John Calvin as Biblical Commentator

An Investigation into Calvin's Use of John Chrysostom as an Exegetical Tutor

Walchenbach

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN: 9781498275125
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The year 2009 brought with it the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, a global celebration. With this commemorative event came a new and renewed appreciation for the life and thought of the French Reformer and his profound impact on the world. Scholars universally have acknowledged that while The Theologian of Geneva is mostly appreciated for his Institutes of the Christian Religion, it is Calvin as a biblical commentator that needs to be taken with revised interest. When Calvin first set out to write a commentary on virtually every book of the Bible, he was drawn to the exegetical work of the great Greek Patriarch of the fourth century, John Chrysostom, because of his straightforward, non-allegorical approach to the genuine, simple sense of the text. It was also the method of Chrysostom to which Calvin was attracted, a continuous exposition that explains each verse. Calvin, in his life long work to produce commentaries on sacred Scripture, sought to emulate the approach and method of the amazing early church theologian, John Chrysostom. This book celebrates Calvin as Biblical commentator, and what he saw in the literary work of the Greek Father that was so influential on Calvin's immense contribution to our understanding the Bible.

Part I

Calvin and Chrysostom

1

The Biblical Commentaries of Calvin

John Calvin wrote commentaries on almost every book of the Bible. We begin our study of Calvin as a commentator on Scripture by examining the publication of Calvin’s commentaries. Tracing chronologically the production of the commentaries, we wish to discover, as closely as possible, the intentions, the motivating factors, the historical circumstances that called forth Calvin’s volumes. In the course of our historical review, we wish further to establish that the writing of commentaries was not a secondary issue with the Reformer. It will be seen that Calvin early in his literary career determined to write commentaries, and that this literary function was at least of equal importance as the production of the frequently revised Institutio.

Early in his career, from February 1535 until early in 1536, Calvin lived in Basel and established lasting friendships with many of the learned Reformers: Munster the Hebraist; Capito; and Simon Grynaeus, professor of Greek and Latin and intimate friend of Erasmus. The dedicatory preface of Calvin’s first commentary, Romans, reveals the fact that as early as 1535 Calvin had discussed with Grynaeus methodological principles on which commentaries ought to be written:1

Memini, quum ante triennium de optimo enarrandae scripturae genere inter nos familiariter commentaremur, eam quae plurimum tibi placebat rationem mihi quoque prae aliis probatam tunc fuisse. Sentiebat enim uterque nostrum praecipuam interpretis virtutem in perspicua brevitate esse positam.

I remember that three years ago we had a friendly discussion about the best way of interpreting Scripture. The plan which you particularly favored was also the one which at that time I preferred to any others. Both of us felt that lucid brevity constituted the particular virtue of an interpreter.

If Calvin had his mind made up as early as 1535 how commentaries should be written, it was not until 1539 that the first edition of Romans was published. The intervening years would find him concentrating on other matters. There was the Psychopannychia, which was strongly criticized by Capito, necessitating revision. The first edition of the Institutio was nearing completion and being prepared for publication. The first visit to Italy, the weeks in France to clear up family affairs, and the summons to Geneva all bode ill for work on the Romans commentary. It was undoubtedly the 1538 exile from Geneva and the sojourn in Strassburg that allowed Calvin time to complete and publish the Romans commentary. The dedication was written on October 18, 1539, and in the following March the commentary was published.

While no biblical commentaries were produced during the 1535–1539 interval, Calvin was asked to revise Olivétan’s French Bible. Robert Olivétan, Calvin’s cousin, was commissioned by the Waldensian church to translate the Bible into French. The work appeared in 1535 with a Latin and a French preface by Calvin, which at least strongly suggests that at that time Calvin was engaged in responsible work on the New Testament.

That Calvin had set his course as a commentator on the Bible is further established by the Epistle to the Reader, prefixed to the 1539 edition of the Institutio and altered in later editions to keep it up to date. The Institutio, Calvin informs the reader, was written to prepare and instruct candidates in sacred theology for the reading of the divine Word. Thereupon Calvin adds:2

Itaque, hac veluti strata via, siquas posthac Scripturae enarrationes edidero, quia non necesse habebo de dogmatibus longas disputationes instituere, et in locos communes evagari: eas compendio semper astringam.

If, after this road has, as it were, been paved, I shall publish any interpretations of Scripture, I shall always condense them, because I shall have no need to undertake long doctrinal discussions, and to digress into loci communes.

That Calvin was not simply pondering whether or not he might publish commentaries, but actually intended to do so is substantiated by this French translation:

siquas posthac Scripturae enarrationes edidero . . . French trans.: Parquoy si doresenavant nostre Seigneur me donne le moyen et opportunité de faire quelques commentaires . . .3

Calvin fully intends to work further on the publication of biblical commentaries, “if only the Lord shall give me the means and opportunity.”

Calvin was thirty years old at the publication date of the Romans commentary, March 1540. In addition to this first biblical commentary, he already had to his credit the Commentary on Seneca’s De Clementia of 1532, the 1536 edition of the Institutio, the expanded and revised 1539 Institutio, as well as a few shorter treatises. With Romans completed, Calvin planned a set of commentaries on the Pauline corpus. He undoubtedly expected to produce a commentary on 1 Corinthians immediately, but other duties intervened. He attended the conference on Christian reunion at Frankfurt called by Charles V, and later represented the city of Strassburg at the colloquies of Hagenau, Worms, and Ratisbon. These conferences, aimed at reconciliation between Roman Catholics and Protestants, occupied much of his time between 1539 and 1541. In August of 1540 he married Idelette de Bure, and their child, Jacque, was born in July of 1542, only to live a few days. On his return to Geneva September 13, 1541, he began the work of continuing reform in the city. Here he recodified the Genevan laws and constitution; was instrumental in the negotiations with Berne that resulted in the treaty of 1554; entered into protracted controversy with such figures as Pighius, Bolsec, Castellio, and Servatus; and engaged in pastoral work that involved frequent preaching. Such labors allowed little time for a man of poor health to continue his intended publication of commentaries on the Pauline Epistles.

In spite of all the duties to which Calvin was summoned, his friends never allowed him to give up on the production of the commentaries. Learned people would gather for study and ask when the commentaries would be published. Calvin’s friends informed him that it was the work of Sata...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface to the Second Edition
• Preface to the First Edition
• Introduction
• Part One: Calvin and Chrysostom
• Part Two: Chrysostom as an Exegetical Source
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Appendix C
• Bibliography