March 1, 2010 – Catechism 109-119

Exegesis – critical explanation or interpretation of a text or portion of a text.

I will try to start using these different types of interpretation throughout my reflections. I think we already do it, we just don’t label it or know what it is called. Here are what I understand the 4 ways to be.

Literal – What the author meant to be understood. This cannot not be known without knowing the author’s background, context, and intended audience. There can be a lot, and has been, of misinterpretations because people have not read things literally or as the author intended. We cannot read the Bible and understand it if we act or interpret it as if it were written in our day in age. It was written at its earliest 1900 years ago and at its oldest possibly 3500 years. We have new ideas, new words, new definitions for the same words. We must be careful not to read our own thoughts and idea into the Bible our own ideas. I agree it is tough to do.

Allegorical – How events and situations point to or reveal things about Christ. Seeing things in a way that helps us better understand the Mystery of Christ.

Moral – Using the events of the Bible to better teach us how to live our lives. B – Basic I – Instructions B – Before L – Leaving E – Earth is a straight forward way of looking at this way of Interpretation.

Anagogical – Using the Bible to help us understand our eternal future and what is to come. We are told we cannot comprehend what God has in store for us, but we are able to get some ideas when we look at the Bible and interpret it using this sense.