Quaker Theology #14

Opening the Scriptures, Then and Now -- Page 2

Seventeenth Century

For George Fox, the Holy Spirit is that which opens the Scriptures to our understanding. Without Spirit-led opening, the Scriptures are of no use; with Spirit-led openings, they can be enormously helpful, not only to oneself, but to others to whom one ministers. This is stated early in his journal:

I was to direct people to the Spirit, that gave forth the Scriptures, by which they might be led into all truth, and so up to Christ and God, as those had been who gave them forth. . . . These things I did not see by the help of man, nor by the letter, though they are written in the letter; but I saw them in the light of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by his immediate spirit and power, as did the holy men of God by whom the holy scriptures were written. Yet I had no slight esteem of the holy scriptures, they were very precious to me; for I was in that spirit by which they were given forth; and what the Lord opened in me, I afterwards found was agreeable to them."

According to Fox’s mystical understanding, the openings from the Spirit came first, and the consultation of the book later. It was a wonderful discovery to him that his Spirit-led openings and what he found in the Scriptures was "agreeable." Fox’s openings could be specifically "in the Scriptures," as he stated several times in his journal, but they did not have to be specifically there: Fox had "openings of that divine word or wisdom and power by which [the works of creation] were made," for example, as well as openings "of outward things relating to civil government," so the Spirit could open one’s understanding to any needful aspect of the world in which one lives.

Still, the synergy of Spirit and Scripture was a reliable part of Fox’s life, if requiring occasionally some diligence to uncover. Once what Fox "saw in the pure openings of the light without the help of any man" he was ignorant of where it could be found in Scriptures, but "afterwards, searching the scriptures, I found it." A contemporary Friend might be tempted to say that Fox’s unconscious mind had been at work, but of course Fox had no such explanation available to him. It was all wondrous, marvelous discovery. (Digital Quaker Collection)

There was a Scriptural basis for the term "openings." While Tom Gates calls our attention quite rightly to the story of the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus "opening the scriptures" to his female companions, (Luke 24:32) one might well offer the Book of Revelation as an additional allusion for Fox: "I had great openings concerning the things written in the Revelations . . . I told [the priests and professors that] Christ could open the seals." (Rev. 5:9-8:1) Indeed, with the frequency of occurrence of the word "open" in the book of Revelation, one can recognize a strong apocalyptic tinge to Fox’s use of this word. (Digital Quaker Collection)

These openings often had a cascading effect, one that is explored by Michael Birkel to great effect in his Engaging Scripture: Reading the Bible with Early Friends. Birkel teases out the numerous Biblical allusions in the writing of Fox and other early Friends, and points to the inspired connections that they drew between widely dispersed portions of Scripture. The cumulative effect could be very powerful, especially in the Scripture-saturated culture of seventeenth-century England. Birkel asks whether twenty-first century Friends could recapture this aspect of early Quaker culture. We have far less Scripture committed to memory than did they, but Birkel offers a "Meeting for Reading" as a way to get at the power of the Biblical immersion that formed the writings of early Friends.

In a recent examination of Quakers’ reading of the epistle to the Colossians, I argue that the most important aspects of the Quaker engagement of that text was their universalizing and spiritualizing tendencies. In Colossians 1:23, for example, Paul stated that the hope of the gospel has been "proclaimed to every creature under heaven." Early Quakers accused their predestinarian Presbyterian opponents of ignoring this verse, but also implied that it had been mistranslated, because the Greek preposition en has here been translated as "to." Many seventeenth-century Quakers wanted to maintain that what Paul had really stated was that the gospel was proclaimed "in every creature under heaven" – an assertion that made much sense to Christians who related most strongly to an Inward Christ, but little sense to other Christians who did not share that understanding. The early Quakers also related strongly to Colossians 1:27, which stated that Christ is "in you, the hope of glory," interpreting that this meant that the glorious Christ was in everyone, except perhaps persecutors and "reprobates" (an exception allowed by an otherwise similar 2 Cor. 13:5.) (Angell, "Universalising," 37-47)

Many of the early Quakers’ other favorite verses were ones that promoted an internalized, spiritual, inward, mystical and holiness-oriented Christian faith, as Fox’s writings, including his last catechism, show clearly. The gospel was not to be understood as a form of literature, but rather it is "the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith." (Rom. 1:17) The church is not a building, but "the people of God, which he hath purchased with his own Blood." (Fox’s conflation of 1 Pet. 2:10 and Acts 20:28). The Word of God is not the Bible, but rather Christ; the Bible is merely the "words of God." The cross of Christ, in Fox’s words, "is the Power of God, and this is foolishness to those that perish." (A paraphrase of I Cor. 1:18). (See St. Laurent) The true circumcision is inward (Rom. 2:29), the true baptism is spiritual (John 1:33), and the true law is written on the heart. (Jer. 31:33). We must be guided by the Spirit of Truth, which leads us into all truth. (John 4:24)

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