Biblical Interpretation in the Middle Ages

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Biblical Interpretation in the Middle Ages and the Reformation By Dr. Kenneth Hagen [Bethany Lutheran College, S. C. Ylvisaker Fine Arts Center, Mankato, Minnesota, October 26 and 27, 2000] Introduction We are going to take a ride on our chariot and see where it (she) takes us. The most common assertion about biblical interpretation in the Middle Ages and the Reformation is that medieval theologians employed the fourfold method of interpreting Scripture known as the quadriga and the reformers rejected it( Quadriga(e) is a contraction from quadrijugae. Quadrijgugus is formed from quattuor (4) and jugum. Jugum is a yoke for oxen and a collar for horses. Hence, four-yoked horses making a four-horse team.): the four senses were history, allegory, tropology, and anagogy. “The medieval quadriga” is the common coinage.( See “Quadriga the fourfold pattern of medieval exegesis” in Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms, Drawn Principally from Protestant Scholastic Theology, Richard A. Muller (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998) 254.) But if you look in your classical Latin dictionary you will find that quadriga means “A chariot with its team of four horses running abreast,” or “a team of four chariot horses,” “four abreast,” “a four-horse team,” “four-horse chariot,” or just “chariot.” We might say a four-horse rig. Medieval and ecclesiastical Latin dictionaries continue defining quadriga as “chariot” or “wagon.” How do we go then from a four-horse rig to the four senses of Scripture? I had a colleague who always bugged me about where this quadriga came from. “Well, it’s medieval and comes from John Cassian,” I would reply; all histories of hermeneutics will tell you that. All medievals used a threefold or fourfold scheme to designate the multiple senses of Scripture. The fourfold scheme is the quadriga. Right? Well, it not only is not so easy; it may not be

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