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