exegetical material woven through more than a thousand surviving sermons. Scholars have long lagged behind this material, and much of it has only recently become available in print.

For Edwards, reading Scripture was inseparable from personal experience of God. His own account of his conversion describes finding "the greatest delight" in the Bible, feeling "a harmony" between his heart and its words. This delight was matched by a settled theological conviction: without revelation, he held, even the truths of "natural religion" would remain shrouded in darkness and endless dispute. Scripture was therefore not one source of theology among others but the "infallible guide" on which all doctrine finally rested.

Edwards consistently paired scriptural and rational argument, letting each confirm the other — a pattern visible in works from End of Creation to his sermon "A Divine and Supernatural Light." His exegesis, though shaped by eighteenth-century conventions, reflects a mind that treated every phrase of Scripture as freighted with meaning.

Key points

• Edwards's strictly exegetical writings — commentaries, notebooks, and sermon material — may total some 5,000 printed pages, a large share of his entire literary output.
• Scholarship on Edwards has historically neglected his biblical interpretation despite its sheer volume, a gap only partly closed by recent critical editions.
• Edwards described reading Scripture as his greatest personal delight, recalling that 'almost every sentence seemed to be full of wonders.'
• He held that without revelation, even natural religion's truths would remain in darkness and endless dispute — Scripture alone gave certainty.
• Edwards habitually paired scriptural exegesis with rational argument in the same works, treating the two as mutually confirming rather than competing.

A line worth remembering

I felt a harmony between something in my heart, and those sweet and powerful words.

McClymond & McDermott The Theology of Jonathan Edwards, ch. 11

Related Scripture

• 2 Timothy 2:15
• Psalm 119:105
• Luke 24:27
• 2 Peter 1:20-21

For reflection and discussion

1. What would it look like for you to read Scripture the way Edwards did — as a source of delight rather than only information or duty?
2. Why might pairing careful reasoning with careful reading of Scripture strengthen rather than weaken one's grasp of a doctrine?
3. Edwards said almost every sentence seemed full of wonders to him — what passage of Scripture has struck you that way?