Tim Maas Supporter Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

My understanding is that there are four major schools of biblical hermeneutics:

llteral: a text is to be interpreted according to the “plain meaning” conveyed by its grammatical construction and historical context. The literal meaning is held to correspond to the intention of the authors. This type of hermeneutics is often, but not necessarily, associated with belief in the verbal inspiration of the Bible, according to which the individual words of the divine message were divinely chosen.

moral: seeks to establish principles by which ethical lessons may be drawn from the various parts of the Bible. Allegorization is often employed in this endeavour. For example, the non-canonical Letter of Barnabas (from around AD 100) interprets the dietary laws prescribed in the Book of Leviticus as forbidding not the flesh of certain animals, but rather vices creatively associated with those animals.

allegorical: interprets the biblical narratives as having a second level of reference beyond those persons, things, and events explicitly mentioned in the text. A particular form of allegorical interpretation is the typological, according to which the key figures, main events, and principal institutions of the Old Testament are seen as “types” or foreshadowings of persons, events, and objects in the New Testament. According to this theory, for example, an interpretation such as regarding Noah’s ark as a “type” of the Christian church were originally intended by God in His inspiration of the Biblical account.

anagogical (mystical): seeks to explain biblical events as they relate to or foreshadow the life to come

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Shirley H Supporter Wife, mother, veteran in the spiritual war we all face!

There are 5 types of hermeneutics...definition of hermeneutics - the study of philosophy or the study of nature.

As humans we interpret everything, even if we don't realize we are doing it. 

1 - natural, such as common sense reading

2 - normative - concerning the inerrancy of scripture

3 - scientific - as in a way of thinking in accordance with scientific proof

4 - philosophical - in agreement with a particular theory or method of reason

5 - depth - exegesis, principles of the Bible

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