Book 2: Discerning and Discovering The Meaning of Holy Scripture
Part 1: Discerning the Meaning of Scripture
Treatise 2: The Meaning of Scripture in Specific
Section 2
The Mystical Meaning
So far, we have been discussing the literal meaning. Next comes the mystical meaning, which we will appropriately discuss in the same method and style.
By the phrase “mystical meaning”, we do not understand “the mysteries of the Christian faith” in general, which derive from the literal meaning of those foundational passages of scripture where they occur (If this were the case, we would be able to say that any passage that “sets forth an article of faith and a heavenly mystery” has a mystical meaning like in 1 Cor. 2:6-7 and Rom. 16.25.). Rather, we understand in particular a kind of meaning, in some places in Scripture, which is not very closely indicated by the words, but which is hinted at by the Holy Spirit, the author of Scripture, in the things themselves (communicated through the words by their literal meaning). In other words, the mystical meaning stems from an intention of the Holy Spirit that is different to what the words immediately signify. The word “mystery” is used in this way in Eph. 5:32 and Rev. 17:7.
And so we can divide this into three general categories: the allegorical, the typical, and the parabolic. The allegorical applies when the Holy Spirit intends for the history in scripture that actually took place to be related for the sake of some mystery or spiritual teaching. The typical applies when hidden things, be they present or future, are represented under external deeds or prophetic visions, and especially when things that happened in the Old Testament anticipate or foreshadow the things that happened in the New Testament. The parabolic applies when a thing is narrated as something that happened, and is told in order to indicate something else with a spiritual meaning.
In addition, the following should be noted about this mystical meaning in general:
1. Its foundational principle is God’s condescension, which they also call anthropopeia. For because in holy scripture God is dealing with poor mortals, for their sake, therefore, he often condescends and accommodates himself to their ability to understand, setting out under the wrappings of human affairs his own celestial mysteries.
2. The literal meaning comes before the mystical both naturally and logically. The mystical, however, comes before the literal in terms of its worth. For the Holy Spirit points to the mystical as the nobler and holier meaning, more than to the literal.
Thus in 1 Corinthians 9:9, Paul shows that there is an allegorical meaning in the words of Deuteronomy 25:4, “You shall not muzzle the mouth of an ox while it is threshing”. Indeed, he announces without hesitation that in that figure of oxen, God gave a command that was more about the ministers of the Word, that those who preach the word should be fed by their hearers. In verse 9 he writes, “God’s concern is not for the oxen, is it?” (that is, a concern chiefly and truly to publish this extraordinary law for their sake, and not rather to point to anything higher), and in verse 10, “Or does he say this entirely for our sake? Yes, for it was written for us.” (that law, which intimates this by God’s mystical meaning) “The ploughman should plough and the thresher thresh in the hope of becoming a participant, etc.” (where he moves from an allegory of the thing to an allegory of words).
Thus a type of Christ on the lifted-up cross is the setting up of the bronze serpent in the desert, as is said in John 3:14-15. There is no doubt that the typical sense, or what amounts to the same thing, the antitype, namely, Christ’s passion and crucifixion at the hands of God the High Priest, had been intended much more than the actual setting up of the serpent.
When it comes to parables, the matter is similarly certain, that the mystical sense, the matter that is signified by the parable, is intended more than the parabolic story, and that the former comes before the latter.
3. It is generally agreed that, accurately speaking, the typical and the parabolic usually belong in the category of allegorical meaning, like species in a genus. For by virtue of its etymological origin, allegoria is when one thing is said, but under the saying another thing is understood, and the same thing happens in both types and parables.
For this reason in the notes of Junio-Tremellian on the Old Testament edition of the prophets, these terms are frequently interchanged. Allegories, types and parables, however, are classified separately both because the word “allegory”, when used strictly and more precisely, brings to a situation something different to types and parables, and because the general consensus of theologians distinguishes them in this way.
4. I reiterate what I emphasized above, where I discussed the mystical meaning of scripture, that the meaning can only ever be understood which scripture itself, its own interpreter, clearly and expressly points out. About other interpretations, however, be they allegorical, typical or parabolic, which depend upon the judgement of their interpreters, what Jerome says is true, in his second commentary on Matthew, “This meaning may be pious, but a parable, or an uncertain understanding of obscure passages, can never contribute to the authority of doctrines.”
Even Bellarmine, in De Verbo Dei (book 3, ch. 3), writes: “They are allowed to construct some kind of a mystical meaning” (which interpreters apply to scripture even when it lacks any clear explanation), “when they do not contradict the faith or good morals, but it cannot be known whether they are intended by the Holy Spirit.”
This too, which was just repeated and emphasized, will be carefully observed in the following specific examination of the mystical meaning. Indeed, that the teaching on allegories, types and parables may be whole and complete, I have collected into one place everything that must be noted about individual instances, and yet having made the necessary distinction between the mystical meaning that is written in, and those unwritten mystical adaptations.