Exegesis

About: Exegesis is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3017 publications have been published within this topic receiving 25212 citations. The topic is also known as: Bible interpretation.

Medieval Exegesis. Volume 1: The Four Senses of Scripture / Spiritual Exegesis and the Church in the Theology of Henri De Lubac

Abstract: Medieval Exegesis. Volume 1: The Four Senses of Scripture. By Henri de Lubac. Translated by Mark Sebanc. Foreword by Robert L. Wilken. Ressourcement: Retrieval and Renewal in Catholic Thought. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans/Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1998. xxiv + 466 pp. $45.00 (paper). Spiritual Exegesis and the Church in the Theology of Henri de Lubac. By Susan K. Wood. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans/Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1998. ix + 182 pp. $20.00 (paper). The new translation of the first volume of Henri de Lubac's classic Exegese Medievale is cause for celebration, not only for those working in the emerging field of the history of exegesis, but far beyond in Scripture studies and theology. Though many of his shorter works and essays are available in translation, apart from excerpts this work of massive historical erudition and theological depth-from the one whom Hans Urs von Balthasar called "the master--has been unavailable to English-only readers. In the forty years since its original French publication, it has influenced not only scholarship but also official Church teaching from Dei Verbum to The Interpretation Of the Bible in the Church; it A411 no doubt be a primary source for the Pontifical Biblical Commission's current work of considering the unity of the Old and New Testaments. This volume in the Eerdmans Ressourcement series is still the definitive work on the subject. This first volume of Medieval Exegesis treating the historical career of the four senses of Scripture-traditionally termed the literal, allegorical, tropological, and anagogic-actually focuses more on its patristic roots than its medieval flowering. Along the way de Lubac contrasts it with a tripartite schema (roots of both lay in Origen) and compares their theological value, arguing forthe term "spiritual" over -allegorical" exegesis. To an extended study of Origen and the (mis)fortunes of his legacy, he adds perceptive brief studies of Augustine, Gregory the Great, John Cassian and others. In reading de Lubac's amazing orchestration of writers across the patristic and medieval periods it gradually dawns that, historically, exploring the four senses of Scripture passes one along the very spine of Christian thought and spirituality in its first twelve centuries, when the discipline of theology was defined by the exposition of Scripture. But the theological soul of the volume is the magnificent fifth chapter, "The Unity of the Two Testaments," which uncovers the tap root of early Christian exegesis in the new situation wrought by the "Fact" of Christ, whose "Action" turns the letter of Israel's Scriptures toward the spirit, and converts them to the Christian Old Testament. The full implications of this perspective remain to be explored in theology and Scripture scholarship. The work of translator Mark Sebanc is accurate, crisp and smooth. De Lubac's copious Latin quotes are helpfully translated throughout, while the Latin is retained for reference in endnotes. (These encyclopedic notes, making up more than 40% of the book's bulk, offer a condensed education in the patristic and medieval sources. …

Glossa ordinaria and Glossa Hebraica: Midrash in Rashi and the Gloss

Abstract: An assiduous interest in the plain sense of Scripture and shared interpretations of particular biblical passages can be observed in certain twelfth-century Jewish and Christian commentaries composed in northern France. While Hugh of Saint Victor and Rashbam engaged in independent endeavors to shed light on the sensus literalis and the peshat of Scripture, Andrew of Saint Victor attributed his knowledge of particular rabbinic interpretations to encounters with contemporary Jews. Yet points of convergence in Jewish and Christian exegesis can be observed even before the work of the Victorines and Rashi's disciples. The purpose of this study is to examine the midrashic interpretations transmitted in northern France around the beginning of the twelfth century in both the Glossa Ordinaria and Rashi's biblical commentaries. Interpretations are found in both corpora on occasions when their late-antique sources, such as Midrash Genesis Rabba and Jerome's Hebrew Questions on Genesis, themselves transmit similar insights. By analyzing an exposition found in both Rashi and the Gloss, the narrative of Abraham in the fiery furnace, this study seeks to clarify the nature and extent of this relationship. It thereby enables a more detailed understanding of the ways that midrash reached twelfth-century Jews and Christians and of how Rashi and the Gloss ensured the wide dissemination of these interpretations.

Psalms and Spirituality in the 21st Century

Abstract: The Psalms invite various levels of interpretation. Both expressive and formative, they not only mirror reality but also tutor persons in the spiritual life.