From the Catechism (109) of the Catholic Church: “In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their word.”
Keep the above quote in mind as we delve into the four senses of Scripture – starting with the literal sense. Also keep in mind that I am using both the Catechism and Mark Shea’s book, Making Senses Out of Scripture (“MSOOS” from here are on out), to explain the four senses of Scripture. Which means you could just go right to the references and skip this altogether. However, my aim here is provide more of the “cliff notes” version of each sense, so that you at least have some key bullet points as a primer.
For the first sense – literal –let’s start with a basic definition: MSSOOS explains that “the literal sense of Scripture is that meaning which was intended by the human author and which his words convey *meant what he said and said what he meant*”.
We first develop this understanding when we, well, first learn how to read. For example: “John owns a dairy farm in Iowa; he currently has 500 cows.” We do not have to analyze that sentence much; it stays to the point, and the literal meaning is just that: A person named John owns a dairy farm, and he has 500 cows.
The same goes with many stories in the Bible: Even if a story has an allegorical meaning as well, many of the books within the Bible also include historical and biographical accounts, according to the authors. That does not mean we treat the entire Bible as one, epic history book or mega biography per say – it just means that the authors are giving an account, while also often giving clues to its greater meaning (which we will cover in the other senses).
One example of first establishing the literal sense is in the story of David and Goliath, which is a favorite among many Christian scholars, yet is also a core component of the many archetypal themes throughout the Bible.
As written in 1 Samuel, Chapter 17:38-40: “Then Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a helmet of bronze on his head, and clothed him with a coat of mail. And David belted on his sword over his armor, and he tried in vain to go, for he was not used to them. Then David said to Saul, ‘I cannot go with these, for I am not used to them.’ And David put them off. Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in his shepherd’s bag or wallet; his sling was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine.”
Reading that literally, Saul is helping prepare David for his face-off with Goliath. David is not used to Saul’s armor, so he rejects it and instead goes with the weapons he is familiar with handling. That is the crux of this passage. What’s more, not every passage in Scripture necessitates an esoteric or grand meaning. To share a story effectively, or as the Divinely inspired authors intended, is to use as many relevant facets as possible, including the literal ones.
However, that does not that mean it is a snap to get the literal meaning of every account in the Bible. As explained in MSOOS, one focal goal of studying Scripture should be to avoid misinterpretations, while also not expecting the Bible to be easy to read throughout. The Bible is not meant to be a lesson in cryptography – however, because it contains 73 books and a wide array of genres, we cannot expect the Bible to be seamless, as if it were just one author who wrote all 73 books. We also must learn how to understand the author’s angle to the literal meaning.
And as MSOOS also points out from Vatican II, we are encouraged to read Scripture as follows:
*Be especially attentive “to the content and unity of the whole Scripture”.
*Read the Scripture within the “living tradition of the whole Church”.
*Be attentive to the analogy of faith.
A good starting point is to determine
Here are some pointers to help guide you through the above method:
*The genre can help determine *how* to read a particular Scripture. If a book in the Bible contains a lot of metaphor, then the literal sense can have other angles. For instance, we know the passage, “The Lord is my Shepherd…” does not mean we are literally sheep, and God is literally a shepherd running around with a staff and herding us into the farm.
*Know that when you get stumped about a particular passage, you are probably not alone. What is most important Is being resourceful. Pay close attention to the references and footnotes included in your Bible: The Catholic Church has spent centuries ensuring that Scripture is as comprehensive as possible. And now thanks to our ultra-technologically driven world, we can get clarification in a matter of seconds.
*Keep in mind that the Bible is chalk full of imagery, analogies, some poetry, and “see the forest through the trees” / big picture points. Which circles back to being resourceful. Always be resourceful. Draw on the Catechism wherever possible; visit Catholic Answers or related sites that may already have specific answers to your questions; and know that it is A-OK to ask questions. Even the most knowledgeable scholars still ask questions about Scripture.
In other words, this is not an intelligence contest. Rather, it is our pursuit to connect with God, allow the Bible to resonate with us – as it very much speaks to the human condition – and grow in our relationship with Him and all the gifts and Sacraments He has given us.