Nineteenth-Century American Biblical Interpretation

Nineteenth-century interpretation reflected traditional Protestant devotion to scripture and hermeneutical conventions from American experience, especially the democratic empowerment of ordinary people and a republican resentment of intellectual aristocracy. In the antebellum era, interpretations flowed from long-standing Protestant convictions adjusted to republican common sense. Contention over the Bible and slavery generated the sharpest differences. After false starts from Tom Paine in the 1790s and a few New Englanders in the 1840s, modern biblical criticism affected interpretations from the 1870s. In the postbellum era, some Protestants adopted a more liberal understanding of scripture because of the earlier standoffs over slavery. Groups previously marginalized (Catholics, Jews, skeptics, women, African Americans) also became more visible.

The Bible and Slavery in American Life

The Bible and slavery share a reciprocal relationship in American life. In the history of the debates surrounding slavery, many have seen the Bible as speaking on both sides of the nation’s greatest moral sin. When the Bible failed to resolve the controversy over slavery on its own, a war determined the direction forward. Whether deliberate or not, “race” and “identity” were often at the forefront of searching the scripture. Interpreters did not always appreciate the historical distance between the Bible’s cultural contexts and US society. These debates should serve as a reminder that the justice of the Bible is not self-authenticating.