Unfinished Exegesis: Scriptural Authority and Psalm 2 in the Miltonic Canon

Abstract

abstract:This article traces Milton's late career readings of Psalm 2 to argue that the most vexed moments in his scriptural exegesis become the most poetically productive. De Doctrina Christiana was both more committed to scriptural authority than other systematic theologies of the day and questioned the integrity of the biblical text more radically. Milton's readings of Psalm 2 in De Doctrina Christiana, in his 1653 translation, and in Paradise Lost demonstrate not only a growing sense of hermeneutic liberty but also the exegetical limits beyond which interpretive ambition must not go.