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