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Kevin J. Vanhoozer:

Gerhard Ebeling famously declared that church history is essentially the history of biblical interpretation. It is true that many of the significant turning points in ecclesiastical history had to do with conflicting interpretations over the meaning of particular texts and over the methods of biblical interpretation. Yet Ebeling’s comment is susceptible of another reading as well. The history of the church is essentially the story of how the church interprets Scripture “bodily,” through the shape of its community life. Church history is thus the history of biblical performance. The church, as a performance of the word in the power of the Spirit, is a living commentary on the gospel. The life of the church just is its theological interpretation of Scripture, an index of its understanding of the theo-drama and of the God who puts it in motion.