Meet The Puritans

Tracking Down an Owen Quote

Posted on 12. Jun, 2010 by Danny Hyde in John Owen

This week I received in the mail a book that comes highly recommended: Dale Ralph Davis, The Word Become Fresh: How to Preach from Old Testament Narrative Texts (Ross-shite, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2006). Doing so led me on an expedition in John Owen. How so? Well, on the very first page of chapter one he discusses the necessity of the work of the Holy Spirit in interpretation and offers up a juicy quote from John Owen:

For a man solemnly to undertake the interpretation of any portion of Scripture without invocation of God, to be taught and instructed by his Spirit, is a high provocation of him; nor shall I expect the discovery of truth from any one who thus proudly engages in a work so much above his ability (The Word Become Fresh, 1).

Davis cites this in endnote one as coming from Richard L. Pratt, Jr., He Gave Us Stories (Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1990), 404. So I pulled out my Pratt (1993 reprint from P&R), turned to page 404, and noticed in endnote fifteen the above quote. Pratt then cites this as coming from J. Owen, Pneumatology: Or a Discourse Concerning the Holy Spirit (Philadelphia: Towar and Hogan, 1827), 204–5. He also says to see Owen’s Works 4:121–234. Tracking this work down was a piece of cake, given the wonder of Google Books. Yet what I discovered was the work Pratt cites that Davis cites is “Abridged by the Rev. G. Burder.” Reading it is obvious.

I finally was able to track the real quote down in Owen. It is found in his massive work called Pneumatologia and specifically book seven of that work, which is entitled, Synesis Pneumatike: Or, The Causes, Ways, and Means of Understanding the Mind of God as Revealed in His Word, With Assurance Therein. This can be found, as Pratt cites correctly, in Owen’s Works 4:121–234. Here is the real quote. It’s basically the same, but I offer it up for purity’s sake:

Yea, I must say, that for a man to undertake the interpretation of any part or portion of Scripture in a solemn manner, without invocation of God to be taught and instructed by his Spirit, is a high provocation to him; nor shall I expect the discovery of truth from any one who so proudly and ignorantly engageth in a work so much above his ability to manage. (Works 4:204)

Tags: exegesis, hermeneutics, Holy Spirit, interpretation, Owen, Scripture