In Hermeneutics judaïque and Christian (school Scholastic), the doctrines of the four directions of the Writing indicate the four direction according to which one can interpret the Écritures:

• Peshat , Remez , Drash , Sod (in the judaïque tradition);
• literal, Allegorical, tropological, and Anagogic (in the Christian tradition).

History

Origin: Judaism

See also: Midrash

The doctrines of the four directions are practiced in the tradition Judaïque for the study of the Torah:

• Pshat : literal;
• Remez : allusive (literally: allusion);
• Drash : allegorical (literally: to dig, probe, seek);
• Sod (cabal) : mystic (literally: secrecy).

The acronym forms prds (By). Midrash concentrates on the remez and the drash .

Rashi employed the four directions in its comments. It often employed the Pshat , but preferred sometimes the Drash . Rashi evokes also the Sod Ha' ibour , in the literal sense the “secrecy of the calendar” (see Hebraic Calendrier).

The mystical Direction or secrecy ( sod ) been the subject more particularly of the kabbalistic studies.

The Christian Kabbale was repressed with the Moyen-âge because she was regarded as a esoteric source of Occultisme. The father Marine Mersenne, friend very close to Descartes, opposed very firmly the 17th century it. The not-Jewish study of the Talmud is still nowadays discussed.

The question of knowing if the Herméneutique of the four directions of the Writing is a transmission of the Judaism to Christianity or a posterior influence of Christianity on the Judaism is discussed. Gershom Scholem, one of the largest specialists on the matter, leans for a Christian influence.

Transmission with Christianity

According to Henri de Lubac, Origène (185 - 254), formed with the theological school of Alexandria, was the first to formulate the doctrines of the four directions of the Writing in the Christian tradition. These directions of the Writing were used for interprêter the Writing at the time of the prayer, as Origène in indicated it 238 in a letter in Greek to his Gregoire disciple the miracle-worker who prepared to leave on mission evangelization. It exhorts it to be devoted to the study of the Writings by the Lectio divina:

“Is devoted to the reading of the divine Writings. Applies to that with perseverance… By thus devoting you to the lectio divina seeks with uprightness and a confidence inébranlable as a God the direction of the divine Writings, which is contained there in abundance. ”

Origène generally uses three directions in its comments of Writing: history, mystic and anagogic, but it uses the Allégorie abundantly.

Jean Cassien, quoted by K. Froehkich, systematized the four directions at the 5th century. It indicates, in its XIVe Conférence (§ 8):

“the four figures will be joined together, so that same Jerusalem will be able to cover four different meanings: with the historical direction, it will be the city of the Hebrews; with the allegorical direction, the Church of Christ; with the anagogic direction, the celestial city, “which are our mother with all”; with the tropological direction, the human heart”.

The use of the theory of the four directions was taken again by Jerome, Augustin, Bède Worthy the, Scot Erigène, Hugues of Saint-Victor and Richard of Saint-Victor, Alain of Lille, Bonaventure, Thomas d' Aquin. Bernard de Clairvaux used them in its Sermons on the Canticle .

The four directions were formulated with the Moyen-âge in a famous Latin Distique: “subparagraph gesta docet, quid credas allegoria, moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia”.

It particularly developed at the time of the Renaissance of XIIe century, with the introduction of the philosophy of Aristote in Occident, the birth of the Théologie scholastic (Abélard and Hugues of Saint-Victor), and the birth of the Université S. It is at the 12th century that the doctrines of the four directions of the Writing, who recommends a plural interpretation text of the Bible, reached its apogee.

Lectio divina and interpretation according to the four directions

See also: Lectio divina

The four directions correspond to the traditional method of reading of the Holy Scriptures, at the time of the Lectio divina (see article of Zenith on the reflections of Enzo Bianchi, founder of the monastery of Tube in Italy, Italian bond).

Literal direction

This first direction is sometimes called also historical direction.

Description

The literal direction is that which is resulting from the linguistic comprehension of the statement. This direction is discovered by the interpretation which follows the rules of the right interpretation.

This direction relates to the past.

Subdivisions

Thomas d' Aquin distinguishes inside the literal direction:

• a parabolic direction (interpretation starting from a parabola),
• a direction etiologic (when a statement was known as according to a particular condition of stating)
• and an analogical direction (comparison of various similar passages in order to corroborate their suggestions).

Spiritual directions

The three other directions are gathered under the expression spiritual directions .

Allegorical direction

The allegorical direction is the interpretation of a passage of the Old Testament (First Will) according to the Incarnation of Christ. Or if one prefers, it is the explanation of the events of the Old Testament by the events of the life of Christ described in the New Testament.

The allegorical direction makes the relation between the Passé and the present.

Example: cure of a Leprous ()

In the developed countries, the cure of leprous cannot be interprêtée according to the literal direction, since this disease almost disappeared from these countries. On the other hand, it is possible to make an interpretation of it according to the allegorical direction:

• in the First Will, the Lépreux were kept away of the company (). It is thus possible to make the relation between the Prime Minister and the Nouveau will.
• the leprous one symbolizes the social Exclusion today.

See various made interpretations of this passage, and in particular the interpretation of Bède Worthy the, according to which, in the allegorical direction, this leprous represents the mankind languid and weakened in consequence of its Péché S; and very covered of leprosy; “because all sinned and need the grace of God” (Rm 3): Clerus.org site.

Tropological direction

This direction is sometimes called also direction Moral.

The tropological direction seeks in the text of the figures, of the defects or virtues, passions or the stages that the human Esprit must traverse in its rise towards God.

This direction relates to the present.

Anagogic direction

See also: Anagogic

The anagogic direction is obtained by the interpretation of the Gospels, in order to give an idea of last realities which will become visible at the end of times.

This direction relates to the Avenir.

In art and the literature

See also: medieval Allegory

The directions of the Writing were included rather quickly in the Littérature, in the form of what one calls the allegorical writing.

In its Dialogus super auctores , Conrad de Hirsau also speaks about an interpretation quadruple, valid for the text crowned initially, but applicable to the profane literature.

The allegorical writing was implemented for the first time with a literary aim by a contemporary of Saint Augustin, Prudence (348 - 410), in its Psychomachie (Combat of the heart).

Then, during all the the Middle Ages, the literature sought to adapt to the techniques Herméneutique S.

The allegorical literature was very developed at the 13th century, in old or Moyen French.

Some of the directions can also apply to the interpretation of the works of art, particularly the allegorical direction in medieval art and with the Rebirth (see Allégorie).

Topicality

These doctrines preserve a certain topicality, when, for example, it is a question of avoiding, in the debates on the Théories of the evolution, the ecological Crise, or the Création of the world according to the Genèse, an exclusively literal interpretation of the Holy Scriptures.

Several Theologist S or Herméneute S contemporaries maintained it: Henri de Lubac, Jean-Paul Michaud.

The 55e congress of the ACEBAC in 1998 was held on the topic of the four directions.

At the time of the modernistic Crisis the Pope S Leon XIII and Pie XII published Encyclique S on the biblical studies. Leon XIII, in Providentissimus deus (1893), warns against an exclusively literal interpretation:

“It is important, indeed, to notice on this subject that to the other causes of difficulties which arise in the explanation of any old authors, some are added some which are special with the interpretation of the Holy Books. As they are the work of the Holy Ghost, the words hide there many truths which exceed of much the force and the penetration of the human reason, namely the divine mysteries and what is attached to it. The direction is sometimes wider and more buckled than would not appear to indicate it and the letter and the rules of the hermeneutics; moreover, the literal direction hides itself of other directions which are used either to clarify the dogmas, or to give rules for the life.

As, one could not deny as the Holy Books are wrapped of a certain religious darkness, so that no one should not about it approach the study without guide ()”