Others who used sensus plenior

Others who practiced the rules of sensus plenior

Brown

Although Brown popularized the term sensus plenior in time for modern debates, he never was able to actually unpack it, saying that he had never used it in preaching. One should not have expected Brown to have defined 'strict rules'.

The quotes from Luther and Owen only show that they believed that sensus plenior existed. They are nice quotes that help establish the belief in the fact, not the practice.

Edwards

Though Jonathan Edwards strove to see Christ in all the scriptures, he could only see the hints and filled in the gaps with instinct and allegory. He often did well, but this is not SP.

Ge 2:21 ¶ And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

Thus God's making Eve of Adam's rib, was to typify the near relation and strict union of husband and wife, and the respect that is due, in persons in that relation, from one to the other. (Jonathan Edwards, Volume 9, Page 12)

Edwards ignored Paul's statement that marriage spoke of Christ and the church (Eph 5:32 ). The ante-type target of Edwards in this passage is marriage, falling short of the SP target of Christ.

What is the difference?

Let's examine the SP interpretation so that the difference between Edwards's allegory and SP is clear.

Ge 2:21 ¶ And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

Each word has multiple meanings in Hebrew;

sleep also means death

Adam also means man and he is a type of Christ

rib means limping and side, etc.

When the double entendre is read it says:

And God caused the man to die and he died; and he married a certain limping side and delivered mankind.

This is the riddle which points to Christ. He married the church with his limping side (the flesh). Drash ties in the bruised heel of the seed of the woman (Ge 3:15 ), and Jacob's withered thigh (Ge 32:32) to show us pictures of Gethsemane where his flesh was made to 'limp' in order to be obedient to the Father.

Edwards practiced free-for-all allegory.

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