From Book: A New Literal Translation From the Original Greek of All the Apostolical Epistles, Essay VIII,
"Concerning The Right Interpretation of the Writings in which the Revelations of God are Contained",
p. 702, 1841.
Right Interpretation of the Bible
This conclusion is warranted by the
inspired writers, who
in after times have pointed out the things signified by
these actions. For example, when God ordered Abraham
to sacrifice his only son, although he did not tell
him the purpose for which that difficult command was given to him, yet, from the apostle's terming the suspension
of that command a receiving of Isaac from the dead
for a parable, Heb. xi. 19, we learn, that by the command
to sacrifice Isaac, and by the suspension of that command, the death and resurrection of
God's only Son was prefigured. In like manner, when the sacrifice of
the passover was
instituted, although no intimation was
given of its having a typical meaning, we know that it
prefigured the sacrifice of Christ, together with the influence
of that sacrifice in procuring the salvation of believers.
For we are told expressly, John xix. 36, that when our Lord hung on the cross his legs were not broken,
that the command concerning the paschal lamb, Exod.
xii. 46, ' Neither shall ye break a bone thereof,' might be
fulfilled. Besides, in allusion to the typical meaning of
the passover, Christ is called, 1 Cor. v. 7, our Passover ;
and is said to be sacrificed for us. Farther, when God ordered Moses to lift up the image
of a serpent on a pole, that the Israelites in the wilderness who were stung with
serpents, might be healed by looking at it, although nothing was said concerning its
having a typical meaning, yet that it had such a meaning we learn from our Lord himself, who thus explained it, John iii. 14, ' As
Muses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him, should not perish, but have eternal life.
Wherefore, the lifting up of the brazen serpent was a type
of Christ's being lifted up on the cross ; and the health
which the Israelites obtained by looking to it, represented the salvation of those who
believe on Christ as the Saviour of the world. Hence, in allusion to the typical
meaning of the brazen serpent, Isaiah introduces Messiah
saying, chap. xlv. 22, ' Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth.'
Upon the whole it appears, that the uncommon actions
performed by the Jewish prophets, were all of them significant ; both those whose meaning was declared, and
those whose meaning was not declared ; and that they
were commanded by God, for the purpose of prefiguring,
in a symbolical manner, future persons and events. It
is true, the long duration of some of these symbolical
actions, the labour with which they were performed, and
the pain which they occasioned to the persons who performed
them, have afforded infidels a pretence for speaking
of the prophets as fanatics and madmen, who by such
doings debased the prophetic office. For which reason,
to vindicate the character of these holy men, some of the
learned Jewish doctors have given it as their opinions, that
these uncommon actions were transacted only in visions,
in which the prophets seemed to themselves to do them.
But this supposition is contradicted by the scriptures,
which represent the actions under consideration as done
in the presence of the people, for the purpose of drawing
their attention to the informations with which these actions
were accompanied : an effect which the relation of
a vision could not produce, because the incredulous and
profane would naturally consider such a vision either as
a fiction or as an illusion. The character, therefore, of
the Jewish prophets will be more effectually vindicated,
if we recollect what they themselves constantly affirmed ;
namely, that all the uncommon things which they did,
they were commanded by God to do ; and that, after the
events prefigured by these actions came to pass, no doubt
could be entertained of their being commanded by God
to do them. Next, if we remember, that in the early
ages it was usual to convey instruction by symbolical actions,
we shall be sensible, that the things for which the
prophets have been censured as madmen, did not appear to their contemporaries in the light
in which we moderns view them : that they excited
the curiosity of the people among whom they were transacted, and led them to inquire of
the prophets what they meant by them, as in the
instances mentioned, Ezek. xii. 9. xxi. 7. : that, being addressed to the senses of
mankind, they must have conveyed the instruction with which
they were accompanied in the most forcible manner: and that instruction thus forcibly
conveyed, making a strong impression on the mind of the
spectators, must have been long remembered, and could be communicated to others with great
accuracy. Thus it appears, that in the early ages,
when the art of writing was little known, the most effectual method of communicating and
diffusing knowledge was to instruct the people by
significant or symbolical actions, and that in fact this method was commonly practised,
especially among the eastern nations ; — wherefore, the
Jewish prophets are not to be ridiculed for the symbolical actions with which they
accompanied their predictions. The importance of the end for
which they performed these actions, and the success with which they accomplished that end,
are a sufficient vindication both of the wisdom of
God in commanding them, and of the good sense and piety of the prophets in performing
them. For which reason, I think, we cannot be mistaken
in believing they were all performed exactly as related in the scriptures.
SECT. V. — Of Instruction conveyed by some Actions and Events
happening in the ordinary course of things.
1. IT is now time to proceed to the
consideration of a method in which God communicated the
knowledge of things future, which though different from that described in the preceding
section, and more removed from common observation,
was nearly allied to it. For, whereas the prophets, by the divine direction, assumed
characters not naturally belonging to them, and performed
actions altogether out of the common course, for the purpose of prefiguring future persons
and events, the characters and actions and fortunes of
some eminent persons, whose distinguished stations placed them in the view of the world,
were so ordered by God as to be exact
representations of future persons, who, when they arose, by the likeness of their
characters and actions and fortunes to those of the persons by
whom they were represented, would make mankind sensible that the inspired teachers spake
truly, when they declared that the one had been
prefigured by the other. In some instances, the persons whose characters and actions
prefigured future events, were declared by God himself to
he typical, long before the events which they prefigured came to pass ; but in other
instances, many persons really typical were not known to be
such till after the things which they typified happened.
1. Of the first-mentioned sort we
have a remarkable example in Abraham, whom God
declared to be a typical person, by constituting him the
father or
type of believers of
all nations ; and by making with him, as their father, a
covenant, in which he promised to be a God to him and to his seed in their generations,
and to give to him and to his seed the land of Canaan for
an everlasting possession ; which promises had not only a literal but a typical or second
meaning ; as was shewed at large in Ess. v. sect. 1, 2,
&c., consequently the covenant with Abraham was an allegory.
2. A second example of a
typical person we have in Melchizedec, who, in his
character of a king and priest united, was declared by God himself to be a type of his
Son's becoming a king and a priest in the human nature ;
and who, by blessing Abraham, prefigured the efficacy of the priesthood and government of
the Son of God, in procuring for believers the pardon
of their sins. Psal. cx. 4, '
The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art
a priest for ever after the similitude of Melchizedec.'
