Biblical literalism and scholarship in Protestant northern Europe, 1630--1700

Adina Miriam Yoffie

This dissertation explores how seventeenth-century German and Dutch Protestants approached the task of interpreting the Bible according to its literal sense, or sensus literalis. It focuses on two of the most respected and learned Protestant theologians and exegetes active in the middle of the century and on their commentaries on Genesis. Chapter 1 evaluates current scholarship on the literal sense of the Bible and traces Christian scholars' conceptions of the literal sense from the second century to the seventeenth. Chapters 2 and 4 analyze the religious, academic, and political contexts of Lutheran Saxony and the University of Wittenberg, as well as the Calvinist Dutch Republic and the University of Leiden. Chapters 3 and 5 offer close readings of commentaries on Genesis 1-3 by the most prominent theologian-exegete from each university, Abraham Calov (1612-86) of Wittenberg and...