{"id":101050,"date":"2017-08-28T15:36:11","date_gmt":"2017-08-28T22:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=101050"},"modified":"2017-08-28T15:36:11","modified_gmt":"2017-08-28T22:36:11","slug":"isaiah-22-allegorical-reading-scripture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2017\/08\/isaiah-22-allegorical-reading-scripture.html","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah 22 and the Allegorical Reading of Scripture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Catechism tells us that Scripture has different layers of meaning:<\/p>\n

115<\/b>According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two\u00a0senses\u00a0<\/i>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.<\/span><\/p>\n

116<\/a><\/b>The\u00a0literal sense<\/i>\u00a0is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: \u201cAll other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

117<\/a><\/b>The\u00a0spiritual sense<\/i>. Thanks to the unity of God\u2019s plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

1. The\u00a0allegorical sense<\/i>. 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\u2019s victory and also of Christian Baptism.<\/p>\n

2. The\u00a0moral sense<\/i>. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As St. Paul says, they were written \u201cfor our instruction\u201d.<\/p>\n

3. The\u00a0anagogical sense<\/i>\u00a0(Greek:\u00a0anagoge<\/i>, \u201cleading\u201d). 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.<\/p>\n

118<\/b>A medieval couplet summarizes the significance of the four senses:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
The Letter speaks of deeds; Allegory to faith;
\nThe Moral how to act; Anagogy our destiny.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

119<\/a><\/b>\u00a0\u201cIt is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgment. For, of course, all that has been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
But I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me.<\/span><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Just how ancient is that tradition? \u00a0We\u2019re talking ancient as Jesus (at least). \u00a0So Jesus and the apostles are constantly looking at the Old Testament and seeing secondary meanings there. \u00a0The manna is a sign pointing to Jesus, the Bread of Life (John 6), according to Jesus. \u00a0Likewise, Jesus sees the Bronze serpent as a sign pointing to his crucifixion (John 3:14). \u00a0The Tabernacle is a sign pointing to, well, lots of things according the whole book of Hebrews, which is all about interpreting those signs. \u00a0Paul say the passage through the Red Sea is a sign of baptism. \u00a0Indeed, whenever the New Testament looks at the Old, it is never interested in the literal sense of the \u00a0Old: \u00a0it always looking for some symbolic meaning.<\/p>\n

The apostles do that for a simple reason: they were told to by the Risen Christ:<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are my words which I spoke to you, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the psalms must be fulfilled.\u201d Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, \u201cThus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.\u201d (Lk 24:44\u201349).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So that\u2019s what they did. \u00a0When they read the Law and the Prophets they expected to find Jesus and his gospel hidden there, and they did.<\/p>\n

The reason they expected to find him there was because his Spirit had inspired Moses and the prophet and he had taught them in a bunch of ways already some of the ways to see him there. \u00a0The water from the Rock was a foreshadow of the Spirit poured out in the waters of baptism from Christ\u2019s pierced side. \u00a0The Temple was the sign of the body of him who said \u201cDestroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.\u201d \u00a0The Blessed Virgin was overshadowed by the same Cloud of Glory that overshadowed the Ark of the Covenant.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s no big surprise that Jesus\u2019 talk would be chock-full of allusion to biblical imagery from the Old Testament and he would expect his disciples to connect the dots. \u00a0Take Isaiah 22:<\/p>\n

Thus says the LORD to Shebna, master of the palace:
\n\u201cI will thrust you from your office
\nand pull you down from your station.
\nOn that day I will summon my servant
\nEliakim, son of Hilkiah;
\nI will clothe him with your robe,
\nand gird him with your sash,
\nand give over to him your authority.
\nHe shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
\nand to the house of Judah.
\nI will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim\u2019s shoulder;
\nwhen he opens, no one shall shut
\nwhen he shuts, no one shall open.
\nI will fix him like a peg in a sure spot,
\nto be a place of honor for his family.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the Davidic kingdom, the master of the palace was a sort of prime minister or major domo figure, overseeing the House of David. Shebna was doing a crummy job, so God replaced him with Eliakim and gave him (SIGNIFICANT BIBLICAL IMAGE ALERT!) the \u201ckey of the house of David\u201d.<\/p>\n

If that image of \u201cthe keys of the kingdom\u201d sounds vaguely familiar to you, that\u2019s because you are already making use of the Senses of Scripture the Catechism talks about and are thinking biblically.<\/p>\n

Because yes, in Matthew 16, Jesus, the New Davidic King (they don\u2019t call him \u201cSon of David\u201d for nothing) alludes clearly to this image when he says:<\/p>\n

\u201cBlessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
\nFor flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
\nAnd so I say to you, you are Peter,
\nand upon this rock I will build my church,
\nand the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
\nI will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
\nWhatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
\nand whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s just ever so much verbal play at work here. \u00a0First, of course, is the changing of Simon\u2019s name to Peter. \u00a0What you are looking at there is a translation. \u201cPeter\u201d is the Greek form of the name Jesus gave him in Aramaic: Kefa (you can see a sort of transliterated form of it in Paul and in John\u2019s gospel: \u201cCephas\u201d. \u00a0\u201cPeter\u201d is the Greek for \u201cRock\u201d. \u00a0\u201cCephas\u201d is just how you pronounce \u201cKefa\u201d if you are a Greek speaker. \u00a0To get the hang of it, imagine the difference between transliterating my name to \u201cMarcos\u201d in Spanish or translating it to \u201cHijo de Marte\u201d and you get the picture. \u201cCephas\u201d is the transliteration of \u201cKefa\u201d and \u201cPeter\u201d is the translation.<\/p>\n

Now, here\u2019s the thing: combined with the allusion to Isaiah 22, the name change amounts to a kind of pun and is packed with significance. \u00a0Because the New Son of David establishing a new kingdom\u00a0and he is taking the keys away from the bad servant (Caiaphas, the High Priest) and giving them to Kefa, the New High Priest who will exercise his authority to bind and loose.<\/p>\n

Yes, the other apostles will exercise the power to bind and loose too. \u00a0but clearly Peter is being given some kind of primatial authority here as well.<\/p>\n

Anyway, that\u2019s why those readings are brought together in the gospel readings. \u00a0Though you might like to know.<\/p>\n

For more on the senses of Scripture, see Making Senses Out of Scripture<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Catechism tells us that Scripture has different layers of meaning: 115According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two\u00a0senses\u00a0of 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[416,306],"class_list":["post-101050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-making-senses-out-of-scripture","tag-scripture"],"yoast_head":"\nIsaiah 22 and the Allegorical Reading of Scripture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Catechism tells us that Scripture has different layers of meaning: 115According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two\u00a0senses\u00a0of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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