Biblical accommodation


Biblical accommodation refers to a number of distinct views in Biblical exegesis, or the interpretation of the Bible. Such views broadly concern the question of whether, or to what extent, the Bible may be said to be literally true. One view, associated with John Calvin, holds that while some of the expressions and metaphors used in the Bible may be literally false, they are nonetheless essentially true. Another view, associated with Faustus Socinus, holds that some Biblical language is both literally and essentially false.
The concept of Biblical accommodation is related to the broader concept of accommodation or condescension, which Benin describes as the view that 'divine revelation is adjusted to the disparate intellectual and spiritual level of humanity at different times in history'.

Approaches

In his discussion of accommodation, Thomas Hartwell Horne, the English theologian, distinguishes between the 'form' and 'essence' of revelation. The former refers to the manner in which the Biblical text expresses its content; the latter, to the content which is expressed through the Biblical text. Thus, there are two possible kinds of Biblical accommodation: one which holds that merely the expressive form of the Bible is modified to accord with human capacities; and a stronger version, which holds that the content of the Bible is modified to conform with human perceptions of divine reality, to the extent that it may be literally false.
Lee, a contemporary scholar, adopts a similar distinction. He associates John Calvin with the 'formal' view, and Faustus Socinus with the 'essential' view. According to Lee, Calvin held that, although a number of the descriptions of events could not be literally true according to current scientific theories, they were nonetheless essentially true and had simply been accommodated to human perceptual capacities. By contrast, Socinus held that some 'accommodated' Biblical teachings in the Bible were literally false.
Another view, expressed in an early 20th century edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia, holds that 'accommodation' is the adaptation of words or sentences from the Bible to signify ideas different from those that are genuinely expressed in the text.

Liturgy

Accommodation is used in the liturgy and by the Fathers of the Church; texts have been accommodated by preachers and ascetical authors. Many of the sermons of St. Bernard are mosaics of scripture phrases. The Council of Trent forbade the wresting of Scripture to profane uses. Typical rules for guidance in the accommodation of scripture are:
German eighteenth-century rationalism held that the Biblical writers made great use of conscious accommodation, intending moral commonplaces when they seemed to be enunciating Christian dogmas. Another expression for this, used, for example, by Johann Salomo Semler, is "economy," which also occurs in the kindred sense of "reserve". Isaac Williams on Reserve in Religious Teaching, No. 80 of Tracts for the Times, made a great sensation, and was commented on by Richard William Church in The Oxford Movement.