Distinction Between Descriptive and Incidental Passages
The distinction between descriptive and incidental passages in biblical interpretation helps differentiate between elements that are central to a text's meaning and those that are secondary or contextual. This distinction is crucial for understanding the intended message of Scripture and avoiding misapplication of its teachings.
Descriptive passages often convey information about existing states of affairs, such as the nature of animals, trees, or places [6, 8]. Augustine, for instance, notes that knowledge of such natural sciences can be helpful in resolving difficulties in Scripture [6]. These passages aim to inform the reader about a particular reality. Similarly, narratives that recount the order of events are descriptive, even if the narrator does not create that order but merely observes and records it [8].
Incidental passages, on the other hand, refer to details that are not the primary focus of the text but serve to provide context or background. These details might be "accidental" in a philosophical sense, meaning they are not essential to the nature of the thing described but are present due to specific circumstances [1, 2]. For example, Augustine discusses how an "accidental" quality implies a change in the thing to which it is an accident, even if some accidents are considered inseparable [2]. In biblical narratives, incidental details might include specific timings or sequences of events that are not meant to establish a rigid chronological or prescriptive pattern. Augustine himself points out that when an evangelist uses an expression like "it came to pass on one of the days," it indicates that readers are not necessarily bound to assume a precise day or immediate succession of events [5]. This suggests that some narrative details are incidental to the main point being conveyed.
Theological traditions have long recognized the importance of distinguishing between essential and non-essential aspects. In scholastic theology, for instance, a distinction is made between substantial forms, which make a thing exist absolutely, and accidental forms, which do not [1]. This philosophical framework can be analogously applied to biblical interpretation, where some elements are substantial to the theological message, while others are accidental or incidental to the narrative's primary purpose. Thomas Aquinas, in discussing the nature of habits, notes that some qualities are natural and always present, while others are adventitious and caused from without [3]. This mirrors the idea that some biblical details are inherent to the message, while others are circumstantial.
The concept of "accidental" also appears in discussions of human action, where an act might be involuntary due to ignorance or force, distinguishing it from a voluntary act where the cause originates in the actor who knows the circumstances [7]. This highlights how specific conditions or circumstances can influence the nature and interpretation of an event or statement.
In the context of parables, for example, Jesus often used "surprising, evocative imagery" [4]. While the imagery itself is descriptive, the specific details within the parable might be incidental to the overarching message of the Kingdom of God's growth or the call for patience [4]. The focus is on the spiritual truth conveyed, rather than on the literal accuracy or prescriptive nature of every descriptive element within the parable.
The distinction between descriptive and incidental passages helps interpreters avoid deriving universal principles or commands from details that are merely contextual or illustrative. It encourages readers to discern the primary intent of the biblical author and the core theological truths being communicated, rather than elevating every detail to the same level of significance.
Sources
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part (Prima Pars), Of Those Things Which Belong to the Powers of the Soul in General, Art. 6: Article: Whether the powers of the soul flow from its essence? I answer that, The substantial and the accidental form partly agree and partly differ. They agree in this, that each is an act; and that by each of them something is after a manner actual. They differ, however, in two respects. First, because the substantial form makes a thing to exist absolutely, and its subject is something purely potential. But the accidental form does not make a thing to exist absolutel”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 3: Augustine — On the Holy Trinity — CHAP. 4.--THE ACCIDENTAL ALWAYS IMPLIES: SOME CHANGE IN THE THING. 5. That which is accidental commonly implies that it can be lost by some change of the thing to which it is an accident. For although some accidents are said to be inseparable, which in Greek are called <greek>akprista</greek>, as the color black is to the feather of a raven; 89 yet the feather loses that color, not indeed so long as it is a feather, but because the feather is not always. Wherefore the matter itself is changeable; and whenever that animal or that feather ceases to ”
- theology (Catholic (Scholastic)) “Aquinas, Summa Theologica, First Part of the Second Part (Prima Secundae), Of Habits in General, As to Their Substance, Art. 2: Article: Whether habit is a distinct species of quality? I answer that, The Philosopher in the Book of Predicaments (Categor. vi) reckons disposition and habit as the first species of quality. Now Simplicius, in his Commentary on the Predicaments, explains the difference of these species as follows. He says "that some qualities are natural, and are in their subject in virtue of its nature, and are always there: but some are adventitious, being caused from without, and”
- Matthew (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Matthew 13:31: 13:31-33 Jesus used surprising, evocative imagery in these parables, either to emphasize the inevitable growth of the Kingdom through proclamation of the gospel or, more probably, to emphasize the contrast between insignificant beginnings and glorious consummation, and to exhort the disciples to patience (see also 16:24–17:13).”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 6: Augustine — Homilies on the Gospels — CHAP. XL.--OF THE QUESTION AS TO WHETHER THERE IS ANY DISCREPANCY BETWEEN MATTHEW ON THE ONE HAND, AND MARK AND LUKE ON THE OTHER, IN REGARD TO THE ORDER IN WHICH THE NOTICE IS GIVEN OF THE OCCASION O (part 2): that He went into a ship with His disciples."(5) And certainly, when he employs this expression, "it came to pass on one of the days," he indicates clearly enough that we are under no necessity of supposing that the day meant was the very day on which this incident took place, or the one following in immediate succession. Consequently, ”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 29.--TO WHAT EXTENT NATURAL SCIENCE IS AN EXEGETICAL AID. (part 1): 45. There is also a species of narrative resembling description, in which not a past but an existing state of things is made known to those who are ignorant of it. To this species belongs all that has been written about the situation of places, and the nature of animals, trees, herbs, stones, and other bodies. And of this species I have treated above, and have shown that this kind of knowledge is serviceable in solving the difficulties of Scripture, not that thes”
- CCEL (Eastern Orthodox) “John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, section 39: while shooting at the customary range one slew one’s father who happened to be passing by, this would be termed an ignorant and involuntary act. As, then, that which is involuntary is in two parts, one depending on force, the other on ignorance, that which is voluntary is the opposite of both. For that which is voluntary is the result neither of force nor of ignorance 1871 1871 Ibid. , ch. 32. . A voluntary act, then, is one of which the beginning or cause originates in an actor, who knows each individual circumstance thr”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 2: Augustine — City of God, Christian Doctrine — CHAP. 32.--VALID LOGICAL SEQUENCE IS NOT DEVISED BUT ONLY OBSERVED BY MAN.: 50. And yet the validity of logical sequences is not a thing devised by men, but is observed and noted by them that they may be able to learn and teach it; for it exists eternally in the reason of things, and has its origin with God. For as the man who narrates the order of events does not himself create that order; and as he who describes the situations of places, or the natures of animals, or roots, or minerals, does not describe arrangements of man; and as h”