What are the 'senses' of scripture?

Several traditions distinguish multiple levels of meaning in a text. Medieval Christian exegesis, for example, spoke of the literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical senses, and comparable multilayered approaches exist in Jewish, Islamic, and other interpretive traditions, allowing a single passage to be read on several levels.

Hermeneutics and Scriptural Interpretation

Hermeneutics is the theory and practice of interpretation; in religious studies it examines how traditions read and derive meaning from their sacred texts.

Definition

Hermeneutics is the discipline concerned with the principles and methods of interpretation; scriptural interpretation (exegesis) is the application of such principles to the reading of sacred texts within and across traditions.

Scope

This topic covers methods and traditions of interpreting sacred texts: the classical senses of scripture (literal, allegorical, and others), traditional exegetical schools across religions (rabbinic midrash, Christian patristic and medieval exegesis, Qur'anic tafsir, Hindu and Buddhist commentarial traditions), and philosophical hermeneutics (Gadamer, Ricoeur). It surveys how interpretation negotiates the gap between ancient texts and present communities, treating these practices comparatively.

Core questions

By what methods and principles do traditions interpret their sacred texts?
How are literal, allegorical, and other levels of meaning related?
How does the interpreter's own situation shape understanding?
How do interpretive authorities and communities govern legitimate readings?

Key theories

Fusion of horizons: Gadamer argued that understanding a text is a historically situated event in which the interpreter's horizon of assumptions meets that of the text, producing a 'fusion of horizons' rather than a recovery of a single fixed meaning.
Surplus of meaning: Ricoeur held that written texts gain autonomy from their authors and original context, yielding a 'surplus of meaning' that supports multiple legitimate interpretations and makes interpretation an ongoing task.
Interpretation as scriptural life: Wilfred Cantwell Smith emphasized that scripture lives through continual interpretation by communities, so the history of a text's reading is integral to its identity as scripture.

History

Traditions of scriptural interpretation are ancient, from rabbinic midrash and patristic allegory to Qur'anic tafsir and Buddhist commentary. Modern hermeneutics developed from Schleiermacher and Dilthey through the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer's Truth and Method (1960) and Ricoeur's interpretation theory, which reshaped how scholars understand the act of reading sacred texts.

Debates

Original meaning versus ongoing interpretation: Interpreters disagree over whether the goal is to recover a text's original or authorial meaning or whether meaning is generated anew in each act of reading, as philosophical hermeneutics suggests.

Key figures

Hans-Georg Gadamer
Paul Ricoeur
Wilfred Cantwell Smith

Seminal works

gadamer1960
ricoeur1976

Frequently asked questions

What are the 'senses' of scripture?: Several traditions distinguish multiple levels of meaning in a text. Medieval Christian exegesis, for example, spoke of the literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical senses, and comparable multilayered approaches exist in Jewish, Islamic, and other interpretive traditions, allowing a single passage to be read on several levels.