Program / Course 4: Biblical Studies and Hermeneutics / Lesson 6.1
What you will learn
- Name the four senses of Scripture and say what question each answers.
- Trace the scheme to John Cassian and describe its development to Thomas Aquinas.
- Explain the principle that the spiritual senses rest on the literal sense.
- State how Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions evaluate the scheme today.
The big idea
Medieval Christians taught that a passage of Scripture could be read in four senses: the literal or historical, the allegorical, the moral and the anagogical. The first asks what happened. The second asks what to believe, the third what to do, and the fourth what to hope for. The scheme drew on the fathers and gave the medieval church a shared method for preaching and study. Its best teachers insisted that the literal sense is the foundation. Later traditions differ on how far the scheme should be used today.
Key terms
- Literal (or historical) sense
- What the words say and what the events were, as intended by the human author.
- Allegorical sense
- The meaning that points to Christ and the church, and so to what Christians believe.
- Moral (or tropological) sense
- The meaning that teaches how to live and what to do, often applied to the soul of the believer.
- Anagogical sense
- From a Greek word meaning leading up. The meaning that points to heaven and the last things, and so to what to hope for.
- Glossa Ordinaria
- The standard medieval commentary on the Bible, made of short notes from the fathers set in the margins and between the lines.
- Quadriga
- A Latin word for a team of four horses. A name sometimes used for the fourfold scheme.
- Scholasticism
- The method of teaching and study in the medieval schools and universities, which relied on careful distinctions and argument.
Background
The roots of the fourfold sense lie in the fathers. Origen had spoken of three levels, and Augustine and Jerome explored spiritual readings. John Cassian, a monk of the late fourth and early fifth centuries, gave a clear form to the four. In his Conferences, he uses the city of Jerusalem as an example. Historically it is the city of the Jews, allegorically it is the church of Christ, anagogically it is the heavenly city, and tropologically it is the human soul. Cassian wrote for monks, whose daily reading was a path of prayer.
A later Latin rhyme sums up the scheme: the letter teaches what happened, allegory what you should believe, the moral sense what you should do, and the anagogical what you should hope for. The rhyme is from the thirteenth century, long after the practice began. It shows how widely the scheme was known.
The scheme was a tool of the church’s teaching, not only of scholars. Sermons, commentaries, art, and the structure of the liturgy all used it. To read medieval writers fairly, a student needs to know it, even if one finally prefers a different method.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: Learn the four senses with one example
Take the exodus. The Catechism of the Catholic Church gives the crossing of the Red Sea as a sign of Christ’s victory and of baptism, which is an example of the allegorical sense. Drawing the four senses out in the same pattern, in the literal sense, it tells how Israel left slavery in Egypt. In the allegorical sense, it signifies the victory of Christ over sin and death, and baptism as the passage through the waters. In the moral sense, it calls the believer to leave a life of sin and turn to God. In the anagogical sense, it points to the entry of the faithful into the heavenly homeland.
Notice that each sense answers a different question. The first concerns the facts of the past, the second the faith of the church, the third the conduct of life, and the fourth the end toward which life tends. Medieval preachers often moved among them within one sermon.
Step 2: Hold the literal sense first
The better medieval teachers took care that the spiritual senses did not float free. Hugh of St Victor, in the twelfth century, wrote that one must learn the history first, because it is the foundation, and compared the work of building to the way a house needs a foundation before a roof. Thomas Aquinas, in the thirteenth century, stated the principle clearly. In the Summa Theologiae he teaches that the spiritual senses are founded on the literal sense and that, for argument, only the literal sense can be used. He adds that nothing necessary to faith is contained under the spiritual sense that Scripture does not teach plainly elsewhere.
This was a safeguard. It answered a worry that allegory could be used to prove anything. In Aquinas, the spiritual senses grow from the things the words signify, and those things have meanings because God, the author of history, intended them. That is close to the idea of typology, with a place also for the moral and the heavenly.
Step 3: Notice the strengths
The scheme has real strengths. It binds the Old Testament to the New by showing how the story of Israel speaks of Christ. It treats Scripture as speaking to the whole of life: belief, conduct and hope. And it gave ordinary preachers a way to bring a text from the past into the present. The scholar Henri de Lubac, in a major study of medieval interpretation, argued that the scheme preserved a unity of the Bible and the life of the church that later methods lost.
Step 4: Notice the weaknesses and the criticisms
The scheme also had weaknesses. In weaker hands it could become a mechanical device, producing four meanings for every verse whether the text invited them or not. It could drift into fancy, as when details like the number of fish in a net were turned into mysteries. And it did not give the reader a way to settle disputes between rival spiritual readings.
Critics in the sixteenth century made these points sharply. The Reformers, discussed in the next lesson, urged a return to the literal or grammatical sense. Even so, Luther in his early lectures used the fourfold scheme, and later Protestants, including Puritan preachers, continued to find Christ in the Old Testament and to apply texts morally. The history is one of change and not of simple rejection.
- What does the passage say happened, in its plain sense?
- How does it point to Christ or the church?
- What does it ask me to do, in my conduct?
- What does it say about the end toward which life and history move?
- Does the spiritual reading grow out of the literal sense or replace it?
- Is the reading supported elsewhere in Scripture or the teaching of the church?
Examples
Jerusalem in Cassian
Cassian explains that the one name Jerusalem can be read four ways: as the city of the Jews, the church of Christ, the heavenly city and the soul of a human being. The example shows how a single word was drawn into several lines of meaning, each tied to a verse or theme in Scripture.
The exodus in the Catechism
The Catechism cites the crossing of the Red Sea as a sign of Christ’s victory and of baptism. Extending the pattern gives Israel’s departure from Egypt, Christ’s victory and baptism, the call to conversion, and the hope of heaven. The example is a modern restatement of an old pattern.
Aquinas on argument
Aquinas points out that arguments in theology should not be built on the spiritual senses alone, because they are not always clear to all readers, whereas the literal sense is. A debate about the nature of Christ should begin from what the text plainly says. The principle still helps in modern disputes, where a reader may be tempted to rest a doctrine on a symbolic reading.
Different perspectives
Catholic
The Catechism teaches that Scripture has a literal sense and a spiritual sense, with the spiritual divided into allegorical, moral and anagogical, and says that all the senses are based on the literal. Catholic interpreters today use the scheme as a guide, in combination with historical and literary study.
Orthodox
Orthodox tradition has not defined the fourfold scheme as such, but it shares the fathers’ habit of reading Scripture in layers, with Christ at the center and the moral and heavenly meanings clear. Orthodox homilies and hymns display the patterns without a fixed formula.
Protestant
Protestants criticize the scheme’s tendency to fancy but many keep its spirit, reading Scripture for faith, conduct and hope. The Reformers held that the proper sense of a passage is the single sense intended by the author, and that other meanings are applications or consequences of it. Protestants differ on how far this excludes typology.
Jewish
The rabbis also developed layers of meaning. The acronym PaRDeS names four levels: plain (peshat), allusion (remez), homily (derash) and mystery (sod). The parallel with the Christian scheme is notable, though the content differs. Jewish readers do not read the layers as pointing to Christ.
Modern scholars
Some historians see the scheme as a rich tradition that deserves recovery, as de Lubac did. Others regard it as inherently arbitrary and unfit for scholarship. A middle view treats it as a theological approach that complements historical study, and not as a substitute for it.
Why it matters
The fourfold sense helps explain medieval art, preaching and theology, and its echoes remain in the way many churches read and pray. It also raises a question every reader faces: how can a text from the past speak to belief, conduct and hope today without losing its own meaning? The answers the medieval church gave deserve a fair hearing before one accepts or rejects them.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The medieval church ignored the literal meaning of Scripture.
Correction: The best medieval teachers said the literal sense is the foundation. Some preachers neglected it, but the principle was clear in the tradition.
Misunderstanding: The fourfold sense means every verse has four hidden meanings.
Correction: The scheme says that a passage may be read in four ways, and not every passage was read in all four. Teachers varied in their use.
Misunderstanding: The Reformers abolished all spiritual reading.
Correction: They criticized fanciful allegory and stressed the plain sense, but they kept the reading of the Old Testament in the light of Christ and the moral application of texts.
Misunderstanding: The scheme is only a Catholic matter.
Correction: It arose in the undivided church from the fathers and is part of the common heritage. The traditions use it differently.
Knowledge check
Name the four senses and the question each answers.
The literal or historical sense asks what happened. The allegorical sense asks what to believe, in relation to Christ and the church. The moral or tropological sense asks what to do. The anagogical sense asks what to hope for, pointing to heaven.
How did John Cassian illustrate the four senses?
He used Jerusalem: historically the city of the Jews, allegorically the church of Christ, anagogically the heavenly city, and tropologically the human soul. He wrote for monks whose reading was a path of prayer.
What principle did Aquinas state about the literal sense?
He taught that the spiritual senses are founded on the literal sense and that arguments should rest on the literal sense, since nothing necessary to faith is held under a spiritual sense that Scripture does not teach plainly elsewhere.
Give one strength and one weakness of the scheme.
A strength is that it unites the Old and New Testaments and applies Scripture to belief, conduct and hope. A weakness is that, in weak hands, it can become mechanical or fanciful, producing meanings that the text does not invite.
Think it through
- Which of the four questions do you ask most often of a passage, and which least?
- How would you guard against fanciful readings while keeping the benefits of the scheme?
- Does the rabbinic PaRDeS strengthen or weaken the case for layered reading?
- How might a preacher use the four senses on a short passage of ten verses?
Independent assignment
Read a passage fourfold
Choose a short narrative, such as Exodus 14 or the story of Jonah. In your notebook, write four short paragraphs of about 80 to 120 words each, one for the literal, allegorical, moral and anagogical senses. For each, name one passage elsewhere in Scripture that supports the reading. Then write 100 words saying which paragraph you found easiest and which hardest, and why. Keep your work in your notebook.
Further study
- John Cassian, The Conferences Read Conference 14 on spiritual knowledge and the four senses.
- Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae Read Part 1, question 1, article 10, on the senses of Scripture.
- Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church Read the section on the senses of Scripture.
- Origen, On First Principles (De Principiis) Read Book 4 for the roots of the idea of levels of meaning.
- Galatians 4:24 Paul’s use of allegory.
- Exodus 14:21 The crossing of the sea.
- Psalm 137:1 A text in which Babylon and Zion carry layers of meaning.