Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/780

744 HERMENEU.T-ICS and absolute trutli which could be entered only by the initiated. The mysteries hidden in its letters required for their discovery processes of exchange, more or less intricate, between literal and numerical values. By the combinations and permutations of letters, the interchange of words of equal numerical value, and similar artifices, new meanings were extracted where the proper sense seemed poor, and acceptable meanings found where offence was felt. Where the text, e.g., states (Numbers xii. 1) that Moses married an Ethiopian woman, the veiled sense was shown to be that he married a woman of beautiful countenance, and the offence against the law was thus removed. For the letters of rPK 13 added together make the sum 736; the letters in the expression n$O np^ " beautiful of countenance," yield the same sum ; and the enlightened are able to read the latter idea in the former appellative. Distinct titles came to be applied to different branches of the art. The process of reaching hidden truths by the numerical equiva lence of letters (as when from the circumstance that x occurs six tini33 in the first and last verses of the Old Testament it is inferred that the world is to last 6000 years) was styled "Gematria." The process of forming new words out of the several letters of some solemn term, or one new word by combining the first letters of several words (as when the answer ""^P, "circumcision," is discovered in the question in Deub. xxx. 12, "Who shall go up for us to heaven 1 ?" by bringing together the letters with which the several words in the query commence), was called "Notarikon." The use of the anagram or permutation (as when by trans position of ^?^? J ? into ?$^p it is ascertained that " mine angel" of Exod. xxiii. 23 was the angel Michael) was known as " Temurah." The hermeneutical practice of the Kabbalists increased in subtlety as the theosophic system itself grew. Rules were elaborated for exchanging the powers of letters, reading them in . a variety of orders, and otherwise conjuring with the literal sense. The course which Biblical hermeneutics has run outside the purely Jewish pale has been not less changeful or remarkable. The New Testament writings show at large how the apostles and first followers of Christ viewed, inter preted, and quoted the Old Testament. They give little in the shape of formal hermeneutical principles, but allow much to be inferred from usage and example. Conclusions as to authoritative canons of interpretation, so far as these are drawn from New Testament employments of Old Testa ment Scripture, are weighted with the question whether or how far currency is followed. It is affirmed on the one hand that Paul, e.g., in his hermeneutics, was a pure rabbinbt, while on the other the equally extreme position is held that his training is in no way reflected in his use of the Hebrew Scriptures. The citation of the Old Testament in the New, which forms a question by itself and one of great intricacy, takes a variety of modes. Passages are reproduced as direct prophecies of the Messiah and His kingdom (Acts ii. 34, Heb. i. 13), as mediate references to the same through partial realizations of their idea (Heb. ii. 6-9, 12, 13), as illustrations or applications of principles common to both economies (Rom. x. 6-8, 1 Tim. v. 18), as apt expressions, without the character of explicit quota tion, in which New Testament statements naturally embody themselves (1 Pet. i. 24). The proper and immediate sense is adhered to. The application of typology and symbolism (Heb. viii. 5, ix. 9) is at the same time exem plified, and the existence of secondary or higher meanings in allegorical or other forms (Gal. iv. 24, Eph. v. 32) is to a certain extent recognized. The typical relation of the Old Testament to the New is everywhere presented. It is exhibited both in the histories and in the insti tutions, and is developed alike in ethical, didactic, and prophetic significance (1 Cor. x. 6, 11, Rom. vi. 17, v. 14). The Hebrew revelation is interpreted as a divine preparation for the Christian and as a continuous prophecy bearing onwards towards Christ (Acts. ii. 25). Its otticial personages and its saints, its ordinances and its events, are real though imperfect exhibitions of Messiah and the Messianic kingdom. Even its minor occurrences and inci dental utterances are anticipations or expressions of the purposes of Jehovah realized in the Christian dispensation (Matt. ii. 15, Heb. iv. 7, Eph. iv. 8-12). How far Biblical hermeneutics within the Christian Church has gathered its principles from Scripture itself, and what use it has made of the New Testament praxis will appear from its history. It will be enough here to deal with the capital ideas to which the various conflicting methods seem capable of being reduced. We indicate which of these prevailed on the whole iu important schools and periods, without attempting a chronological statement or detailing the exact relations of O O each great name to this subject. It is not to be supposed, however, that any single mode was exclusively dominant at any one time, or that the interpreters whose names are connected with some particular procedure held by that only. On the contrary, in the long-continued absence of a definite settlement of principles the best writers swayed remarkably from method to method, and men who are largely identified with vicious modes exhibit at the same time admirable examples of the opposite. It may be said that three great hermeneutical tendencies have been followed. These may be conveniently designated the subjective, the dependent, the historical. 1. The first, which we have distinguished as the Subjective tendency, embraces all those widely diverse schemes which agree in passing beyond the objective intention of the words and seeking veiled or underlying meanings. To this belong the different forms of the allegorical method, by which is meant the imposition of a sense not designed by the writer. It is the adding of a meaning foreign to the intention, rather than the substitution of an improper for the proper sense. The first Christian interpreters were under special temptations in this direction. The idea of the need of ex ceptional principles of exposition in order to reach the deep significance of divine communications had a great hold of the ancient mind, Greek, Roman, Oriental, and Hebrew. The spell of this idea and the powerful influence of the Rabbinical tradition, acting on the Christian conviction that the Bible is a divine message, readily induced the notion that the ordinary laws of interpretation are inade quate, and that Scripture is honoured when the natural or "lower" sense is made the stepping-stone to a "higher" sense for which special processes are required. Early Christian literature, although its mysticism may sometimes be otherwise explained, adheres decidedly to this idea. The apostolic fathers and the Apologists, while not entire strangers to sound spiritual interpretation, are addicted to the allegorical. The Epistle of Barnabas confirms faith and perfects yvwo-ts by spiritualizing the details of such narratives as that of the two goats in Leviticus xvi. The Shepherd of Hernias contains various examples. Clement of Rome gives the figurative application of the scarlet line suspended from Rahab s window, which is adopted by so many of the fathers. In this connexion great interest belongs to Justin Martyr, who exhibits acquaintance with several of the distinct senses which were subsequently formulated. Embracing Christianity as the only certain philosophy, and carrying much of his old Platonism with him into his new faith, he dealt with the Scriptures very much as he dealt with the classics. The histories of the Old Testament (he seldom expounds the New) were a drapery covering broad spiritual truths. As the piling of Pelion and Ossa was a Greek version of the building of the tower of

Babel, so Jacob s marriage with Leah and Rachel denoted