A Commentary on Catholic Catechism Articles

Paragraphs 115 - 117

On The Way We Read Scripture

According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church.

The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: "All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal."

The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs.

The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism.

The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction".

The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem.

I normally try to stay away from direct explanations of the Catechism. But in this case, I'd like to see a simplified version--something even a child could understand. Especially in the day and age where literal interpretation of Scripture is laughed at.

What everyone already knows, is that we can look at Scripture in two senses - literal and spiritual. What people seem to forget is that the spiritual sense hinges on the literal sense. In other words, we can't come up with some crazy spiritual interpretation if it isn't somehow implied in the literal. And we definitely can't use a spiritual interpretation if it contradicts the literal sense.

Now "literal sense", the way it's used here, means the sense in which the authors of scripture intended us to understand it. That generally means:

getting the words properly interpreted
understanding the phrases, language, and customs of the time in which they were written
putting all of it in context

For example, the death and resurrection of Christ, is meant to convey that Jesus died and rose from the dead. There's other stuff there, but we can't look at the sacred text and pretend that it was only figurative. The literal message is clear on this--Jesus died (suffered the same type of death we suffer) and rose (by His own power, He came back from the dead in a glorified state). We can't look at the text and assume that it meant something else. He literally died and rose as reported by scripture.

That's not to say all Scripture must be interpreted literally. It just means that there IS a literal sense, and that the spiritual sense must hinge on the literal. In other words, we must pay attention to the words and context used in Scripture before coming up with any kind of spiritual meaning.

The spiritual sense of Scripture (which we can only arrive at AFTER we've discovered the literal sense) can be broken up into three categories. When you meditate on Scripture, it's a good thing to keep this in mind. You'll find much deeper meaning in the Bible if you remember this, and you'll get much more out of it. Hence, you'll find yourself drifting ever closer to God.

The three categories that the spiritual sense are broken into are allegorical, moral, and analogical.

In the allegorical sense of Scripture, we see connections between the different stories... especially between the Old and New Testaments. We also see how all of the Bible is somehow connected to the story of the Gospel. All the stories are a foreshadowing of something greater. For example, we might look at the story of creation as an allegory of the death and resurrection of Christ (which is why we call Jesus the "New Adam"). We might see the suffering of Christ like we see Adam's the expulsion from the garden. Through this, we discover a correlation between the punitive and the redemptive power of suffering. Through one man (Adam) all mankind was made to suffer as a punishment for sin. Through one Man's suffering (Jesus) all mankind was SAVED from sin. But we couldn't get any of this out of Scripture unless we got the original, literal meaning right.

Now in the moral sense, we find ways to put the ideas of Scripture into practical use. For example, we look Jesus' agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and see that we can't back out of being Christian, even when it hurts us. We might avoid pain, but not at the cost of turning away from God's will. This simple moral law is spelled out through the literal words of a story. When we get the story right, we get the moral right.

In the analogical sense, we see find easier ways to understand certain truths in life. An analogy are two things that are different, but similar in some ways. A biblical analogy leads us to greater truth. It shines light on what is otherwise a mystery. We see the most typical examples in Jesus' parables. But the analogies aren't limited to the parables. We might look at the way man and woman are joined in marriage, and see from that how the Church is related to Christ. But we might also see the opposite, and discover how spouses are supposed to treat each other. We use what the Bible tells us about Christ to understand marriage, and we use what we know about marriage to understand Christ. But we can always know that such analogies are not true if they conflict with the literal sense of Scripture.

If you keep these points in mind every time you read Scripture (every time you attend Mass and listen to the readings, the responsorial psalms, and all the rest of the prayers) you'll find yourself exploring new roads. You'll find yourself in a never ending journey towards deeper understanding. If you heed this understanding and allow it to move you, you'll find yourself growing deeper and deeper in love with Christ.