Didascalicon, Book V: the senses of Scripture and the three kinds of readers
Chapter IV. On the seven rules
It is to be observed that there are seven rules, among others, for the sayings of the holy Scriptures, as certain wise men have said. The first rule is about the Lord and his body, which speaks of one to one, and in one person shows now the head, now the body, as Isaias says: He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, and with the robe of justice he hath covered me, as a bridegroom decked with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels (Isa. 61). For in one person, named by a double name, he made manifest both the head, that is the bridegroom, and the Church, that is the bride. Accordingly it is to be noted in the Scriptures when the head is written of specially, when both head and body, or when it passes from both to each, or from one to the other, and so the prudent reader may understand what suits the head and what the body. The second rule is about the Lord’s body, one and simple and mixed. For some things seem to suit one person which yet are not of one, as is that: Thou art my servant, O Israel; behold I have blotted out thy iniquities as a cloud, and thy sins as a mist: return to me, and I will redeem thee (Isa. 44). This does not agree with one. For there is one part whose sins he has blotted out, to whom he says Thou art mine; and another to whom he says, return to me, and I will redeem thee; whose sins, if they be converted, shall be blotted out. By this rule Scripture so speaks to all that both the good are rebuked with the wicked and the wicked are praised for the sake of the good; but what pertains to whom he who reads prudently will learn. The third rule is about the letter and the spirit, that is about the law and grace: the law by which the precepts to be done are set before us; grace by which we are helped to work. Or that the law is to be understood not only historically but also spiritually. For we ought both to hold faith historically and to understand the law spiritually. The fourth rule is about species and genus, by which the part is taken for the whole and the whole for the part, as if God speaks to one people or city and yet it is understood to touch the whole world. For although the Lord threatens through the prophet Isaias against one city, Babylon, yet while he speaks against it, he passes from species to genus, and turns his discourse against the whole world. Surely, if he were not speaking against the whole world, he would not add below generally: To destroy the whole earth, and I will visit evils upon the world (Isa. 13), and the rest that follows pertaining to the intention of the world, whence he also added: This is the counsel that I have devised upon all the earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations (Isa. 14). Likewise after he has under the person of Babylon rebuked the whole world, he returns again to the same as from genus to species, saying what happened specially to that city. Behold I will stir up the Medes against them (Isa. 13). For in the reign of Baltassar Babylon was taken by the Medes. So from the person of one Egypt he wishes the whole world to be understood by saying: And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians, kingdom against kingdom (Isa. 19), although Egypt is described as having had not many kingdoms but one kingdom.
The fifth rule is about times, by which either the greatest part of a time is brought in through a lesser part, or the least part of a time is understood through a greater. So it is with the three days of the Lord’s burial, since he did not lie in the sepulchre three full days and nights, yet from the part the whole three days are taken. Or as that which God had foretold, that the children of Israel should serve four hundred years in Egypt and so go out from there. Yet they were condemned while Joseph ruled Egypt; and they did not go out immediately after four hundred years, as had been promised, but when four hundred and thirty years had been completed they departed from Egypt. There is also another figure concerning times, by which some things that are to come are narrated as already done, as is that: They have dug my hands and feet; and: They parted my garments among them (Ps. 21); and the like, in which things to come are spoken of as already done. But why are things still to be done narrated as already done? Because what is future to us is already done in God’s eternity. Wherefore when something is announced as to be done, it is said according to us; but when things to come are said to be already done, they are to be taken according to God’s eternity, with whom all that is to come is already done. The sixth rule is about recapitulation. There is recapitulation when Scripture turns back to something whose narration had already passed, as when Scripture had recorded the sons of the sons of Noe (Gen. 10), it says that they were in their tongues and nations, and yet afterwards, as if this also is sought in this order of times: And the earth, it says, was of one lip [one language], and the speech was the same to all (Gen. 11). How then were they according to their nations and according to their tongues, if there was one tongue for all, unless because by recapitulating the narration returned to what had already passed? The seventh rule is about the devil and his body, because things are often said of the head itself which suit more his body. Often, however, things seem to be said of the members and agree only with the head. For from the name of the body the head is understood, as in the Gospel about the cockle mixed with the wheat, the Lord saying: An enemy hath done this (Matt. 13), calling the devil himself a man, and from the name of the body designating the head; likewise from the name of the head the body is signified, as in the Gospel it is said: Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? (John 6), indicating Judas, because he was the body of the devil. For the apostate angel is the head of all the wicked, and the body of this head are all the wicked; and so he is one with his members, so that often what is said to his body is referred rather to him. And again what is said to him is derived to his members, as in Isaias, where, when the prophetic discourse had said much against Babylon, that is against the body of the devil, it again derives the sentence of the oracle to the head, that is the devil, saying: How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning? (Isa. 14).