Spiritual Meaning

In hermeneutics Judaic and Christian (School Scholastic ), the doctrine of the four senses of Scripture refers to the four senses by which we can interpret the Scriptures :

• Peshat , Remez, Drash , Sod (the Jewish tradition);
• literal, allegorical , tropological and anagogical (in the Christian tradition).

Origin: Judaism

The doctrine of the four senses of tradition is practiced in Judaism for the study of Torah :

• Pshat : literal;
• Remez: allusive (literally refers);
• Drash : the allegorical (literally digging, probing, searching);
• Sod (Kabbalah) : Mystical (literally: secret).

The acronym form prds ( PaRDeS ). The Midrash focuses on remez and drash.

Rashi employed the four senses in his comments. ^{Transmission to Christianity}

According to Henri de Lubac . He urged him to devote himself to studying the Scriptures through the lectio divina :

"Dedicate yourself to the divine scripture reading. Apply yourself to it with perseverance and dedicating yourself ... In the lectio divina search with righteousness and an unshakable confidence in God, the divine meaning of the Scriptures, which is held in abundance. "

Origen is generally used in three senses of Scripture comments: literal, moral and mystical, which correspond to the human trichotomy "body, soul and mind" (De principiis, IV, 11), although it often follows the order body- mind-soul, so literal-mystical-moral. Let the Exodus (I, 6-7) which says: "Joseph died (...) and son of Israel grew and multiplied." The literal meaning (carnal, history) is: Joseph died, and the faithful became a great multitude, and the mystical meaning (spiritual, allegorical) is: Joseph announces Jesus died for the Church to spread on Earth and finally the moral sense (which edifies the soul) is: Christ's death breeds in the soul of every Christian whose faith she proliferate (Homilies on Exodus, I, 4).

John Cassian , quoted by K. Froehkich, systematized the four directions in ^the fifth century. It states in its fourteenth Conference ( 8):

"The four figures were assembled so that the same Jerusalem may take four different meanings: in the historical sense, it will be the city of the Hebrews, the allegorical sense, the Church of Christ in the sense anagogical, the heavenly city ' who is the mother of us all '; the moralistic, the human soul. "

The use of the theory of the four lines was taken by Jerome , Augustine , Bede , Scotus Eriugena , Hugh of St. Victor and Richard of St. Victor , Alain de Lille , Bonaventure , Thomas Aquinas . Thomas Aquinas does not defined a series of four, but a duality, the letter and spirit, that spirit is divided into allegory, tropology, anagogy. Bernard of Clairvaux used them in his sermons on the Song .

The four lines have been formulated in the Middle Ages in a famous couplet Latin: littera gesta docet, creds allegoria quid, quid moralis agas, quo Tenda anagogia (the letter indicates the facts, allegory what you must believe, moral what you should do the anagogy what you have to aim).

He was particularly developed during the Renaissance of the twelfth century with the introduction of the philosophy of Aristotle in the West , the birth of scholastic theology ( Abelard and Hugh of St. Victor ), and the birth of universities. This is the ^twelfth century that the doctrine of the four senses of Scripture, which calls for a pluralistic interpretation of the text of the Bible , reached its apogee.

Lectio divina and interpretation to the four directions

The four directions correspond to the traditional method of reading the Scriptures , in the Lectio Divina (see article by Zenith on the reflections of Enzo Bianchi, founder of the monastery of Bose, Italy, Italian link).

Literal Meaning

This first direction is sometimes also called the historical sense.

Description

The literal meaning is that which comes from understanding the language of the statement.

According to Thomas Aquinas , the literal meaning is what the author intended to mean . The use of exegesis is essential to try to find out.

Subdivisions

Thomas Aquinas distinguished within the literal sense:

• parabolic meaning (interpretation from a parable)
• causative sense (when statement was said according to a special condition of enunciation)
• and so by analogy (comparing various similar passages to substantiate their suggestions).

Spiritual Direction

The other three senses are grouped under the term spiritual senses.

Allegorical Sense

Comes from the Greek allos, other, and agoreuein, say, the allegory by saying something also tells another. This literary device was also known in ancient Greece. The allegorical meaning may be the interpretation of a passage from the Old Testament (First Testament) as a function of the Incarnation of Christ, or, if one prefers, it may be the explanation of the events of the Old Will the events of Christ's life described in the New Testament : it is called typology , which is a special case of allegory.

Example: healing of a leper ( Luke 5. 12-16 )

In developed countries, the healing of a leper may be interpreted as the literal sense, since this disease has virtually disappeared from these countries. However, it is possible to make an interpretation that the allegorical meaning:

• in the First Testament , the lepers were kept away from society ( Lev 14. 1-57 ). It is therefore possible to make the relationship between the First and the New Testament.
• The leper today symbolizes the social exclusion.

See the different interpretations of this passage, and in particular the interpretation of the Venerable Bede , who said that, in the allegorical sense, the leper is the human race languishing and feeble because of his sins , and all covered with leprosy, "because all have sinned and need God's grace "(Romans 3): Site Clerus.org.

Meaning tropological

This meaning is sometimes also called sense moral.

The moralistic searches the text figures, virtues or vices, passions or steps that the spirit must travel in the human ascent to God.

This meaning for the present.

Meaning anagogical

The meaning anagogical is obtained by interpreting the Gospels, to give an idea of past realities that become visible at the end of time.

This sense for the future.

In art and literature

The meaning of Scripture have been taken quickly enough in the literature in the form of so-called allegorical writing, including an epic poem of the Latin author Prudence , the Psychomachia.

In his Dialogus super auctores, Conrad Hirsau speaking of a quad, valid for the sacred text in the first place, but also applicable to secular literature.

The allegorical writing has been implemented for the first time in a literary purpose by a contemporary of St. Augustine , Prudentius ( 348 - 410 ), as Psychomachia (Combat of the soul) .

Then, throughout the Middle Ages , the literature has sought to adapt techniques hermeneutics.

The allegorical literature was highly developed in the ^thirteenth century , in old or middle French.

Some meanings are equally applicable to the interpretation of works of art, particularly the allegorical meaning in medieval art and the Renaissance (see allegory ).

News

This doctrine maintains a certain relevance when, for example, it is avoided in debates on theories of evolution , the ecological crisis , or the creation of the world according to Genesis , a purely literal interpretation of Holy Scriptures.

Several theologians or hermeneutics contemporaries maintained: Henri de Lubac , Jean-Paul Michaud.

The 55th Congress of ACEBAC in 1998 was held on the theme of the four directions.

On the occasion of the modernist crisis The Popes Leo XIII and Pius XII issued the encyclical on biblical studies. Leo XIII, in Providentissimus deus ( 1893 ), cautions against a purely literal interpretation:

"It is indeed important, to note in this regard that other causes of difficulties that arise in the explanation of any ancient writers, it adds a few that are peculiar to the interpretation of the Books saints. Since they are the work of the Holy Spirit, the words will hide many truths which far surpass the strength and penetration of human reason, namely the divine mysteries and matters connected therewith. The meaning is broader and sometimes more covert than would appear to indicate the letter and the rules of hermeneutics, in addition, the literal meaning hides itself from other senses is used to illuminate the dogmas, or provide rules for life.

Also, one can not deny that the holy books are wrapped in a certain religious obscurity, so that no one should approach the study without a guide ( Ps 18 2. ) "

Notes

Bibliography

• Henri de Lubac , Medieval Exegesis, the four purposes of writing, Paris, 1959 - 1964.
• Henri de Lubac , History and Spirit: The Intelligence of Scripture by Origen, Les Editions du Cerf, 2002 , ( ISBN 2-20406-761-X )
• K. Froehlich, Early Christian Interpretation, The Oxford Companion to the Bible, ed. BM Metzger, MD Coogan, Oxford, 1993.
• Pre Tanguy Marie Pouliquen. The Word, the gift of life - spiritual reading in the school of Lectio Divina. ( ISBN 2-84024-262-1 )

See also

• Hermeneutics
• Biblical exegesis

Jewish tradition

• Peshat
• Midrash
• Sod (Kabbalah)
• PaRDeS

Christian tradition

• Holy Scripture
• Lectio divina
• Origen
• Allegory
• Anagogical

[ edit ] References, Sources

Jewish tradition

• (In) Kolela The Adult Center for Liberal Jewish Learning

Christian tradition

• (En) Feature: Meet the Fathers of the Church, Theologia.fr
• (En) Praying the Bible, lectio divina, the site of the Fraternities of Jerusalem
• (En) The four senses of Scripture, on the Zenit website , as Hans Urs von Balthasar and Henri de Lubac
• (En) Site of Biblical Studies in Canada
• (It) Lectio Divina: e prassi fundamentally , 7 April 2007 in Rome, thinking of Enzo Bianchi , founder of the monastery of Buse, near Turin, on lectio divina , and the traditional method of reading the script in the four directions.

The Kabbalah
Kabbalistic concepts	Sephiroth Pardes Sod Merkabah Angels Kabbalah
Hermeneutical methods	{ Gematria Temur notarikon Midrash Four senses of Scripture
Basic Texts	Sefer Ha Zohar Sefer Yetzirah Sefer Habahe
Personalities	Isaac the Blind Isaac Luria Moses de Leon Moses Cordovero Moshe Chaim Luzzatto Gershom Scholem Miguel de Cervantes. Eliphas Levi Paul Vulliaud Sabbatai Zevi Baruch Ashlag Abraham Abulafia Carlo Suares Marc-Alain Ouaknin
Other	Hasidism Safed

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