Biblical Hermeneutics

PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN
Akiba, the history of Israel, or, more properly, the history of Israel's sufferings, while Ibn
Ezra, like a philosopher, descries in it an allegory of the intimate union of the soul with the
universal intelligence, and explains it accordingly.
Philosophic Allegory.
It would seem that when the Arabian-Greek philosophy took root among the Jews, a
philosophico-allegorical treatment of Scripture gradually developed. The Karaite Solomon b.
Jeroham mentions Benjamin Nahawendi as the first Jewish allegorist (Pinsker, "Liḳḳute
ḳadmoniot," ii. 109), but the illustration he gives is quoted literally from the Midrash Rabbah
on Ecclesiastes, so that he can scarcely be said to prove his statement by it. Shaharastani
(Haarbrücker, p. 256) indeed relates of Judgan of Hamadan, a contemporary of Benjamin
(about 800), that he explains Scripture allegorically and in opposition to the custom of the
Jews. However much the Jewish philosophers of the Middle Ages may have agreed with the
Alexandrians that revelation and philosophy taught the same truth, they contrived generally
to avoid the mistake of the latter in straining to prove this by means of the most artificial and
far-fetched allegorization.
Saadia.
Saadia, the pioneer in Jewish religious philosophy, laid down a rule for the employment of
allegory which was recognized generally until the time of Maimonides; it was that Allegorical
Interpretation is only admissible in the four following cases: where the text contradicts (a)
reality, (b) reason, (c) another text, or finally (d) rabbinical tradition (sec. vii. p. 212 of the
Arabic text in Landauer). Saadia himself uses these rules in interpreting the
anthropomorphisms of the Bible as conflicting alike with reason and tradition. He also shows
how dangerous a free treatment of the literal word might become by showing how the Biblical
account of Creation, and the history of the Patriarchs, and even the precepts themselves,
could be so allegorized away that nothing of Holy Scripture would remain. Saadia's view of
the proper use of Allegorical Interpretation was accepted by Baḥya ibn Pakuda, Abraham b.
Ḥiyya, Abraham ibn Daud, and Judah ha-Levi. The last-named, by virtue of his
antiphilosophical bent, even found a way to defend the literal conception of the Bible's
anthropomorphic expressions; compare also Samuel b. Hophni.
Solomon ibn Gabirol.
Quite apart stands Solomon ibn Gabirol, who in his philosophy gave no consideration to
Judaism, but in his exegesis frequently made use of Allegorical Interpretation. His method is
quite Philonic, without being influenced, however, either directly or indirectly by Philo. Here is
an example of Gabirol's Allegorical Interpretation as quoted by Ibn Ezra (compare Bacher,
"Die Bibelexegese der Jüdischen Religionsphilosophen," p. 46; Kaufmann, "Studien über
Solomon b. Gabirol") in his commentary upon Genesis. Paradise is the world supernal; the
garden, the visible world of the pious. The river going forth out of Eden is universal matter.
Its four separating streams are the four elements. Adam, Eve, and the serpent represent the
three souls; Adam, who bestows names, representing the rational soul, Eve the animal soul
(the living ), and the serpent the vegetative. Thus, when it is said that the serpent shall
eat dust, it indicates that the vegetative soul cleaves to the dust of materialism. The coats of
skins typify the body; the tree of life is the perception of the upper intelligible world, just as
the cherubim, the angels, are the intelligible beings of the upper world. In addition to this
allegory of Gabirol's, Ibn Ezra quotes another interpretation of Jacob's dream; but while it is
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