Calvin's Commentary on the Psalter: Christian or Jewish?

Abstract

This article explores John Calvin's debt to preceding Jewish exegetes on the Psalter and seeks to determine how explicitly Christian his interpretation of the Psalms was. To assist in meeting this aim, use is made of the medieval Jewish commentator Rashi as a conversation partner. A survey of Calvin's commentary on the Psalms helps to clarify his method of approach with respect to earlier Christian and Jewish exposition of the Psalter. When it came to Jewish exegesis of the Psalms, Calvin was neither uncritical nor hypercritical. Comparison with the exegetical efforts of Rashi shows that Calvin was no prisoner to Jewish opinion. Nor did he accept a view just because it was that of a Christian exegete. The detection of a messianic connection required some trigger, one trigger being apostolic use of a psalm. Calvin's focus on the historical context of the psalms was not something derived from Jewish exegetes but the result of his humanist training and inclination. His first impulse was to relate a psalm to its historical setting (usually the life experience of David) derived from clues in the psalm itself. On the other hand, Calvin saw no difficulty in a psalm having reference to David and at the same time being a prediction of Christ.