Biblical Hermeneutics

PRINCIPLES OF BIBLICAL HERMENETICS ; M. M. NINAN
events is carried still further: Pharaoh is the evil inclination; Moses, the intellect; Egypt, the
body; her princes, its members; the land of Goshen, the heart. Thus the Biblical narrative
connected with these is simply a representation of the conflict between human reason and
human passion for superiority in man. Even the minute and technical details of the
construction of the desert tabernacle are allegorized into a physiological portrayal of the
human body, its members and their functions. Although this "higher wisdom" at first did not
dare to undermine the historical and legal passages of Scripture, accepting them in their true
literalness, it was not long before it aspired to complete influence over the whole range of
Scriptural interpretation. The fundamental proposition of these allegorists was then
formulated, to the effect that all the narrative portions of Scripture, and especially those from
the initial verse of Genesis down to Ex. xx. 2, are not to be taken literally;
"From Creation to Revelation all is parable" (Minḥat ḳenaot, p. 153); and that even
some of the legislative enactments are to be understood symbolically. First of the
conservative allegorists who respected the literal word was Jacob b. Abba Mari Anatoli, at the
beginning of the thirteenth century.
The Opposition to Maimonides.
In his "Malmad ha-Talmidim" (Goad for Scholars), he allegorizes the story of Noah to the
effect that, in order to preserve himself against the waters of sin, every man must make
himself an ark out of his good deeds, and this ark must consist of three stories, the
mathematical, physical, and meta-physical elements (l.c. 12a). Even Anatoli, however,
understands the Wisdom-Books of the Bible to consist of philosophical reflections only.
Although Levy b. Abraham, of Villefranche, who was so prominent in the conflict concerning
Maimonides, protests most stoutly against radical allegorism, he, in his "Liwyat Ḥen,"
nevertheless allegorizes the campaign of the four kings against five (Gen. xiv.), making of
Chedorlaomer a representation of the Imagination, the leader in the battle of the five senses
against the four elements.
From the same school also came purely allegorical commentaries upon Scripture, of which
the following, out of the few fragments extant to-day, is an illustration: "Out of the house of
Levi", (Ex. ii. 1)—that means, from organic corporal association ( union)—"went a man"—
that is, Form—and "took to wife a daughter of Levi"; Form unites with Matter. From this union
a son is born, Reason. "The daughter of Pharaoh" is Active Reason, who is the daughter of
God the Recompenser ( , derived from , to recompense), and who is therefore called
Bithiah (literally, the daughter of God), as Moses' adoptive mother was traditionally named
(Meg. 13a). It is of the nature of Active Reason to work among lower beings, and make their
passive reason active reason too; wherefore it is said (verse 5) "the daughter of Pharaoh
came down" (compare the Zunz "Jubelschrift," p. 159). That such explanations of Scripture in
point of fact are tantamount to a perfect negation of its words is incontrovertible, and the
conservatives of Provence were justified in opposing it by all the means at their command.
The expulsion of the Jews from France in the beginning of the fourteenth century put an end
to the conflict, but the subversive principles of extreme allegorism had no doubt by that time
been completely checked. Gersonides, undoubtedly the most important genius among
theallegorists of the fourteenth century, never thought of allegorizing historical or legislative
passages, and instead contented himself with a philosophical exposition of Proverbs and Job,
and that in a most conservative manner. A contemporary, the Portuguese David b. Yom-Ṭob
ibn Bilia, unconscious in his remote country of the conflict between philosophy and orthodoxy,
was alone at this period in giving an Allegorical Interpretation to the miracles and narratives
of Scripture.
110