The Four Senses of Scripture
The doctrine that Scripture expresses at least four meanings in a single phrase — literal/historical, allegorical, tropological (moral), and anagogical — making it far more difficult than profane writings. Origen maps the four senses to four cosmic elements: history to earth, tropological to water, allegorical to air, anagogical to fire.
Preface and Praise of Sacred Scripture
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Chapter III: On the Difficulty of Sacred Scripture
— Scripture surpasses all other writings in having not only significance of words but also of things signified; the literal, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical senses.
"while other writings express only one meaning in a single phrase, this one expresses at least four meanings. For it has significance not only of words but also of the things signified by them; whence it follows that the literal sense conveys the understanding of the historical event... the allegorical sense, portends something prophetic about Christ the Lord; in the tropological sense, recommends something suited to the formation of morals; and rising still higher in a third way, through anagogy proposes the heavenly Mysteries"
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Chapter II: On the Object and Breadth of Sacred Scripture
— Origen maps the four senses to four cosmic elements: history to earth, tropological to water, allegorical to air, anagogical to fire.
"just as you fit the historical sense to earth and the tropological to water, so rightly you may fit the allegorical to air, and the anagogical to fire and the ether"
Chapter I (The Six Days of Creation)
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Verse 3: And God said: Let there be light
— Tropological reading of light: the right intention, faith, knowledge, law and Gospel that illuminate the mind.
"Tropologically, the Apostle says in 2 Corinthians 4:6: "God, who said that light should shine out of darkness, has Himself shone in our hearts,"
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Verse 3: And God said: Let there be light
— Symbolic/allegorical: "let there be light" means "let there be an Angel" (Augustine); or the eternal generation of the Word. But these are symbolic, not literal.
"Symbolically, "let there be light" means "let there be an Angel," says St. Augustine. But this cannot be the literal sense, because the Angels were created before light, together with heaven and earth."
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Verse 3: And God said: Let there be light
— Allegorical: Christ incarnate is the light of the world.
"Allegorically, Christ incarnate is the light of the world"
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Verse 3: And God said: Let there be light
— Anagogical: light signifies the light of glory and beatific vision.
"Anagogically, light signifies the light of glory and the brightness of the beatific vision"
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He Created
— Tropology on the threefold contemplation of creatures: what they are of themselves (nothing), from the Creator (good), and for punishment/reward.
"Tropologically, creatures are to be contemplated in three ways. First, by considering what they are of themselves, namely nothing, because they were made from nothing"
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Verse 2: And the earth was without form and void
— Allegorically, the Holy Spirit brooding over the waters of baptism.
"Allegorically, the Holy Spirit is here signified as brooding, as it were, over the waters of baptism"
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Verse 24: Let the Earth Bring Forth the Living Creature
— The six days tropologically signify the work of man's justification.
"Tropologically, the work of creation in six days signifies the work of man's justification."