Lesson 3

Synopsis

​​

When reading the Bible, how are we to understand the meaning of the biblical text? Should we interpret everything literally or spiritually? Over the centuries, the Church has developed a rich tradition of interpreting her Sacred Scriptures. The first step when interpreting any text is to try to understand what its authors wanted to say through the words they used. This intended meaning is called the literal sense. However, the events and realities described throughout the Bible can also have a deeper meaning or signification. This is called the spiritual sense. The Catechism, following the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, divides the spiritual sense into three. There are, therefore, four senses of Scripture: the literal sense and the three spiritual senses. In this lesson you will learn to identify and describe each of these senses.

​

Learning Objectives

 

You will have successfully completed this lesson when you understand and can explain the meaning of the literal and spiritual senses.

 

​

Introduction

​

So far in this course, we have been learning how to read and interpret the Bible. By now, you should know that in order to interpret a passage correctly, we need to take into account what its human authors intended to say (lesson 1) while reading it according to the Spirit in which it was written (lesson 2).

​

Now, in this lesson, we are going to study what are called the senses of Scripture. Anyone who has studied the great works of literature will know that a written text can have different levels of meaning. The attentive reader must consider all levels of meaning in order to understand the author’s full message. The same is true for the Bible. This is how the Church Fathers interpreted the Sacred Scriptures and our Catholic faith is based on this. In theology, we call these different levels of meanings “the senses of Scripture.” The Catechism teaches:

​

According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual. (CCC 115)

​

There are two basic senses of Scripture, although the spiritual sense can be further divided into three categories: the allegorical sense, the moral sense, and the anagogical sense. 

​

​

The Literal Sense

​

The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation. (CCC 116)

 

The first step when interpreting a text is to try to understand what the human authors wanted to say through the words they used, as we saw in a previous lesson. This intended meaning of the words used by the human author is called the literal sense. The literal sense, however, is not the literalistic sense. As many people confuse the two, it is important to understand their differences to be able to distinguish between them.

​

Let us return to the example of the person who says they have have butterflies in their stomach. It should be clear to everyone that they don’t mean this literally. That is, they are not affirming that they really have butterflies in their stomach. Instead, they are using this poetic image to describe their feelings when they see the person they are in love with. This meaning, the description of this feeling, is the literal sense of this expression. It is the meaning intended by the person who used these words. 

​

On the other hand, the literalistic sense is the direct meaning of the words in themselves, regardless of the person’s intention. If we were to take the meaning of these words at face value, then we would conclude that the person really does have butterflies fluttering in their stomach. The following is a similar example taken from the Bible. Paul writes:

​

So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake. (1 Thes 5:6)

​

Did Paul intend to say by this that Christians should never go to sleep? Obviously not! If you look at the context of this passage it is clear that he is speaking about being spiritually, not physically, awake. But some people, mostly fundamentalist Protestants, interpret the Bible in this way. Biblical Fundamentalism refers to a type of Christianity which interprets the Bible literalistically and only accepts as relevant to the faith those truths explicitly found in it. That is why they believe that God created the universe in six 24-hour days and that our planet is only a few thousand years old.

 

The Church, however, teaches that we should pay attention to the literal sense, not the literalistic sense. It is the task of the exegete to distinguish between these two. Because Genesis chapter 1 is written as poetry, we believe that its author wasn’t giving us a scientific explanation about how the universe was created. Instead, he was using this poetic language to teach important truths for our salvation, as we saw in the previous lesson.

​

​

The Spiritual Sense

​

Regarding the spiritual sense, the Catechism says:

​

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. (CCC 117)

​

That is, that what is signified by the words of a text—the literal sense—can have a further signification by prefiguring a future event. In the great works of literature, authors often give their text a deeper meaning. But in the Bible, it is God, as its principal author, who can give the events and realities described by the literal sense of the text their deeper meaning. The crossing of the Red Sea is a good example of this.

​

In this case, the author’s intention was to describe the event which led to Israel’s liberation from slavery in Egypt. Since this was his intended meaning, the description of what happened is the literal sense of the text. But in God’s mind, the crossing of the Red Sea has a deeper meaning. It prefigures and points to a future, spiritual event in the New Testament: our baptism. Just as Israel was saved from slavery in Egypt by crossing the waters of the Red Sea, so too are we saved from spiritual slavery to sin by passing through the waters of baptism. This deeper meaning, of which the human author most certainly had no idea about, is called the spiritual sense.

​

The Catechism, following the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, divides the spiritual sense into three.

 

1. 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.

2. 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.”

3. 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. (CCC 117)

​

There are, therefore, four senses of Scripture: the literal sense and the three spiritual senses. You can learn more about the spiritual senses of Scripture in your personal study. Before you move on to the next lesson you should make sure that you are able explain these concepts in your own words.

​

​

Assignments

​

• Study numbers 115 to 119 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

​

• Read Lawrence Feingold, "What is Biblical Typology?" (or listen to the lecture).

​

• What is the literal sense?

​

• Describe the spiritual sense and give three examples of how it is used in the Bible.