Levels of Interpreting Scripture: A Simplified Version of Pardes

Description

As early as the 12th Century CE, Christian interpreters of the Bible had come to classify the interpretation of Scripture in terms of four “senses” that the biblical text could have. The default would be to take a biblical text literally, the “literal sense.” We might say today that the literal sense of a text is when the words are taken in their normal way. The three non-literal or “spiritual” ways of reading Scripture are the 1) allegorical, 2) moral, and 3) anagogical.

This curriculum is designed to help you understand the layers and nuance of biblical interpretation; appreciate the historicity of this multi-layered approach, from both Jewish and Christian sources; and learn to employ a simplified version of rabbinical interpretation for laypeople, thus enriching our biblical understanding.