The Work of Exposition by Milton Spenser Terry

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 16, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 16.

The Work of Exposition

By Milton Spenser Terry

"ALL the great interpreters of the present day are probably agreed in this fundamental principle, that one who assumes to expound a written document must aim to set forth in clear light the precise meaning intended by its author. His work is to ascertain as closely as possible how the subject lay in the mind of the writer. The moment he imparts into that document his own notions, or any ideas foreign to the age and circumstances of the author, he makes himself a false teacher. He turns aside from the work of exposition, and practices imposition. By this procedure, meanings have been put upon words, and doctrines read into numerous texts that were never dreamed of by the sacred writers.—Prof. Terry."