Historico-grammatical

In biblical exegesis, the historico-grammatical approach tries to avoid extremes: that of dismissing the use of figurative language in the text on the one hand, versus dismissing the possibility of the miraculous and the supernatural on the other; that of ignoring what the original authors intended, versus ignoring relevance for modern readers; that of forcing the text into a preconceived theology, versus interpreting in isolation from the larger story of the gospel.

The biblical text is read typologically through the grid of holiness theology, ignoring historico-grammatical considerations.

In his opening paragraph, Wesley unabashedly declared that it is not his intention to pursue a historico-grammatical interpretation of the text:[…].

He rejects the view that Erasmus is the father of the modern historico-grammatical method of exegesis, and the view that Erasmus passed over the search for the literal sense of Scripture. He proposes an alternative view that the young Erasmus of the Enchiridion Militis Christiani (1503) followed the allegorical and tropological senses more than the older Erasmus who wrote the preface to the Novum Testamentum (1516). In the later work, Erasmus strongly advocates the historico-grammatical approach to the interpretation of Scripture.