토마스 굳윈의 스가랴 4:6-9 설교에 사용된 사중해석법(quadriga)을 통해서 본 해석학적 연속성

The relationship between the middle ages, the period of the Reformation, and the time of Protestant orthodoxy has been generally considered dis- continuous one another in terms of the diverse areas of church life. Since the late twentieth century, however, there has arisen a new trend that tried to balance the relationship by discovering continuous elements existing among them. In the field of the history of bible exegesis, Richard Muller successfully demonstrated with various primary sources that the methods for bible interpretation taken up by the hands of the Reformers had not been totally discontinuous with those of the medieval theologians and preachers. In particular, their pursuit, being based on their literal, historical interpretation of the text, of credenda(what to believe), agenda(what to act), and superanda(what to hope for) reflects so-called “quadriga,” which was commonly used by many medieval interpreters of Scripture. We can also find quite similar method of bible interpretation in the sermons and com- mentaries of the Reformed orthodox theologians who succeeded their Reformed precedents in the sixteenth century. This paper tries to find the continuity in the bible interpretation between these three periods in terms of their common use of the quadriga. The sermon on Zechariah 4:6-9 which Thomas Goodwin, an English Reformed orthodox theologian and preacher in the seventeenth century, preached before the House of Common is one of the representative sermons for which the quadriga was used as an inter- preting method. He established his own eschatology based on the under- standing of the book of revelation, in particular of millennium, and applied the quadriga to this text to develop his sermon. He first discovers the literal, historical meanings of the text. Then he goes on to apply them typologically to the conditions of churches in his days on the basis of his eschatology including his view of the millennium. And he finally ends the preaching by both urging the audience to do something and pointing to what they should hope for in the future. In other words, Goodwin not only presents literal, historical meaning of the text, but on this foundation he also builds the house of a sermon with the bricks of credenda, agenda, and superanda. Therefore, it is obvious that Goodwin used the quadriga in his interpretation of Scripture and in making of the sermon on Zachariah 4:6-9, and his use of quadriga proves that the continuity found in the bible interpretations between the middle ages and the Reformation era can also be extended to the Reformed orthodox period.