Tight Bible Study

“Of course we want to say that he should handle it wisely and well, but this is not helpful when it comes to the basics of exegesis. Wisely and well by what standard? Most conservative evangelical pastors have been trained in what is called the historical/grammatical method of exegesis, but which might more accurately be called the tight historical/grammatical method. “Tight” means that the exegesis is limited to lexical study, syntactical study, and historical and contextual study, which is to say, Enlightenment exegesis. There is a difference between the responsible hermeneutic advocated by the Reformers (in contrast to allegorical and impudent excesses) and the “responsible” hermeneutic urged upon us today in the name of Science. The Reformers were sons of the Church, medieval men who saw that allegorical system of interpretation had gotten out of hand and needed to be reeled in. This is quite different from modern interpreters, sons of the Enlightenment, who heap abuse on edifying typology but who then have a problem with scriptural counter-examples” (Douglas Wilson, The High Church Puritan).