B. Examples of literal/grammatical/Christ-centered hermeneutics

Note: This list is a work in progress, and may change at any time both in the selection of quotations and the content of the annotations. In the meantime, feel free to offer any suggestions.

Josh 2, Clement of Rome, ANF, [1:8]

“Moreover, they gave her a sign to this effect, that she should hang forth from her house a scarlet thread. And thus they made it manifest that redemption should flow through the blood of the Lord to all them that believe and hope in God. Ye see, beloved, that there was not only faith, but prophecy, in this woman.” (1st Letter to the Corinthians, chap. 12)

Lam 4:20, Theodoret, Commentaries on the Prophets

“Now, he foretells of the suffering which brings salvation:

The Spirit of our countenance, Christ the Lord, was taken in our corruptions, to whom we said, “In his shadow we will live among the Gentiles”.1
Let the Jews speak – whom does the prophetic word call Christ? But who of those called christs by them, whether king, or prophet, or priest, is named Lord?” But they would not have the wherewithal to reveal it, even if they should employ much false speaking. Indeed, it is evident how the prophet set forth our Savior and Lord, having been seized by them because of their corruption of ungodliness. But these, the prophets say, would be living in his shadow; and they believed through the holy apostles, and their divine oracles which were proclaimed to the Gentiles. And we see beforehand the things about him, the Holy Spirit having enlightened us. “The Spirit,” he says, “of our countenance is Christ the Lord”: now, the prophet put this prophecy in the lamentations, teaching the Jews of that time how through the hope of these things, not yet having been accomplished, they would obtain forbearance, and enjoy the high calling, even though they were about to betray the Savior of the world to the cross.”2

  1. The text Theodoret is working with here varies from both the Hebrew and the Septuagint in several points, the most notable of which is his phrase, “Christ the Lord,” which in both the above reads rather, “the Christ of the Lord”. This variant greatly impels the forcefulness of his argument; although it must be mentioned that, even working with the text alternately reading, “the Christ of the Lord,” the definite majority of the early Church fathers both from the West and the East arrived at the same basic position, viz., that Jeremiah is here directly prophesying of Christ.
  2. My own translation [NP].

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