Abstract
Edwards’ sermons and published writings display the colossal extent of his practical efforts to know and expound the Word to further spiritual enlightenment for himself and others. He also devoted several unpublished notebooks to this end. He began the notebook entitled “Notes on Scripture” in early 1724 during his brief pastorate in Bolton, Connecticut, and he maintained it until shortly before his death. He filled it with 507 entries, following no organizational system other than the devotional, ministerial, and intellectual interests that engaged him in a given season of life. In 1730 he began exegetical entries in another notebook, “Miscellaneous Observations on the Holy Scriptures,” which he received as a gift from his brother-in-law Benjamin Pierpont. He referred to it as the “Blank Bible” because it was a Bible interleaved with blank pages, and he penned over 5500 exegetical notes in it. Other unpublished exegetical notebooks or leaflets include his “Notes on the Apocalypse,” “Images of Divine Things,” “Types of the Messiah,” “Hebrew Idioms,” “Defense of the Authenticity of the Pentateuch as a Work of Moses and the Historicity of the Old Testament Narratives,” “Notes on Books of Moses,” “Scripture Prophecies of the Old Testament,” “Notes on the Coming of Christ,” and “The Harmony of the Genius, Spirit, Doctrines and Rules of the Old Testament and the New.” Overall, his sermons and writings reflect how his biblical practices dynamically and reciprocally interacted with his theology, eclectic metaphysical musings, historical studies, devotional meditations, ministry responsibilities, polemical controversies, everyday life experiences, social commitments, and entanglements in current events.
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Notes
- 1.
Stein, “Editor’s Introduction,” WJE, 4:1−91, 15:1−4, 24:1−4; Sweeney, “Exegesis,” in Edwards Encyclopedia, 209. Also, as Brown notes, “There are close to one hundred entries in the ‘Miscellanies’ that address issues of biblical interpretation.” Brown, “The Bible,” in Princeton Companion to Edwards, 92.
- 2.
See Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe, “Language of the Heart: The Bible in Jonathan Edwards’ Personal Life and Spiritual Practice,” in Edwards and Scripture, 68−85.
- 3.
“Personal Narrative,” WJE, 16:792−93.
- 4.
“Personal Narrative,” WJE, 16:797.
- 5.
Brown, Edwards and the Bible, 40.
- 6.
“Personal Narrative,” WJE, 16:793.
- 7.
“Resolutions,” WJE, 16:755.
- 8.
“Diary,” WJE, 16:785−86, 759−60, 767, 772.
- 9.
“Personal Narrative,” WJE, 16:801.
- 10.
“Personal Narrative,” WJE, 16:800, 798−99.
- 11.
See Brown, “The Bible,” in Princeton Companion to Edwards, 94−95; Edwards and the Bible.
- 12.
“Miscellanies,” no. 202, WJE, 13:338−39.
- 13.
History of Redemption, WJE, 9:281−93.
- 14.
The Humble Advice of the Assembly of Divines, Now by Authority of Parliament Sitting at Westminster, 4−5.
- 15.
“Miscellanies,” no. 6, WJE, 13:202−203.
- 16.
“Miscellanies,” no. 6, WJE, 13:410−11.
- 17.
Assembly of Divines at Westminster, 4−5.
- 18.
Profitable Hearers, WJE, 14:251−52.
- 19.
“Miscellanies,” no. aa, WJE, 13:178.
- 20.
“Miscellanies,” no. 201, WJE, 13:338.
- 21.
Religious Affections, WJE, 2:307.
- 22.
Religious Affections, WJE, 2:285.
- 23.
Religious Affections, WJE, 2:282−83. Ephraim Chambers, Cyclopedia: or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (London, 1728), vol. 2 under “Taste.”
- 24.
Religious Affections, WJE, 2:284−85, 266. Hence Sweeney says, in Edwards’ thinking, that the Spirit gives those with the spiritual sense a “cognitive advantage” in biblical interpretation. Sweeney, Edwards the Exegete, 38.
- 25.
“Miscellanies,” no. 141 (156), WJE, 13:297−98.
- 26.
Religious Affections, WJE, 2:285−86.
- 27.
“Miscellanies,” no. 126, WJE, 13:290−91.
- 28.
Edwards would have read Mather’s treatment of Francke’s and Spener’s thoughts on exegesis and the importance of identifying with the affections of the biblical writers in the Manuductio ad Ministerium. Mather, Manuductio, 80−82.
- 29.
“Blank Bible,” WJE, 24:877−78.
- 30.
For more on Edwards’ typology, see Wallace E. Anderson, Mason I. Lowance Jr., and David H. Watters, “Editor’s Introduction,” WJE, 11; Nichols, “Edwards’ Principles of Interpreting Scripture”; and Nichols, “Typology,” in Edwards Encyclopedia, 575−77.
- 31.
See Benjamin Keach, Tropologia: A Key to Opening Scripture Metaphors and Types (London, 1681); and Samuel Mather, Figures or Types of the Old Testament.
- 32.
Keach, Tropologia, 39.
- 33.
Nichols, “Edwards’ Principles of Interpreting Scripture,” 45.
- 34.
See especially Barshinger, Edwards and the Psalms.
- 35.
McClymond, McDermott, Theology of Edwards, 119.
- 36.
Images of Divine Things, WJE, 11:191.
- 37.
See Janice Knight, “Learning the Language of God: Jonathan Edwards and the Typology of Nature,” The William and Mary Quarterly 48:4 (Oct., 1991): 531−51; “Typology,” in Princeton Companion to Edwards, 190−209; Anderson, Lowance Jr., and Watters, “Editor’s Introduction,” WJE, 11:3−34, 157−86.
- 38.
“Miscellanies,” no. dd, WJE, 13:181.
- 39.
“The Mind,” no. 43, WJE, 6:361−62.
- 40.
“Notes on Scripture,” WJE, 15:580.
- 41.
For some examples of Edwards tying oil to the Spirit, see “Blank Bible,” WJE, 24:254−55; “Notes on Scripture,” WJE, 15:61, 209, 244, 391, 572−74; and the moon to the church, WJE, 24:131−34, 225−28, 290−92.
- 42.
“Notes on Scripture,” WJE, 15:64, 225, 407, 242−46.
- 43.
“Notes on Scripture,” WJE, 15:137−38.
- 44.
“Blank Bible,” WJE, 24:255.
- 45.
“Notes on Scripture,” WJE, 15:96, 331, 64.
- 46.
See History of Redemption, WJE, vol. 9. For more on Edwards’ understanding of history, see Avihu Zakai, Jonathan Edwards’s Philosophy of History: The Reenchantment of the World in the Age of the Enlightenment (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006).
- 47.
The passage reads: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Divine and Supernatural Light, WJE, 18:418.
- 48.
Religious Affections, WJE, 2:281.
- 49.
Mark Noll offers a more expansive analysis of Edwards’ interpretation of the passage, but he left the question open as to why Edwards focuses on distinctive elements that differentiate him from other contemporaneous interpreters. I suggest Edwards’ experientialism is key. Noll, “Jacob Wrestling with ‘a Man,’” in Edwards and Scripture, 106−25, especially 111.
- 50.
“Blank Bible,” WJE, 24:179−82; Blessed Struggle, WJE, 19:418−36.
- 51.
“Notes on Scripture,” WJE, 15:212–18.
- 52.
“Notes on Scripture,” WJE, 15:219−22. Edwards preached two sermons on this passage. See Edwards, sermon on Exodus 33:18−19 (August 1731–December 1732), Box 1, F. 29, Beinecke (transcribed in WJEO 46); and Edwards, sermon on Exodus 33:19, (1746, 1754), Box 1, F. 30 (transcribed in WJEO 64). He drew from his entries in “Notes on Scripture” for some of the content of the first sermon.
- 53.
Spiritual Understanding, WJE, 14:89, 81.
- 54.
The Importance and Advantage of a Thorough Knowledge of Divine Truth, WJE, 22:101.
- 55.
Spiritual Understanding, WJE, 14:75.
- 56.
Christians a Chosen Generation, WJE, 17:323−24.
- 57.
Christ the Light of the World, WJE, 10:539.
- 58.
Profitable Hearers, WJE, 14:251.
- 59.
Divine and Supernatural Light, WJE, 17:415.
- 60.
Spiritual Understanding, WJE, 14:71−72.
- 61.
“Miscellanies,” no. 201, WJE, 13:338.
- 62.
Spiritual Understanding, WJE, 14:71.
- 63.
Divine and Supernatural Light, WJE, 17:409−10.
- 64.
Samuel Hopkins, The Life and Character of the Late Learned Mr. Jonathan Edwards … (Northampton MA: Andrew Wright, 1804), 52. For more on Edwards as a preacher, see the editorial introductions to his edited sermons in WJE vols. 10, 14, 17, 19, 22, and 25; the “Editors’ Introduction” in Wilson H. Kimnach, Kenneth P. Minkema, and Douglas A. Sweeney, eds., The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999), ix−xlvii; Wilson H. Kimnach, “Edwards as Preacher,” in Cambridge Companion to Edwards, 103−24; Harry S. Stout, “Edwards as Revivalist,” in ibid., 125−43; Stout, The New England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial New England (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 188−89, 202−207; and Crisp, Edwards Among the Theologians, 143−63.
- 65.
For example, Kolodny writes, “The power of [Edwards’] sermons, however, lies not so much in the abstract theology as in the stylistic devices through which it has been experienced, and the images, as Perry Miller pointed out in ‘The Rhetoric of Sensation,’ effectively translate the mystery of the unknown and abstract to the accessible borders of immediate emotional experience.” Annette Kolodny, “Imagery in the Sermons of Jonathan Edwards,” Early American Literature 7 (Fall, 1972): 181. Cf. Wilson H. Kimnach, “The Literary Technique of Jonathan Edwards” (PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1972).
- 66.
For a list of studies that represent these two contrasting perspectives and for a helpful corrective, see Douglas L. Winiarski, “Jonathan Edwards, Enthusiast? Radical Revivalism and the Great Awakening in the Connecticut Valley,” Church History, 74:4 (December 2005), 686−88.
- 67.
East of Eden, WJE, 17:331, 333−35, 342, 348.
- 68.
Some Thoughts, WJE, 4:387.
- 69.
Edwards, sermon on Exodus 33:18−19 (August 1731–December 1732), Box 1, F. 29, Beinecke, pp. 2−3, 28−35, (transcribed in WJEO 46).
- 70.
Yield to God’s Word, Or Be Broken By His Hand, WJE, 25:220, 215, 212−13, 217.
- 71.
Kenneth P. Minkema, “Jonathan Edwards’ Scriptural Practices,” in Edwards and Scripture, 30−31.
- 72.
“To the Mohawks at the Treaty, August 16, 1751,” in Sermons of Jonathan Edwards, 108−10. See Rachel M. Wheeler, “Edwards as Missionary,” in Cambridge Companion, 196−216; Wheeler, To Live Upon Hope: Mohicans and Missionaries in the Eighteenth-Century Northeast (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008); and Gerald R. McDermott, “Missions and Native Americans,” in Princeton Companion to Edwards, 258−73.
- 73.
Faithful Narrative, WJE, 4:107.
- 74.
Faithful Narrative, WJE, 4:210.
- 75.
Shapin, Social History of Truth, xxix, 193−242.
- 76.
Rivett, Science of the Soul, 299−303.
- 77.
Chamberlain, “Self-Deception as a Theological Problem,” 541−56.
- 78.
Faithful Narrative, WJE, 153.
- 79.
“A Faithful Narrative: Unpublished Letter of May 30, 1735,” WJE, 4:105.
- 80.
Faithful Narrative, WJE, 4:178. The analysis parallels his thinking in “Miscellanies,” no. 126, discussed above, WJE, 13:290−91.
- 81.
Faithful Narrative, WJE, 4:184, 179.
- 82.
Faithful Narrative, WJE, 4:191−93.
- 83.
Faithful Narrative, WJE, 4:194–97, 199.
- 84.
Faithful Narrative, WJE, 4:203.
- 85.
Faithful Narrative, WJE, 4:206.
- 86.
History of Redemption, WJE, 9:432−36. For Edwards’ connections to Francke and Halle Pietism, see Ryan P. Hoselton, “Jonathan Edwards, Halle Pietism, and Benevolent Activism in Early Awakened Protestantism,” in Edwards, Germany, and Transatlantic Contexts, ed. Rhys Bezzant (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021), 51−68.
- 87.
For more on the transatlantic evangelical awakenings, see literature cited in Chap. 2.
- 88.
Marsden, Edwards, 211−12.
- 89.
Some Thoughts, WJE, 4:293.
- 90.
The original manuscript has recently been recovered and published. See Kenneth P. Minkema, Catherine A. Brekus, and Harry S. Stout, “Agitations, Convulsions, Leaping, and Loud Talking: The ‘Experiences’ of Sarah Pierpont Edwards,” William and Mary Quarterly 78:3 (July 2021): 491−536. It too demonstrates a vital biblical experimentalism, in which Sarah describes a particularly heightened sensory and affective encounter with Romans 8:34ff on pp. 519−20.
- 91.
Some Thoughts, WJE, 4:332, 336−39, 337, 341−43.
- 92.
Rivett, Science of the Soul, 305. See also Sandra M. Gustafson, Eloquence is Power: Oratory & Performance in Early America (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2000), 40−74; Ava Chamberlain, “Edwards and Social Issues,” in Cambridge Companion, 334−39.
- 93.
See the “Editor’s Introduction” from Norman Pettit, WJE, 7:1−85; and David L. Weddle, “The Melancholy Saint: Jonathan Edwards’s Interpretation of David Brainerd as a Model of Evangelical Spirituality,” The Harvard Theological Review, 81:3 (July, 1988): 297−318.
- 94.
Life of David Brainerd, WJE, 7:89−90, 458−59.
- 95.
Brainerd, WJE, 7:225–26.
- 96.
Brainerd, WJE, 7:335−36.
- 97.
Brainerd, WJE, 7:340, 344, 368−72.
- 98.
Brainerd, WJE, 7:474−76.
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Hoselton, R.P. (2023). “It Wonderfully Enlightens”: Edwards’ Exegesis of Sensation. In: Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, and the Quest for Evangelical Enlightenment. Christianities in the Trans-Atlantic World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-44935-2_6
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