BIBLE,
INTERPRETATION BY CHURCH FATHERS

[In the Middle Ages the traditional doctrine of the Church Fathers had been set out in the theory of the four meanings]: Littera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria, Moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia. Give the literal meaning, believe the allegorical meaning, agree with the moral meaning, receive the analogical meaning. For the “moral meaning” the term used nowadays would be hermeneutics, or the meaning of the text as applied to us, in contrast to exegesis, which is concerned with the meaning of the text at the time of writing.

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