Thomas on the
Literalness of Christ and the Interpretation of Scripture
Aquinas Day Lecture
Thomas Aquinas
College
28 January 2019
(Some
months ago when asked to send the projected title for this lecture, I knew what
I wanted to talk about, but I hadn’t even sketched it out yet. So I titled it “Prophets
and Kings Longed to See what you See”: St. Thomas on the Prophetic Character of
the Scriptural Revelation. I had in mind putting together some elements of
St Thomas’ teaching I have been thinking about for a while. They were disparate
elements in my mind at that time, and the writing has sought to put them in
closer relation. Once I finished writing it (this last Saturday) I realized the
projected title, while adequate, did not quite name with succinctness what has
emerged. This happens to me a lot when preparing a talk. So I revised the title
so as to better name what I offer you: Thomas on the Literalness of Christ
and the Interpretation of Scripture. It is true what Paschal says: The
last thing one settles in writing a work is what one should put in first.[i])
I
would like to dedicate this time together to exploring some aspects of Saint
Thomas’ work as a commentator on Scripture. This is not a topic often broached
in courses on Saint Thomas’s thought. And if it is discussed it is usually in a
passing nod to article 10 of the first question of the Summa. Now that
is a very interesting article, but I do not think we can grasp its significance
within the overall aims of the Summa Theologiae nor within the overall
work of Thomas the theologian without looking at how Thomas actually handled
Scripture in his Scriptural lectures and commentaries. It is always good to
remember that lecturing on Scripture texts was Thomas’ main occupation, his day
job if you will.
My
modest aim today is to encourage you to look to the commentaries on Scripture
in order to better understand the vision of Saint Thomas. Thomas’s vision was
profoundly Christological, and his Christology was profoundly Scriptural. One
of the things we will see today is Thomas’ intense interest in the literal
sense of the Scriptures. This must be understood as more than an academic and
interpretive exercise. It is directly related to the wider ecclesial interest,
especially noteworthy in the mendicant movements, in the literal following of
Christ. This was part of the reform movements of the 12th and 13th
Centuries, and a hallmark of the charismatic influence of both Saint Francis
and Saint Dominic.
I.
The Literalness of
Christ the WORD:
I
will start with Thomas’ commentary on the Letter to the Hebrews. His exposition
of that letter is a beautiful expression of Thomas’ robust exegetical mind. It
is also a text that had been somewhat neglected by both philosophers and
theologians. This may have to do with the fact that within the commentaries on
the Pauline corpus, Thomas’ commentary on Hebrews presents unique textual
difficulties; it is transmitted to us through two interpolated reportationes.[ii]
This is vexing to the reader for reasons I need not go into here. The first
lecture on chapter one, the received text reports Thomas commenting on the
sense of the first verse:
In
times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our fathers through the
prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through a son, whom he made
heir of all things and through whom he created the universe […]
Thomas
uses the occasion to explain that God’s speaking is first of all the Father’s
eternal generation of the Word. This eternal conceptum is, in fact,
further expressed in three ways: First in creation, secondly in the revelations
to the angels, the saints and the prophets of what lays hidden in the WORD, and
thirdly in the Incarnation itself. Within this three-fold movement of
expression that issues from the eternal WORD, only the latter two, Thomas says,
revelation and Incarnation, have the character of a word, properly speaking.
Thomas
says explicitly that this is because the latter two are ordered ad manifestationem. Both are a kind of opening up of what is
inside the mind and heart of God; and both are directed to knowers capable of
receiving the manifestation.
The
first expression, he says, namely creation, is not ordered to manifestation but
rather to being, and thus does not have the character of a word spoken. It is
never said in Scripture, Thomas notes, that God speaks by creating creatures,
but rather that he is known by creating them: numquam dicitur, quod Deus loquatur creando creaturas,
sed quod cognoscatur. Rom. I, 20: invisibilia Dei etc,...[iii] In short, creation is an act of the Word, but
it is a speaking (Let there be light) producing something that is not
quite a word.
This
way of describing reality puts into play the existence of knowers other than
God, namely angels and human beings. Because even if Scripture does not ever
say God produced a kind of word by creating creatures, it does say that he is
known in this creative act. Creation is capable, and in the divine wisdom was
meant to convey something beyond itself, to other knowers. We might say that
this expressive power of created being, in the long run, is fairly meager, for
although it can express beyond itself, it never quite allows us to know the who
behind all the whats of creation.
When
moving from expression to word, Thomas describes how God’s speaking ad manifestationem makes known more
about the speaker than what his created works convey. What characterizes this “more”
made known by words is the manifestation of God’s own interior intentionality.
This is equivalent to saying that God’s speaking to angels and prophets is
variously ordered ad cognitionem sapientiae divinae.
Thomas
thus preserves the word “word” as an intentional revelation of a prior
intellectual understanding, by its nature interior to the speaker, to another
intellectual being. Thomas, not surprisingly, refers in this context to
Augustine’s discussion of the verbum vocis being a manifestation of the prior Verbum cordis. The Incarnation, of
course, is the singularly perfect self-expression to us of the Verbum cordis of the Father.[iv]
What
is implicit in this account, unspoken we could say, is that we human beings are
capable of putting words together to describe expressions, that is to say,
realities that are not words. This is the primordial grandeur of the human
creation. Our first words are words about what is. And when it comes to other
persons, our words are about who the what is.
Apparently,
when speaking to human beings, the only way available to God is that of
adaptation to our mode of understanding things. And this involves adaptation to
the way signaled by our own prior exercise of the speaking power, which in turn
derives from our interaction with created things and other speaking human
beings.
But
to speak of God having to adapt to our way of speaking, while true, is not the
most fortuitous way to say this. It is more accurate to describe Thomas’ wisdom
here by saying creation was conceived originally in the WORD precisely to serve
as the gentle medium of God’s speaking to us about what lies hidden in his
heart, the verbum cordis.
Creation is the language God conveniently uses to address us because he made us
word capable beings who already interact and put words on creation.
Now
then, the sensible, intelligible and imaginal species granted to the prophets
are communications conveyed by God using images drawn from our experience of
creation and specified by Him to say something about Himself, God the speaker.
Part of what God speaks has to do with the deeper rationes governing
creation (ad esse)
in the first place.
Thus,
the interpersonal use of wordy images to say something to each other makes it
possible for God to specify created knowables to say something about Himself to
us. Think of Hosea 11:4:
Yet
it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, who took them in my arms; I drew them with human cords, with bands of
love; I fostered them like one who raises an infant to his cheeks; Yet, though
I stooped to feed my child, they did not know that I was their healer.
We
have to have had some interaction with cords and bands to understand their
relation to love, and we have to have some concept of familial fostering to
understand that God is saying something about himself beyond what our human
interactions can express. Again, in the divine wisdom, creation is the medium
through which God can speak this word to us.
Which
brings us at length to how Thomas describes the Incarnation in this context. He
reserves a particular phrase for describing the Word Incarnate, viewed
precisely as Word. His coming in the flesh is ordered ad expressam manifestationem. With
delightful austerity of words, Thomas says of the WORD: Et se nobis expresse
manifestavit.[v]
The adverb expresse
for Thomas implies a kind of literal directness. We will see this word again
later. God expressed Himself literally; Jesus is the historically literal
expression of the divine wisdom. Thus, it is essential to Catholic Christology
to profess that the Second Person of the Trinity literally acts and expresses
himself through his sanctified humanity. Thus, for example, when Scripture says
Jesus was angry at the hardness of heart of the Pharisees, it is true to say
that God’s anger was literally manifested in and through the Son’s humanity. Traduxit
se nobis, we could say: He translated Himself to us, in a language
we could understand. That literal language is the humanity of Christ.
Human
nature is a created expression of image and likeness, but by the Incarnation
the human creation is elevated to become a word. And the concrete human nature of
Christ becomes the word addressed by God to us. Indeed, the whole of Christ’s
living, dying and rising (the acta et passa mentioned in the Summa) is creation
becoming the most expressive, literal word from God to us.
In
short, we could say that neither things nor persons could ever tell us how much
love sustains the existence of all that is were it not for the WORD made flesh
who in the flesh and in time showed us his heart.
II. A Literal Sense Controversy
At this point I would draw your attention to Thomas’ commentary
on the Psalms, probably the last work of his teaching life.[vi] The prologue to this commentary shows us Thomas
devoting not a little effort to deal with an errant understanding of the
literal sense of Scripture. I hope to show that his interest here is directly
related to protecting the literalness of Christ’s teaching and example, and to
accounting for the Old Testament as primarily prophetic and intentionally
preparatory in nature. The principal antagonist in this dense discussion of
erroneous expositional procedure is Theodore of Mopsuestia.
Concerning the mode of exposition, it must be noted that
in the Psalter, as in [the exposition of] the other prophets, we ought to avoid
one error condemned in the Fifth Synod. Theodore of Mopsuestia, indeed,
said that in Sacred Scripture and the Prophets, nothing is expressly said about
Christ, but rather [these words were said] about certain other things, and, in
fact, they [i.e. these words said about certain other things] adapted to
Christ. Like, [that text of] Psalm 21, [19]:they divided among themselves my vestments, etc.[is
said] not about Christ, but literally said about David. This mode [of
exposition] was condemned in that Council, and whoever asserts such a thing in
expounding the Scriptures is a heretic.[vii]
Now this is fascinating. Theodore of Mopsuestia’s
teaching on Scriptural interpretation was sparsely and vaguely known in Thomas’
time. In fact, Thomas may be the first theologian of the High Middle Ages to
reference it at all, or in such detail. His references to it were likely made
possible by his personal quest for reliable texts stemming from the patristic
period; that personal quest is well attested to in the abundant citations of
the Greek Fathers in such works as the Catena Aurea, the Contra
Errorum Graecorum, and the Summa Theologiae itself. Some were
probably Greek texts recently translated into Latin, others older Latin translations
discovered in monastic, papal or episcopal archives. In addition to the
description of Theodore in the commentary on the Psalms, Thomas references
Theodore’s error also in his expositions of the Gospel of Matthew and of the
Gospel of John, both late commentaries. In other words, Thomas’ awareness of
and his concerns about Theodore of Mopsuestia are late elements in his teaching
career.
The reference to the determinations of “the fifth synod”
clearly identifies the authority for the question at hand with the Second
Council of Constantinople. Thomas likely reviewed documents surrounding
Constantinople II and documents prepared by Pope Vigilius both before and after
the Council’s decrees. In addition to
the Acta of the Council, with the accompanying excerpts from Theodore’s
writings, the Latin tradition preserved particular texts of Theodore’s writings
about the prophets, together with point by point anathemas by Pope Vigilius in
the Constitutum Vigilii.[viii]
In the history leading up to the Council, the Constitutum
Vigilii was issued by the Pope in 553 in an effort to condemn certain
errors in Theodore’s writings, without condemning him personally in posthumous
fashion. The Council did, in fact, condemn him posthumously, and
anathematized his writings; the Pope subsequently recognized the Council’s decrees. The
Constitutum of Pope Vigilius contains some sixty Latin excerpts from the
writings of Theodore, and includes texts from his notes on particular Psalm
verses.[ix] The Latin texts certainly derive from the same
source as those contained in the Council’s acta. Leontius
of Byzantium is recognized as the translator.[x] The Constitutum Vigilii proves singularly
important, however, because the Pope offers a point by point explication and
condemnation of Theodore’s texts, something not found in the Conciliar decrees
themselves. Similarities between the Pope’s characterization of the texts
before him, and Thomas’s characterization of Theodore’s teaching on adaptation
can be discerned. To go into this discernible similarity would be
different and much longer lecture.
The error attributed to Theodore involves two major
aspects: First that he denied the prophets ever intended to say anything
literally about Christ. (nihil expresse dicitur). To say this in terms related
to what we saw earlier in the commentary on Hebrews chapter 1: Nothing was
expressly said in the Old Testament about the One who is the Incarnate and thus
expressly manifested WORD of the Father. As you can imagine this undermines any
understanding of the Old Testament as words from the Word, preparing for the
Word’s expressed manifestation.
Thus, Theodore accounts for New Testament references to
the prophets as a work of textual adaptations. “Adaptation” is a bad word for
Thomas, if it is used to describe how Old Testament texts can be made to refer
to New Testament realities. What is adaptation? The short answer is that it
implies that the Old Testament authors did not intend to refer to New Testament
things, rather, New Testament authors appropriated the words at will: they made
them fit.
Thomas gives an interesting elaboration on this point in
his commentary on Matthew. Probably his earliest reference to Theodore the
exegete, Thomas says the following about what adaptation implies:
And another was [the error] of Theodore saying that
nothing of those things which are brought forth from the Old Testament are
literally said about Christ, but they are adapted, as [for example] when they
bring forth that [text] of Virgil: recalling
such things, he hung suspended, and affixed he remained.[xi] Now, this [text of Virgil] is adapted concerning
Christ; and next [it is said], that [the text of Matthew] that it might be fulfilled, ought to be thus exposed,
as if the Evangelist were saying and this can be adapted. Against which
[can be adduced the text] from the last chapter of Luke: It was
fitting that all those things which were written in the Law of Moses, and the
Prophets, and the Psalms about me be fulfilled.[xii]
Now, stick with me here: Thomas is saying that adaptation
involves appropriating words away from the author’s intention, like when some
people read in the Aeneid that Anchises’ “pendebat and fixusque” (he
hung suspended and was affixed) can be applied it to Christ. Martin Morard has identified the source of Thomas’s
example.[xiii] Thomas seems to be making a passing reference
(probably from memory) of a letter from Saint Jerome to Saint Paulinus of Nola.
In that letter St Jerome severely rebukes those who manipulate classical pagan
texts to make them refer to Christ. The following appears in Jerome’s Epistola
LIII to Paulinus of Nola:
[Those]
who come boldly to the Sacred Scriptures after secular letters, [...] whatever
might be said there they think to be the Law of God, nor do they think it
worthwhile what the prophets or what the Apostles think, but rather they fit
(aptant) the incongruous testimonies to their own sense, as if it were a great
thing, and not a most vicious thing to deprive a way of speaking of its sense,
and to drag a writing according to their own will to a repugnant sense. As
if we could not read Homeric verses and Virgilian verses and not also call
Maronus a Christian without Christ, because he wrote [...] the words of the
Savior on the Cross: talia
perstabat memorans fixusque manebat. These are childish things, and similar
to a game of circles.[xiv]
Interestingly, Jerome’s letter censures the adaptations
of Proba, the well known Roman matron and convert who herself received lengthy
responses to her letters from Augustine. Jerome rebukes any attempt to
offer as legitimate a reading of a secular text which prescinds completely from
the intention of a classical author; the activity is an active one, involving
imposing (by will of the reader) something at variance with the original author’s
intentional use of words. Jerome of course knows the context of Anchises’
statement, and is quite sure that there was no intention to speak-- even in a
vague way-- about crucifixion. Thus, for Jerome, the practice of reading
Virgil in this way involves a re-figuration of the words’ contextual sense away
from one of Anchises’ resoluteness. The words used by Virgil take on a
significantly different meaning through the transfer of context.
Through this example Thomas understands that adaptation
involves a radical manipulation of words based upon verbal ambiguities and the
equivocal use of language. When “they” adjust the text of Virgil to
signify something about Christ, they do something at variance with what Virgil
himself intended to signify through the words he used. The text is
adjusted with no real reference to what the poet intended. To say,
therefore, that the Apostles and Evangelists adapted prophetic texts to Christ
implicates them in a falsification of textual integrity of the kind Jerome
attributed to Proba and her circle.
Ok, so clearly a Scripture reader, in this case an
Apostle, cannot expose a prior prophetic text by prescinding from the intention
of the author. To do so does violence to the text because it separates words
from the things the author wanted to talk about. But here is the point: when
the New Testament speaks of the prophets, it cannot be doing so in the way
Jerome ascribes to childish Roman matrons reading Christ into Virgil. So what
are the New Testament authors doing when they quote the Old Testament and use
the common NT phrase: “This was to fulfill what was said by the prophet,...
etc.” ?
Countering the claim that the New Testament authors
intended to say that the prophetic words of Isaiah could conveniently be
adapted to signify something about Christ, Thomas (in the commentary on
Matthew) offers the text from Luke 24, 44:
[...] Against which [can be adduced the text] from the
last chapter of Luke: It
was fitting that all those things which were written in the Law of Moses, and
the Prophets, and the Psalms about me be fulfilled. And it should be known
that in the Old Testament there are certain things which refer to Christ, and
are said about him alone, like that [text which says] Behold a virgin shall
conceive in the womb, and bear a son, Isaiah 7, [14]; and also that [text]
Psalm 21, [2]: God, my God, look upon me, why have you forsaken me?
etc. And if anyone should put a different literal sense, he would be a
heretic, and the heresy is condemned.[...][xv]
The sense of this citation moves the argument to another
level: Matthew could not have intended to say that “the text can be thus
adapted,” because he only conveyed what he learned from Christ, namely that “all
these things” written in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms were written
about Him. The argument against Theodore thus is reduced to a Christological
error. The Lord Jesus knows what the intentions of the Old Testament authors
are, and it is his knowledge, confided to the authors of the New Testament,
that sustains the propriety of New Testament citation of the Old. It is the
literal historicity of the WORD made flesh (expresse manifestavit se),
the One who spoke through the prophets prior to his Incarnation, that gives the
Apostles (and the Church) access to Old Testament intentions.
III.
The
Rule of Saint Jerome:
After addressing the error attributed to Theodore of
Mopsuestia, Thomas turns to a principle of exposition he calls the Rule of
Saint Jerome. Bear with me as I read it to you in full:
Blessed Jerome, therefore, [in his commentary] on
Ezechiel handed on to us a rule which we will use in the Psalms: namely
that concerning things done, they are to be exposed thus, as figuring something
about Christ or the Church. As, indeed, it is said in 1 Cor. 10, [11]: all these things happened to them in figure. Prophecies,
moreover, were sometimes said about things which were of the time then, but
[the prophecies] were not principally said about those things, but, in fact,
[the prophecies were said about those things] inasmuch as they are figures of
future things: and thus the Holy Spirit ordered that when such things are said,
certain things are inserted which exceed the condition of that thing done, so
that the soul might be raised to the thing figured. Like in [the book of]
Daniel many things are said about Antiochus in the figure of the anti-Christ: hence,
there certain things are read which were not completed in him, they will be
fulfilled, indeed in the anti-Christ; as also certain things are read about the
kingdom of David and Solomon, which were not to be fulfilled in the reign of
such men, but were to be fulfilled in the kingdom of Christ, in whose figure
they were said: as [for example] Psalm 71, [2]: God, your
judgment etc. which is according to the title about the reign of David and
Solomon; and [the author] places something in it that exceeds its capacity,
namely [in verses 7] justice will arise in his days and abundance of
peace, until the moon be taken away: and again [in verse 8], he
will rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends [of the earth]
etc. Therefore, this Psalm is expounded about the reign of Solomon,
inasmuch as it is a figure of the reign of Christ, in which all the things
there said will be completed.[xvi]
This proposed regula has two distinct parts and
is designed to counter Theodore’s principal errors by re-casting the issue of
signification. Thomas here aims to address the wider issue of authorial intent
by discussing how both the words and deeds in the Old Testament intentionally
refer to realities in the New Testament. He explicitly links this account
to the tradition of the Fathers, specifically through the authority of Saint
Jerome. The mode of exposition appropriate to the sacred text, therefore, has
its own kind of authority, rooted in Thomas’s sense of the consuetudo
ecclesiae. Thomas works here to integrate the newly discovered
determinations of Constantinople II into the distinctly developed tradition of
Latin Scriptural exposition.
By way of quick summary of the regula, we should
first note that not every signifier in the Old Testament signifies the New
through the literal sense. The Pauline teaching in 1 Corinthians 10, (All
these things happened to them in figure), opens the issue by noting that
the great bulk of the pre-New Testament Canon is a narrative of literal history
and is embedded in that history. As it unfolds, the history itself aims to
Christ and, and at the same time the history figures his identity and mission.
The general figuration is prophetic and applies to the literal history. This is
what we could call the classic spiritual sense of the Old Testament: persons
and events in the OT bear an anticipatory likeness to NT persons and events.
Thus, for example, the literal accounts of Moses
interceding with God for Israel’s sake after the incident of the Golden calf
literally and historically prepares for Christ’s coming by divine pedagogical
action at that time: God, after all, desires a people free from idolatry, and
this in itself prepared for Christ. Yet the history also pre-figures what
Christ’s mission will entail. Christ the mediator once revealed is revealed to
have been figured in Moses. The text is literally intended of Moses; and Moses
Himself figures, shows likeness, to the coming Christ.
This initial principle encompasses the whole of the
intentional signification found in things done, that is to say the entirety of
those res recounted in the Old Testament. The articulation accounts for the relation of
res ut figura to res figurata established through the Lord God’s
expansive and significant accommodation of Israel’s history toward the
Incarnation.[xvii]
The “Rule of Jerome”, though, extends also to address
prophetic events and discourses that have both an Old Testament historical
referent and a literal sense extending to Christ. First, let me point out that
I am persuaded that in the received text on the Psalms, the reference to Jerome
on Ezekiel is incorrect. There is internal evidence to support this, evidence I
cannot go into here.[xviii] Instead, I would argue that what Thomas says here ,..
[...] Prophecies, moreover, were sometimes said about
things which were of the time then, but [the prophecies] were not principally
said about those things, but, in fact, [the prophecies were said about those
things] inasmuch as they are figures of future things: [...][xix]
The prophets promised about the coming of Christ after
many centuries and the calling of the gentiles in this way, in order
that they might not overlook the present time, lest they seem not to teach the
convoked assembly [of their time] about the things that occur through their
fault, on account of the other [future realities], but instead seem to [neglect
the present] and rejoice about obscure and future things.[xxi]
This particular text from Jerome focuses specifically
upon the prophet’s intention to signify both the present historical res
and the future historical res with the same words. In Osee, 1, 3, in fact, enunciates a
principle quite decisive in determining the modus exponendi of prophetic
texts that involve reference to OT history and yet are understood by the New
Testament as literally referring to Christ.
To do justice to Old Testament history and to avoid the
error of Theodore, Thomas thus articulates a specific principle by which this
kind of signification can be discerned. Call it the principle of exceeded
conditions. Speaking summarily, if the words attendant to the OT history exceede the condition
of the histories, then the exceeded description itself extends to a literal
application to later realities. Thomas’s intention here is to permit this
aspect of Jerome’s rule to counter Theodore’s nihil expresse dicitur in
a way that allows for literal reference to Christ yet does not altogether
preclude a genuine OT historical res at play in the prophecy.
The verbal description exceeding the condition of an Old
Testament reality corresponds more exactly to that which the history figures;
this does not, however, suggest that the figure is itself superfluous to the
mode of signification. For one thing, Solomon or Antiochus do not cease
being historical res simply because they are presented to us on occasion
through descriptions verbally designed to set in relief how much they--
considered as figures-- fall historically short of the future reality they
signify. The immediate historical res addressed by the prophet requires
the expositor’s attention because without knowledge of it, the very fact that
the prophetic description exceeds the context would escape significant notice.
That the prophetic description does in fact exceed the
condition of the earlier history indicates to the reader that the littera
of the description-- at least in those parts exceeding local circumstances--
intentionally signify New Testament history expresse through the words.
By means of this kind of inspection of the words and the Old Testament res,
discernment of expresse and ad litteram signification is
possible. In the end, this is Thomas’s most sophisticated analysis of textual
signification; it amplifies the traditional categorization according to literal
and spiritual significations, for it contains elements of both. The OT history
signifies, but the description expressly points beyond the OT history.
Why does Thomas think it necessary to expand the
discussion of Theodore’s error beyond the immediate affirmation that some Old
Testament texts do in fact signify Christ ad litteram? Partly, I think,
because Thomas understands Theodore to have focused his interpretation of the
Old Testament texts solely in terms of the immediate historical context
surrounding the articulated words. There appears to be no room for any
other kind of signification in Theodore’s teaching: in Psalm 21, either David
spoke about his persecution by Absolom, or he spoke about Christ. Since for
Theodore it was obvious that David had Absolom on his mind when composing Psalm
21, it could not be that Christ could be understood in that text except through
an adaptation. Theodore views Old Testament intentionality to be confined
to one historical thing only.
Theodore thus sounds to Thomas like a strict
Aristotelian when it comes to textual signification. Indeed,
Theodore sounds a lot like the fifth objector in Quodlibetum VII, q. 6, a. 1,
that is to say, an Aristotelian that cannot admit of more than a single
referent per signifier. Thomas dealt then (the late 1250’s) with the issue by
noting that Jerome on Hosea rightly says that nothing prohibits a single deed
or thing from having several related senses, inasmuch as one is a figure of the
other.[xxii]
Ironically, Theodore reads Psalm 21 the way Jerome says
Virgil should be read: solely in terms of the immediate historical
intentionality. The point Thomas makes, though, is that the Christian cannot
read Isaiah or David the way Jerome reads Virgil for the simple reason that God
can do what Virgil cannot, namely accommodate history to signify his
intentions. Related figurative senses are present in the thing described. Thus,
Theodore, in addition to having erred in his appreciation for the
intentionality of prophetic texts uttered about Christ alone, also lacks an
understanding of the unified intentionality governing the whole of the Old
Testament aimed toward Christ. Doubtless, Thomas saw Theodore’s reading of
Scripture as ultimately rooted in a Christological error. Theodore has no room
for a real relation between the facta of the Old Testament and the
facta of the New; he has no room for the intentional governance of
history by the WORD.
IV.
CHRIST in Figure and the Figure in CHRIST
Figuration
is an essential element within the Scriptural tradition, and in the Catholic
tradition of Scriptural interpretation. Figuration is built into the Scriptural
self-understanding itself. It concerns events that are intelligible in light of
other events. “Moses, with his arms upheld”; “Israel, with unmoistened foot”; “As
at Meribah, when they hardened their hearts”. The Old Testament itself depends
on these kinds of historical invocations in order to understand its later
historical moments. In the last books of the Old Testament, the invocation of
the Exodus event in remarkably nuanced ways both interpret the later moments of
Israel’s history, and expand Israel’s perception of the meaning of Israel’s
foundational historical events. Later events are figured in the foundational
event. The WORD, who authored the first Word-Event, guides the later prophetic
tradition to its figurative amplifications. The self-understanding of the New
Testament reads the prior figurative tradition as brought to clarity in the
Paschal Mystery. At the Easter Vigil this interpretive dynamic is on full
display.
Now
then, throughout the commentary on the Psalms, Thomas respects and shows
remarkable dexterity in locating, or in wanting to locate, the historical
references in the Psalms: anything from the Exodus, to troubles with Absalom,
thanksgiving for victory in battle, to psalms composed to accompany cultic
worship, etc. After locating the history, Thomas then usually goes on to read
those events as prefiguring something having to do with Christ. We could call this
a discernment of the spiritual sense of the OT. This is not an exercise in
seeking out fanciful allegories; rather it is rooted in a pre-critical
theological conviction that Israel’s history was governed by a special
providence, a grace that orders its signification in a way that is anticipatory
of the final revelation of God’s historical intent in Christ. This serves as
the basis for a Christian reading of the psalms that respects the history of
the psalmists. Figuration, in this tradition, (and here I must insist Thomas is
very much in the spirit of the Fathers) is rooted in history, not in words; in
events understood a certain way, not in poetic allusions.
So what does it really mean to say that there is a
literal historical New Testament sense in OT prophecy which also involves
reference to OT historical events? To get a sense of Thomas’ response to such a
question, let’s look at his particular commentary on Psalm 21, the celebrated
Passion Psalm, the one cited by Christ himself from the Cross. Exposing the
text, Thomas will not say that the history of David’s sufferings there
expressed are a prefiguration of Christ. Nor will he allow that the literal
sense refers to David, and the spiritual sense of the text refers to Christ.
Given all we have seen in the treatment of Theodore of Mopsuestia and the Rule
of Saint Jerome, this should not surprise us. Here is what Thomas says:
As was said above, as in the other prophets, also this
one treats of certain things then present inasmuch as [those certain things]
were figures of Christ, and which pertained to the prophecy itself. And
thus, sometimes some things are put forth [in the text] which pertain to
Christ, which exceed, so to speak, the condition of the histories. And among
others, specifically this psalm treats about the Passion of Christ. And
thus, this is its literal sense. Hence, specifically He spoke this Psalm
in the passion when He cried out Heli
Heli Lammasabactani: which is the same as God, my God, etc. as
this Psalm begins. And thus, granted this Psalm is said figuratively
about David, nevertheless specifically it refers to Christ ad litteram. And
in the Synod of Toledo a certain Theodore of Mopsuestia, who exposed this Psalm
about David ad litteram was condemned, and [he was condemned] on account of
this and many other things. And, thus, [this Psalm] is to be exposed
about Christ. [xxiii]
Thomas explicitly places the issue of Psalm 21 within
the same context governing the exposition of Psalm 71, as explained in the
Prologue to the Psalter commentary; both involve discerning words which
describe realities exceeding the immediate historical condition. Neither
text can be exposed primarily about the Old Testament figure. The
history narrated in the Psalm is not about David, it is about Christ. This is
its literal sense. On this reading, David (the psalmist) has a vision of the
Passion, and wrote of it. The psalmists own sufferings are secondarily
referenced in the psalm, but only to the extent they are figured within Christ’s
sufferings. David saw himself in Christ; he did not see Christ in himself.
Now,
you may think this is a distinction without a difference. But in fact, it
sustains a whole Catholic understanding of spiritual progress. It is more
perfect to see oneself figured in Christ than it is to see Christ figured in
oneself. This is because Christ is the supreme locus of intelligibility, and I
understand myself better if I see myself figured in him. This is the
distinction Thomas wishes to preserve: Israel’s history pre-figures New
Testament events, yet the prophets had moments of imaginative vision with
understanding that saw from afar the Christian history: they read the
contemporary events they lived figured within the history of Christ: Prophets
and Kings longed to see what you see, but did not see it.
Thomas
is a theological witness to a truth of Catholic Faith, namely that after the
full revelation of Christ’s historical appearance, the Church has access to the
aim of history. Hence, all the faithful now have the capacity by spiritual
instinct and knowledge of the Gospel to see themselves figured in Christ.
This, together with the gift of the Spirit guiding our reception of the history
of Christ, is what is new about the New Testament revelation. And this is why
the Fathers of the Church, following Saint Paul, call the definitive revelation
in Christ an “unveiling”. What is unveiled? The aim of human living and all of
history. This is a datum in the tradition which witnesses to what then Cardinal
Ratzinger called the laying bare of the intelligibility of history by the
revelation of its end in Christ.[xxiv]
For us who live after the foundational events of the Christian revelation, the
figurations are clearer, though not yet perfectly so. The enigmas of the
Apocalypse, for example, will remain until the end.
Thomas
understands this unveiling of the supreme intelligible precisely in the terms
we saw at the outset, namely the expresse manifestavit se of the
Incarnation. The eternally generated WORD in the flesh literally and historically
expresses what every human life and what all history is really about. What
Thomas does here in exposing the text of Psalm 21 as literally about Christ and
figuratively about David (effectively reversing the ordinary way of explicating
figuration) is grant to David a perspective of vision that is equivalent to
ours. We know the history of Christ as literal history, and can see ourselves
in it.
Only in this context does the full theological weight of
the spiritual or figurative senses of Scripture appear. In the literality of
Christ the prior governance of Israel’s history is finally understood; this
unveiling guides us to the right reading not just of the books of the OT, but
of the history itself. Thomas occasionally uses the term ‘allegory” when referring
to the spiritual reading of the OT, but he prefers the term “mystice”; the
mystical sense is what is figured within the literal history of Christ. Thus,
to state the matter briefly, the ecclesiological sense of a text is the figure
of the Church present in the person of Christ; the moral sense of a text is the
norm of Christian living present in Christ’s actions; the eschatological sense
is the destiny of the Christ as anticipatory of the final destiny of the human
race.[xxv] All of this flows from the super-intelligibility of the
eternally generated Word, who expressly reveals in the flesh that the
intelligibility of history is the Word, a person who creates all things,
sustains all things and aims all things to the innermost recesses of the Father’s
heart.
***
Thus,
and with this I will conclude, we see the transparency of the ecclesial
tradition of reading Scripture to the Eucharistic sacrifice itself. In the
Sacred Liturgy the sacramental re-presentation of the historical founding
Word-event of the Passion, death and Resurrection of Christ comes after the
reading of the Scriptures. The Paschal Sacrifice is thus positioned to unveil
the fundamental ratio through which the Scriptures just read are rightly
understood. The literal body of Christ appears after the worded Scriptural
explications, just as the Incarnation follows and clarifies the prior
Scriptural pedagogy. And yet the Scriptures read prior to the Eucharistic
Sacrifice guide our understanding of what is to be enacted, just as the
Scriptural record prepared the way for faith in the Incarnation. It is a
reciprocal pedagogy of grace. What concerns Saint Thomas throughout his
discussions of Scriptural signification is accounting theologically for how
this cohesive reciprocating movement towards the literal expressiveness of God
in Christ happens textually and historically.
Christian
liturgy and theology breathes of figuration or it dies. Figuration flows to
Christ and flows from him. And the root of all figurative meaning is the
literal Gospel history of Christ, culminating in the Cross. The Cross is the
supreme intelligible of God’s heart made literally manifest. It is both plainly
visible and at the same time a kind of brightness that comes to us under cover
of darkness. The Christological truth revealed in Scripture and enacted—made
plain and made present-- in the Eucharistic intervention is the basis for
understanding rightly all subsequent figurative readings, be they moral,
ecclesial, or eschatological. And the aim is that we see our lives figured
within Christ thus plainly manifested. Of the Eucharist as of the Incarnation
itself, we can truly say: Se nobis expresse manifestavit.
Thank
you for your kind attention.
+Daniel
E. Flores
Bishop
of Brownsville
+++
[i] Pensées, 19: La dernière chose qu'on trouve en
faisant un ouvrage, est de savoir celle qu'il faut mettre la première.
[ii]
The Marietti printed editions, and the electronic versions of the Corpus
Thomisticum (recognovit ac instruxit Enrique Alarcón automato
electronico, Pompaelone ad Universitatis Studiorum Navarrensis aedes
a MM A.D.) convey this text to us most readily, and make note of this feature
of the textual tradition.
[iii]
All translations of Thomas’s commentaries on Scripture utilized in this lecture
from Latin to English, are my own. Yo soy el culpable. With the exception of
the Commentary on the Psalms, the Latin texts used are from the Marietti
editions and the Corpus Thomisticum. Super ad Hebraeos, cap. 1, lect. 1: Prima
autem expressio, scilicet in creatione, non ordinatur ad manifestationem, sed
ad esse, Sap. I creavit Deus ut essent omnia. Cum ergo expressio non
habeat rationem locutionis nisi prout ordinatur ad manifestationem, manifestum
est, quod illa expressio non potest dici locutio, et ideo numquam dicitur, quod
Deus loquatur creando creaturas, sed quod cognoscatur. Rom. I, 20: invisibilia
Dei per ea quae facta sunt, intellecta conspiciuntur.
[iv]Super
ad Hebreos, cap. 1, lect. 1: Tertio per carnis assumptionem, de qua dicitur Io. I, 14:
verbum caro factum est,
et vidimus gloriam eius, et cetera. Et ideo dicit Augustinus, quod hoc modo se habet verbum
incarnatum ad verbum increatum, sicut verbum vocis ad verbum cordis.
[v] Super ad Hebreos, cap.
1, lect. 1: Secunda vero expressio, quae est editio specierum in
mente angelica, vel humana, ordinatur tantum ad cognitionem sapientiae divinae,
et ideo potest dici locutio. Tertia vero, quae est per assumptionem carnis,
ordinatur ad esse, et ad cognitionem, et ad expressam manifestationem, quia per
assumptionem carnis, et verbum factum est homo, et nos in cognitionem Dei
perfecit. . (Io. XVIII, 37: ad hoc natus sum, ut
testimonium perhibeam veritati). Et se nobis
expresse manifestavit. Bar. c. III, 38: post haec in terris visus est, et
cum hominibus conversatus est. Sic ergo, licet Deus loquatur in novo et veteri testamento, perfectius
tamen in novo nobis loquitur, quia ibi per revelationes in mentibus hominum,
hic per incarnationem filii.
[vi]
The Latin text of the Prologue derives from the Parme edition (In Psalmos, ed.
Parmensis, t. XIV, 1863). This is the received text also utilized in the Corpus
Thomisticum.
[vii] Super Psalmos, Prologus: circa modum exponendi sciendum est, quod tam in psalterio quam
in aliis prophetiis exponendis evitare debemus unum errorem damnatum in quinta
synodo. theodorus enim mopsuestenus dixit, quod in sacra scriptura et
prophetiis nihil expresse dicitur de christo, sed de quibusdam aliis rebus, sed
adaptaverunt christo: sicut illud psalm. 21:
diviserunt sibi vestimenta mea etc., non de christo, sed ad literam
dicitur de david. hic autem modus damnatus est in illo concilio: et qui asserit
sic exponendas scripturas, haereticus est.
[viii]
See See J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio,
Florence: 1763. Vol. 9., Collatio IV, cols. 76-79. These texts
were preserved in the Collectio Avellana, Vigilius, Epist. 83, CSEL 35. See
Martin Morard, “Une source de saint Thomas d’Aquin: le deuxième concile de Constantinople (553).” Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques
81 (1997): pp. 26 and 33.
[ix]
A fair amount of discussion has taken place, and continues, concerning the
reliability of the Latin excerpts preserved by the Council and by the Constitutum
Vigilii. Some have argued that the texts do not adequately convey the
subtlety of Theodore’s teaching on prophecy, and that reconstructive work on
the corpus of Theodore’s writings warrants a reconsideration of his actual
teaching, considered distinctly from what Constantinople II ascribed to him. Robert
Devreese did considerable work in this area, as did the J. M. Vosté. Vosté
found confirmation of the Council’s judgement in the Syriac versions of
Theodore’s work; Devreese considered the Syriac version not much more reliable,
textually speaking, than the Latin excerpts. De Margerie points out that
Devreese seems inexplicably to have overlooked the fact that the Latin excerpts
in the Collatio IVand Constitutum Vigilii are taken largely from
Theodore’s comments on the Minor Prophets, and not from the Commentary on the
Psalter. He further suggests that the comments on the Minor Prophets are
more explicitly errant than those in the Commentary on the Psalter. For a
review of the debate concerning the degree to which the excerpts in the Collatio
IVand the Constitutum Vigilii fairly reflect Theodore of Mopsuestia’s
teaching on Scriptural exegesis, see the following: J.M. Vosté, “L’Oeuvre Exégétique de Théodore de Mopsueste
au IIa Concile de Constantinople,” Revue Biblique, 38 (1929), pp. 382-395 et
542-554; Robert Devreesse, “Par Quelles voies Nous sont Parvenus Les
Commentaires de Théodore de Mopsueste?” Revue
Biblique 39 (1930) pp. 362-277; Pietro Parente, “Una riabilitazione de Teodoro
Mopsuesteno,” Doctor Communis, 1950, pp. 3-15; Bertrand De Margerie, An
Introduction to the History of Exegesis. Vol. I: The Greek Fathers,
translated by Leonard Maluf, (Petersham, Massachusettes: St. Bedes
Publications, 1993) pp. 165-187.
[x]
Vigilius prefaces the excerpts with a letter to the Emperor, from whose court
in Constantinople the Latin translations were likely sent to the Pope. The
Latin version of Theodore’s writings in the Constitutum varies only in
the most minor degree from that in the Collatio IV. On Leontius of
Byzantium see De Margerie, The Greek Fathers, p. 177, n. 34.
[xi]
Aeneid 2, 650.
[xii] Super
Matthaeum, cp. 1, lc. 5,(Marietti no. 148): alius fuit theodori
dicentis, quod nihil eorum quae inducuntur de veteri testamento, sunt ad
litteram de christo, sed sunt adaptata, sicut quando inducunt illud virgilii
talia pendebat memorans, fixusque manebat hoc enim adaptatum est de
christo; et tunc illud ut adimpleretur, debet sic exponi, quasi diceret
evangelista: et hoc potest adaptari. contra quod lc. ult., 44: oportet
impleri omnia quae scripta sunt in lege moysi, et prophetis, et psalmis de me.
[xiii]
Morard locates the reference in Saint Jerome, Epistola LIII, 7, 2-3, to
Paulinus of Nola, which, he notes, was variously transmitted through the
tradition of the Vulgate manuscripts and the glosses. See “Une Source,” pp.
32-33. Morard is aware of Smalley’s reading, though he does not advert to
it’s specifics.
[xiv] Jerome, Epistola LIII, 7, 2-3, (CSEL 54, pp.
453-454): [...] Qui si forte ad scripturas sanctas
post saeculares litteras venerint [...] quicquid dixerint, hoc legem Dei putant
nec scire dignantur, quid prophetae, quid apostoli senserint, sed ad sensum
suum incongrua aptant testimonia, quasi grande sit et non vitiosissimum dicendi
genus depravare sententias et ad voluntatem suam scripturam trahere
repugnantem. Quasi non legerimus Homerocentonas et Vergiliocentonas ac
non sic etiam Maronem sine Christo possimus dicere christianum, quia scripserit
[...] verba Salvatoris in cruce: talia perstabat memorans fixusque
manebat. Puerilia sunt haec et circulatorum ludo similia. [...] Jerome’s
use of the verbs aptant and trahere (almost 200 years before the
controversies prompting the Consitutum Vigilii and the Collatio IV)
might well have signaled to Thomas the analogy he perceives between the act of
adapting Virgil and the way Theodore understood the Evangelists’ act of
adapting the Old Testament prophecies. See Morard, “Une Source,” p. 32.
[xv] Super
Matthaeum, cp. 1, lc. 5, (Marietti no. 148): [...] contra quod lc. ult.,
44: oportet impleri omnia quae scripta sunt in lege moysi, et prophetis, et
psalmis de me. [...] et sciendum quod in veteri testamento aliqua
sunt quae referuntur ad christum, et de eo solo dicuntur, sicut illud ecce
virgo in utero concipiet, et pariet filium, is. vii, 14; et illud ps. xxi,
2: deus, deus meus, respice in me, quare me dereliquisti? etc.. et si
quis alium sensum litteralem poneret, esset haereticus, et haeresis damnata
est.
[xvi]Super
Psalmos, Prologus: beatus ergo
hieronymus super ezech. tradidit nobis unam regulam quam servabimus in psalmis:
scilicet quod sic sunt exponendi de rebus gestis, ut figurantibus aliquid de
christo vel ecclesia. ut enim dicitur 1 cor. 10: omnia in figura
contingebant illis. prophetiae autem aliquando dicuntur de rebus quae tunc
temporis erant, sed non principaliter dicuntur de eis, sed inquantum figura
sunt futurorum: et ideo spiritus sanctus ordinavit quod quando talia dicuntur,
inserantur quaedam quae excedunt conditionem illius rei gestae, ut animus
elevetur ad figuratum. et ideo spiritus sanctus ordinavit quod quando
talia dicuntur, inserantur quaedam quae excedunt conditionem illius rei gestae,
ut animus elevetur ad figuratum. sicut in daniele multa dicuntur de
anthioco in figuram antichristi: unde ibi quaedam leguntur quae non sunt in eo
completa, implebuntur autem in antichristo; sicut etiam aliqua de regno david
et salomonis leguntur, quae non erant implenda in talium hominum regno, sed
impleta fuere in regno christi, in cujus figura dicta sunt: sicut psal. 71: deus
judicium etc. qui est secundum titulum de regno david et salomonis; et
aliquid ponit in eo quod excedit facultatem ipsius, scilicet, orietur in
diebus ejus justitia et abundantia pacis, donec auferatur luna: et iterum,
dominabitur a mari usque ad mare, et a flumine usque ad terminos etc.. exponitur ergo psalmus iste de regno salomonis,
inquantum est figura regni christi, in quo omnia complebuntur ibi dicta.
[xvii]
Thomas often supports the general principal with a reference to 1 Corinthians
10, 11: Omnia in fugura contingebant illis. See, for example, Secunda
Secundae, q. 104, a. 2, c. Super ad Hebraeos 1, 5, articulates this
general principle with the phrase [...] quaedam vero etiam secundum quod sunt
homines quidam, et istorum dicta de ipsis possunt exponi et de christo; sicut
illud: deus, iudicium tuum regi da: quia illud potest convenire
salomoni.
[xviii]
It is worth noting that an inquiry into the presence of the two lemma Hieronymus
and Ezechiel in Busa. Thomae Aquinatis Opera Omnia cum hypertextibus
in CD-ROM, secunda editio, (Milano: Editoria Elettronica Editel,
1996) does not yield any other reference by Thomas to Jerome on Ezekiel. Yet,
numerous references to Jerome on Hosea, in matter closely related to the issue
at hand can be found.
[xix]
See note 16 above for the Latin.
[xx]
See in Quodlibetum VII, q. 6, a. 1, ad 5, a specific text from Jerome on Hosea
is referenced. See also the presence of this text from Jerome in Prima
Secundae, q. 102, a. 2, c.
[xxi]
Jerome, In Osee Prophetam, I, i, 3.4; CCL, 76, p. 10, lines. 148-152: Prophetae
sic multa post saecula de aduentu Christi et uocatione gentium pollicentur, ut
praesens tempus non neglegant, ne concionem ob aliud conuocatam non docere de
his quae stant, sed de incertis ac futuris ludere uideantur. [...]. De
Margerie, writing in a broader context about Jerome’s exegetical approach,
finds a similarly expressed principle in Jerome’s in Malachi, 1, 10; PL 25,
1551 B. See The Latin Fathers, pp. 140-141.
[xxii]The
reference to Saint Jerome here, I think, is the one Thomas is thinking of in
articulating the Rule of Jerome in the Psalms commentary. Quodlibetum VII, q.
6, a. 1, ad 5: ad quintum dicendum, quod auctor principalis sacrae
scripturae est spiritus sanctus, qui in uno verbo sacrae scripturae intellexit
multo plura quam per expositores sacrae scripturae exponantur, vel
discernantur. nec est etiam inconveniens quod homo, qui fuit auctor
instrumentalis sacrae scripturae, in uno verbo plura intelligeret: quia
prophetae, ut hieronymus dicit super osee, ita loquebantur de factis
praesentibus, quod etiam intenderunt futura significare. unde non est
impossibile simul plura intelligere, in quantum unum est figura alterius
[xxiii]In
Psalmum 21, introduction: sicut supra dictum est,
sicut in aliis prophetis, ita hic agitur de aliquibus tunc praesentibus
inquantum erant figura christi et quae ad ipsam prophetiam pertinebant. et ideo
quandoque ponuntur aliqua quae ad christum pertinent, quae excedunt quasi virtutem
historiarum. Et inter alia
specialiter iste Psalmus agit de passione Christi. Et
ideo hic est ejus sensus litteralis. Unde specialiter hunc Psalmum in passione
dixit cum clamavit, Heli Heli lammasabactani: quod idem est quod Deus
Deus meus etc. sicut hic Psalmus incipit. Et ideo licet figuraliter
hic Psalmus dicatur de David, tamen specialiter ad litteram refertur ad
Christum. Et in synodo Toletana quidam Theodorus Mopsuestenus, qui hunc ad
litteram de David exponebat, fuit damnatus, et propter hoc et propter alia
multa; et ideo de Christo exponendus est. Sciendum est autem quod quinque
Psalmi agunt de passione Christi prolixe: quorum iste Psalmus primus est. Alii
enim brevius tangunt passionem Christi. Secundus est, judica domine
nocentes me, Ps. 34. Tertius est, ibi, exaudi Deus orationem meam,
et ne despexeris deprecationem meam. Quartus, Ps. 68: salvum me fac
Deus, quoniam intraverunt aquae. Quintus, Ps. 108: Deus laudem meam
ne tacueris. Et hoc propter quinque plagas Christi: vel propter quinque
effusiones sanguinis. Et unus est modus procedendi in omnibus, quia incipiunt a
gemitu, et terminantur in salutem populorum: quia ex passione facta est salus
omnibus hominibus.
[xxiv]
Ratzinger “Biblical Interpretation in Conflict: On the Foundations and
Itinerary of Exegesis Today”, in Opening up the Scriptures: Joseph
Ratzinger and the Foundations of Biblical Interpretation edited by Josë Granados,
Carlos Granados, Luis Sánchez-Navarro (Eerdmans, 2008). Electronic format, pos
466: “When things have reached their goal, one can discover cover the true
sense that so to say lay hidden in them. This sense appearing at the end of the
movement transcends whatever sense might be inferred from any given section of
the now completed path. "This new sense thus presupposes the existence of
a divine Providence, the existence of a (salvation) history arriving at its
destination."" God's action thus appears as the principle of the
intelligibility of history. The unifying principle of the whole of past and
present "history, which alone confers sense on it, is, however, ever, the
historical event of Christ.”
[xxv] See
Summa Theologiae, Prima Pars, q. 1, a. 10.
