How to read the Bible like the early church did
Christianity Today
July 21, 2026
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Illustration by Christianity Today / Source Images: Getty, Baker Academic
Many modern hermeneutics lessons open with an example of how not to interpret. The infamous Augustinian allegory of Luke’s parable of the Good Samaritan is the classic offender. Augustine interprets Luke 10 in the following way:
A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho; Adam himself is meant; Jerusalem is the heavenly city of peace, from whose blessedness Adam fell. … Thieves are the devil and his angels. Who stripped him, namely; of his immortality; and beat him, by persuading him to sin; and left him half-dead, because in so far as man can understand and know God, he lives, but in so far as he is wasted and oppressed by sin, he is dead; he is therefore called half-dead. The priest and the Levite who saw him and passed by, signify the priesthood and ministry of the Old Testament which could profit nothing for salvation. Samaritan means Guardian, and therefore the Lord Himself is signified by this name. The binding of the wounds is the restraint of sin. … The inn is the Church, where travelers returning to their heavenly country are refreshed after pilgrimage. … The innkeeper is the Apostle (Paul).
Notice what Augustine has done. Each detail is interpreted symbolically, or allegorically. The man traveling on the road is Adam, or all of us. We are all left half dead in our sins. The priest and the Levite represent the Old Testament, which cannot save. The Good Samaritan is Christ, for Christ is our ultimate guardian. The inn to which we are brought is the church.
When this example is spoken about in the modern day, the instructor typically proceeds to explain that this is not the way to interpret. This is allegory; it doesn’t read according to the plain sense of Jesus’ words.
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Augustine’s interpretation is dismissed because it doesn’t follow grammatical-historical exegesis. As Benjamin Jowett says, Scripture has one meaning: the meaning it had to the mind of the prophet or evangelist who first uttered or wrote, to the hearers or readers who first received it. He also says that the interpreter is not to add another meaning but ought to recover the original one and that we are to read the Bible like any other book. After we have done this, we can then seek to apply the text, which allows ministers of the gospel to cross contexts and respect both the original context and the context of their hearers.
Most modern people reject Augustine’s allegory because it doesn’t seem to accord with the above. However, I contend we ought not to quickly reject such a reading if we refuse to enter the worldview and reading strategy that created it. Understanding doesn’t mean we must accept Augustine’s conclusions, but we can at least understand why he interpreted a parable in this way.
Augustine was not the only one to read the parable this way; most of the other early interpreters did as well, including Origen and Thomas Aquinas. There was a time when Augustine’s interpretation was viewed as proper. Now this interpretation is almost universally condemned.
To grasp Augustine’s exegesis, we must understand the what and the why of fourfold sense. Most throughout church history accepted the doctrine of the “senses” of Scripture. For early interpreters, unlike for moderns, the “letter” and the “meaning” were not always the same. There could be one letter and multiple senses. (Sense refers to what someone says, while reference refers to what that something is about.) In other words, the four senses affirm that there can be four different (but connected) referents. These multiple referents were categorized as the “four senses” of Scripture, also known as the quadriga.
Christian interpreters began distinguishing senses very early in the history of the church, though the “four” senses were not solidified until later. Though the apostolic fathers don’t employ the exact language, the Epistle to Barnabas (late first or early second century) says that Moses in his laws “spoke spiritually” or “in the spirit” (pneumati, my translation).
It was the monk John Cassian (who died around 435) who named four senses in his Conferences. He argued that the one literal sense of the Bible is the basis of three spiritual senses, which he called allegorical, tropological, and anagogical.
The literal sense refers to the most natural sense of the words in their grammatical and historical context, a sense that will be discovered by sound exegesis. It is the author’s intention in accordance with genre. The literal sense contains, discloses, but also veils the mystery of Christ. When we seek the literal sense, we ask questions of the text like “What is being said?” and “To what does this refer?”
The allegorical sense refers to symbolic or figural meanings that have some connection with Christ or the church. To discern an allegorical sense is to assert that the words point to things that point to other things. But an allegorical sense will always be in conjunction with the literal sense. To seek an allegorical sense is to ask questions such as “Where is Christ or the triune God in this text?” and “How does this text point to the church?”
The tropological sense is another spiritual sense, but when we seek this sense, we narrow our focus to the formation of the church and persons in the church. We’re concerned with morality, ethics, and being. A tropological interpretation affirms that the Scriptures are meant to be lived, not simply studied; they pertain to what we are called to do. This phase of interpretation asks questions such as “Who are we?” and “How is this text calling us to act?”
The final spiritual sense is the anagogical. This sense pertains to what is to come, what we are hoping for, and our ascent to God. When we interpret anagogically, we ask questions like “How does this text point to the new creation or God’s judgment?” and “How does it help me ascend to God?”
Bonaventure puts it this way: “By tropology, they teach us how to act as men; by allegory, show us what to believe with faith; by anagogy, reveal to us what to desire for our eternal delight.”
Because the senses are unified yet distinct from one another, many in the Christian tradition have compared the quadriga to a house. The literal sense is like the foundation, the allegorical is like the walls of the house, the tropological is like the decorations or furniture, and the anagogical is like the roof. In this way, the church fathers claimed that the four senses are a comprehensive way of reading the Scriptures—the whole house is completed. You can’t read rightly without attending to the christological sense or the moral sense or the eschatological sense. Without these, the house is not yet constructed.
The domicile metaphor also points to the significance of the four-senses sequence in a Protestant order. The literal sense is the foundation from which all the other senses emerge. The other senses must find their grounding in the literal sense, or else they will collapse, and great will be their fall. You must lay the foundation and put up the walls before you begin decorating. Therefore, allegory must grow from the literal. Otherwise, christological exegesis will be unmoored from the text and Christ will be found in places he should not be. This will skew theological constructions and ultimately lead to heresy.
The tropological sense shouldn’t be articulated apart from the allegorical, for otherwise we will moralize the text, forgetting that morality matures only in gospel truth. Doctrine precedes ethics just as the flower comes before the fruit and faith precedes love. Allegory ultimately gives rise to tropology, for as we are united to Christ, we are empowered by the Spirit to live, move, and have our being in him.
Finally, the eschatological sense appropriately comes last. The meaning of Scripture can be rightly understood only in light of the telos of history. In relation to the literal and allegorical senses, the first advent of Christ points to the second advent, and the second advent can be understood only as we comprehend his first coming. In addition, we can articulate the eschatological only after we have begun to participate in the life of Christ. Virtuous acts (learned from the tropological sense) expand the soul’s capacity to receive Christ in the beatific vision (the anagogical sense). On the last day, we will be transfigured when we see him, but our transfiguration begins even now. The Scriptures and the senses are a ladder with which we ascend to God.
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Maybe all this is too theoretical for you. The proof is in the pudding. The best way to see how this works is to go to the Scriptures. The most famous example of the fourfold sense can be found in ancient interpretations of the name Jerusalem. Though such interpretations are usually done with reference to Galatians 4, we will look at Matthew 23.
In Matthew 23:37 Jesus says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her” (CSB). The fourfold sense can be explained in this way.
Literal: Jerusalem refers first to a historical city and its first-century inhabitants. The city was once inhabited by the Jebusites, captured by David, and made the capital of Israel and later the capital of the southern kingdom of Judah (literal). Jesus is entering that historical city and referring to the people of the city on his way to his death on the cross.
Allegorical: But Jerusalem is also more than simply a historical city and its people. Jerusalem can also be understood as a cipher for all God’s people, both past and present. Jesus’ words refer first to the historical city and the people who rebuff him. Yet Jerusalem spiritually represents all God’s people who have killed the prophets—past, present, and future (Gal. 4:25).
Tropological: Jerusalem also represents the individual human soul. Christ’s lament is personal. He longs for his own people to be ready to accept their Savior. He longs for you and me to have our hearts opened to him. We shouldn’t be like historical Jerusalem, which sought to kill him.
Anagogical: Finally, Jerusalem reminds us of the New Jerusalem. Christ’s cry of agony over Jerusalem is a prayer aimed toward the time when his great city will welcome him with open arms. His cry is laden with hope: On the last day, Jesus will no longer lament over his people but rejoice over them (Gal. 4:26; Heb. 12:22–23; Rev. 21:2).
One can even look at a broad section of Scripture under the banner of the four senses. The Psalms as a whole conform to the quadriga. In the literal sense, they are Israel’s songs. They were written by Israelites and for Israelites. They tell of events and use imagery from the ancient Near East. However, the Psalms are also Christ’s songs (allegorical sense). Ultimately, he is the new Israel who sings all these songs. He is the true voice and author of the Psalms. Yet as they are his songs, they are also our songs (tropological sense). The new covenant promises us that we are in Christ. We sing these songs to the Father through Christ and in the Spirit. Finally, they are also new-creation songs (anagogical sense). In the last day, we will surround the throne and sing songs (Rev. 5:13; Pss. 145:21; 150:6). Some of these songs might even be the Psalms.
Fourfold interpretation is a faithful, helpful, historic, and holistic way of reading the Scriptures. This way of reading respects the historical context, views the Bible as a whole, connects to our lives, and points us to the future. It is a hermeneutical house we can live in.
Patrick Schreiner is professor of New Testament and biblical theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Excerpted from Schreiner’s book The Four Senses of Scripture: Learning from Ancient Ways of Reading the Bible (Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group, 2026). Used by permission.
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