What Is the Literal Sense?

"Jace Broadhurst's study of the Puritan John Lightfoot provides a stimulating example of a seventeenth-century divine wrestling through the Reformation principle of sensus literalis amid a growing knowledge of non-biblical resources. Lightfoot became an expert in Judaica, arguing . . . that classic Jewish commentaries can situate the reader to gain more accurate exegetical insight. . . . Lightfoot put forward guidelines in his particular view of sensus literalis, and in this way he serves as a bridge between precritical and critical biblical scholarship."

--Kelly M. Kapic

Professor of Theological Studies, Covenant College

Author of Communion with God: The Divine and Human in the Theology of John Owen (2007)



"Jace Broadhurst has offered us the most significant study to date of an early modern giant in the field of biblical studies. This compact volume helpfully illumines John Lightfoot's best insights on the plain sense of Scripture while graciously exposing a great man's inconsistencies. Unusually, Dr. Broadhurst's instincts as a historian are matched by his abilities as an exegete. . . . [T]his exploration of Lightfoot's hermeneutics is greatly enriched by the fact that our author intimately understands his subject's subject."

--Rev. Chad Van Dixhoorn

Associate Pastor, Grace Presbyterian Church, Vienna, Virginia

Senior Research Fellow, Wolfson College, University of Cambridge

Editor of Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly, 1643-1652 (2011)