The Four Senses

Words: 428
Pages: 2

BAPTISM
The Four Senses
LITERAL
What the author is intending to say, what the story actually says
ALLEGORICAL
Symbols in the stories, how the story foreshadows a later event
MORAL
How should we act turning the story back onto ourselves, learn the lesson
ANAGOGICAL
The future sense of scripture, points us to the Heaven
Old Testament Story
Noah’s Ark
Literal
Because of Noah’s righteousness, God spared Noah and his family from the flood. After years of being surrounded by both violence and corruption, they would be set free while wickedness would be washed from the face of the earth.
Allegorical
Noah’s Ark story can be looked at as a purifying experience through which God wanted to wash away sinners, similar to the baptism experience. By passing through the waters of baptism, Noah saved himself and his family, condemned the world of the ungodly, and became the heir of righteousness. He passed from death into life. He left behind the violent, corrupt world, so that he could become a new Adam, bringing about a new Genesis for the human race.
Moral
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Anagogical
Your ultimate goals in life were reconciliation with God, avoidance of spiritual destruction, and arrival at a final place of safety called heaven. It’s all very precise: Noah is the just man; the ark is the Church; the flood is God’s wrath against sinners; and Mount Ararat is paradise. To the medieval reader, the story of Noah’s ark was a perfectly encapsulated mini-symbol of the salvation.
New Testament Story
The Baptism of