The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

IV. Summarization of Pre-Reformation Witnesses

Ere we leave the pre-Reformation section, and turn to the Reformation epoch-though tarrying first to review the thirty paralleling Jewish writers on prophecy spread across the centuries of the Christian Era-let us summarize in convenient tabular form the leading views of the principal fourteenth—and fifteenth—century expositors, in order to bring their voluminous and scattered teachings into compact form. This is achieved by means of the accompanying chart. PFF2 157.1

Prophetic exposition, be it remembered, was just beginning to grip the minds of godly men again, after a virtual eclipse of interest and exposition for over five long centuries. In fact, between the fifth and eleventh centuries, understanding of the prophetic writings almost passed from among men. Only an occasional gleam was to be seen by the searcher, like the flickering light of some lone star in the night, before the gray light of dawn broke over the earth during the Renaissance, and the prophecies once more became the object of study and elucidation. PFF2 157.2