Allegorical interpretation of the Bible

Last updated

Allegorical interpretation of the Bible is an interpretive method (exegesis) that assumes that the Bible has various levels of meaning and tends to focus on the spiritual sense, which includes the allegorical sense, the moral (or tropological) sense, and the anagogical sense, as opposed to the literal sense. It is sometimes referred to as the quadriga , a reference to the Roman chariot that was drawn by four horses.

Contents

Some[ who? ] argue that Jacob's wrestling with an angel in Hosea 12:4 references an allegorical interpretation. [1] In the Middle Ages, allegorical interpretation was used by several[ which? ] Bible commentators of Christianity. [2]

Four types

Christian allegorical map of The Journey of Life, or an Accurate Map of the Roads, Counties, Towns &c. in the Ways to Happiness & Misery, 1775 Wright The Journey of Life 1775 Cornell CUL PJM 1025 01.jpg
Christian allegorical map of The Journey of Life, or an Accurate Map of the Roads, Counties, Towns &c. in the Ways to Happiness & Misery, 1775

Scriptural interpretation is sometimes referred to as the Quadriga , a reference to the Roman chariot that was pulled by four horses abreast. The four horses are symbolic of the four submethods of Scriptural interpretation.

A Latin rhyme designed to help scholars remember the four interpretations survives from the Middle Ages:

Littera gesta docet, Quid credas allegoria, Moralis quid agas, Quo tendas anagogia. [3]

The rhyme is roughly translated:

The literal teaches what God and our ancestors did,
The allegory is where our faith and belief is hid,
The moral meaning gives us the rule of daily life,
The anagogy shows us where we end our strife.

The first three of these modes (literal, allegorical, and moral) were part of Christian tradition as expressed by Origen. St John Cassian (c. 360–435) added the fourth mode (anagogic) in 4th century. [4] His contemporary, St Augustine of Hippo (354-430) used the fourfold interpretive method in his explanation of Christian doctrine, On Christian Doctrine. Due to the widespread popularity of "On Christian Doctrine" in the Middle Ages, the fourfold method became the standard in Christian biblical exegesis of that period. [5]

Antiquity

Origen, in his Treatise on First Principles, recommends for the Old and New Testaments to be interpreted allegorically at three levels, the "flesh", the "soul", and the "spirit". He states that many of the events recounted in the Scriptures, if they are interpreted in the literal, or fleshly, sense, are impossible or nonsensical. They must be interpreted allegorically to be understood. Some passages have parts that are literally true and parts that are literally impossible. Then, "the reader must endeavor to grasp the entire meaning, connecting by an intellectual process the account of what is literally impossible with the parts that are not impossible but historically true, these being interpreted allegorically in common with the part which, so far as the letter goes, did not happen at all." [10]

Middle Ages

People of the Middle Ages shaped their ideas and institutions from drawing on the cultural legacies of the ancient world. [11] They did not see the break between themselves and their predecessors that today's observers see; they saw continuity with themselves and the ancient world by using allegory to bring together the gaps. [11] The use of allegorical interpretation in the Middle Ages began as a Christian method for studying the differences between the two Testaments (tropological interpretation). [11] Christian scholars believed both Testaments were equally inspired divinely by God and sought to understand the differences between Old Testament and New Testament laws. [12]

Medieval scholars believed the Old Testament to serve as an allegory of New Testament events, such as the story of Jonah and the whale, which represents Jesus' death and resurrection. [11] According to the Old Testament Book of Jonah, a prophet spent three days in the belly of a fish. Medieval scholars believed this was an allegory (using the typological interpretation) of Jesus' death and his being in the tomb for three days before he rose from the dead.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Midrash</i> Traditional Jewish exegesis of Biblical texts

Midrash is expansive Jewish Biblical exegesis using a rabbinic mode of interpretation prominent in the Talmud. The word itself means "textual interpretation", "study", or "exegesis", derived from the root verb darash (דָּרַשׁ‎), which means "resort to, seek, seek with care, enquire, require", forms of which appear frequently in the Hebrew Bible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hermeneutics</span> Theory and methodology of text interpretation

Hermeneutics is the theory and methodology of interpretation, especially the interpretation of biblical texts, wisdom literature, and philosophical texts. As necessary, hermeneutics may include the art of understanding and communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Epistle of Barnabas</span> Greek Christian text (AD 70–132)

The Epistle of Barnabas is a Greek epistle written between AD 70 and 132. The complete text is preserved in the 4th-century Codex Sinaiticus, where it appears immediately after the New Testament and before the Shepherd of Hermas. For several centuries it was one of the "antilegomena" ("disputed") writings that some Christians looked on as sacred scripture, while others excluded them. Eusebius of Caesarea classified it with excluded texts. It is mentioned in a perhaps third-century list in the sixth-century Codex Claromontanus and in the later Stichometry of Nicephorus appended to the ninth-century Chronography of Nikephoros I of Constantinople. Some early Fathers of the Church ascribed it to the Barnabas who is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, but it is now generally attributed to an otherwise unknown early Christian teacher, although some scholars do defend the traditional attribution. It is distinct from the Gospel of Barnabas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exegesis</span> Critical explanation or interpretation of a text

Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Biblical works. In modern usage, exegesis can involve critical interpretations of virtually any text, including not just religious texts but also philosophy, literature, or virtually any other genre of writing. The phrase Biblical exegesis can be used to distinguish studies of the Bible from other critical textual explanations.

Biblical hermeneutics is the study of the principles of interpretation concerning the books of the Bible. It is part of the broader field of hermeneutics, which involves the study of principles of interpretation, both theory and methodology, for all forms of communication, nonverbal and verbal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Four senses of Scripture</span> Four-level method of interpreting the Bible

The four senses of Scripture is a four-level method of interpreting the Bible.

Biblical literalism or biblicism is a term used differently by different authors concerning biblical interpretation. It can equate to the dictionary definition of literalism: "adherence to the exact letter or the literal sense", where literal means "in accordance with, involving, or being the primary or strict meaning of the word or words; not figurative or metaphorical".

The historical-grammatical method is a modern Christian hermeneutical method that strives to discover the biblical authors' original intended meaning in the text. According to the historical-grammatical method, if based on an analysis of the grammatical style of a passage, it appears that the author intended to convey an account of events that actually happened, then the text should be taken as representing history; passages should only be interpreted symbolically, poetically, or allegorically if to the best of our understanding, that is what the writer intended to convey to the original audience. It is the primary method of interpretation for many conservative Protestant exegetes who reject the historical-critical method to various degrees, in contrast to the overwhelming reliance on historical-critical interpretation in biblical studies at the academic level.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Typology (theology)</span> Christian doctrine on the relationship between the Old and New Testaments

Typology in Christian theology and biblical exegesis is a doctrine or theory concerning the relationship of the Old Testament to the New Testament. Events, persons or statements in the Old Testament are seen as types prefiguring or superseded by antitypes, events or aspects of Christ or his revelation described in the New Testament. For example, Jonah may be seen as the type of Christ in that he emerged from the fish's belly and thus appeared to rise from death.

Anagoge (ἀναγωγή), sometimes spelled anagogy, is a Greek word suggesting a climb or ascent upwards. The anagogical is a method of mystical or spiritual interpretation of statements or events, especially scriptural exegesis, that detects allusions to the afterlife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allegorical interpretations of Genesis</span> Readings of the biblical Book of Genesis that treat elements of the narrative as symbols or types

Allegorical interpretations of Genesis are readings of the biblical Book of Genesis that treat elements of the narrative as symbols or types, rather than viewing them literally as recording historical events. Either way, Judaism and most sects of Christianity treat Genesis as canonical scripture, and believers generally regard it as having spiritual significance.

Pardes (פרד"ס) is a Kabbalistic theory of Biblical exegesis first advanced by Moses de León, adapting the popular "fourfold" method of medieval Christianity. The term, sometimes also rendered PaRDeS, means "orchard" when taken literally, but is used in this context as a Hebrew acronym formed from the initials of the following four approaches:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter of Poitiers</span>

Peter of Poitiers was a French scholastic theologian, born in Poitiers around 1125-1130. He died in Paris on September 3, 1205.

Covenantal theology is a distinctive approach to Catholic biblical theology stemming from the mid-twentieth century recovery of Patristic methods of interpreting scripture by scholars such as Henri de Lubac. This recovery was given further impetus by Dei verbum, the Second Vatican Council's "Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation", and consolidated in the section on scripture Catechism of the Catholic Church. These developments gave rise to an approach that emphasizes the "four senses" of scripture within a framework that structures salvation history via the biblical covenants, in combination with the techniques of modern biblical scholarship.

This is a glossary of terms used in Christianity.

Tropological reading or "moral sense" is a Christian tradition, theory, and practice of interpreting the figurative meaning of the Bible. It is part of biblical exegesis and one of the Four senses of Scripture.

Quadriga is a Latin word for a chariot drawn by four horses.

Demythologization as a hermeneutic approach to religious texts seeks to separate or recover cosmological, sociological and historic claims from philosophical, ethical and theological teachings. Mostly applied to Biblical texts, demythologization often overlaps with philology, Biblical criticism and form criticism. The term demythologization was introduced by Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976) in existential context, but the concept has earlier precedents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allegorical interpretations of Plato</span>

Many interpreters of Plato held that his writings contain passages with double meanings, called allegories, symbols, or myths, that give the dialogues layers of figurative meaning in addition to their usual literal meaning. These allegorical interpretations of Plato were dominant for more than fifteen hundred years, from about the 1st century CE through the Renaissance and into the 18th century, and were advocated by major Platonist philosophers such as Plotinus, Porphyry, Syrianus, Proclus, and Marsilio Ficino. Beginning with Philo of Alexandria, these views influenced the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic interpretation of these religions' respective sacred scriptures. They spread widely during the Renaissance and contributed to the fashion for allegory among poets such as Dante Alighieri, Edmund Spenser, and William Shakespeare.

Hermeneutics is the theory and methodology of interpretation. The tradition of Western hermeneutics starts in the writings of Aristotle and continues to the modern era.

References

  1. ↑ Halbertal, Moshe. Idolatry. Harvard University Press.
  2. ↑ Stephan A. Barney (1989). "Allegory". Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Vol-1. ISBN   0-684-16760-3.
  3. ↑ Grant, Robert M. (1963). A Short History of Biblical Interpretation. New York. ISBN   0800617622
  4. ↑ Toom, Tarno (2006). "Introduction". Patristic Theories of Biblical Interpretation: The Latin Fathers. Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–19.
  5. ↑ Barcellos, Richard (13 May 2011). "Brief survey of the history of hermeneutics – 9. Middle Ages (II)". cbtseminary.org. Retrieved 2021-06-23.
  6. ↑ Glucksberg, Sam (2001-07-26). Understanding Figurative Language from Metaphor to Idioms: From Metaphor to Idioms. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780195111095.
  7. ↑ Hyde, Virginia (1992). The Risen Adam: D.H. Lawrence’s Revisionist Typology. ISBN   0271028459.
  8. ↑ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). “Scriptural Tropology”. Catholic Encyclopaedia. Robert Appleton Company.
  9. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica Online, S.V. "Anagogical Interpretation", Accessed March 15, 2013.
  10. ↑ On First Principles, in Readings in World Christian History (2013), p. 75
  11. 1 2 3 4 William R. Cook and Ronald B. Herzman (2001). Discovering the Middle Ages. The Teaching Company. ISBN   1-56585-701-1
  12. ↑ "How was the Genesis account of creation interpreted before Darwin? | BioLogos". Archived from the original on 2014-05-27. Retrieved 2014-05-27.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.