"In the interpretation
of the Bible the Church recognizes two senses: (a) the literal sense, which is
the objective, actual and immediate truth which God prompted the writer to
convey; (b) the typical sense (also called mystical or spiritual, which is the
truth intended by God to be expressed by means of a figure or type) which itself
must be a matter of historical fact; this must be distinguished from any
subjective or symbolical sense. It is the office of the Church to declare the
sense of any given scriptural passage; according to St. Thomas [Aquinas], the
literal sense alone can be used for purpose of argument from the Scriptures."
(Catholic Dictionary)
An "accommodated
sense" refers to the sense "given to a scriptural text other than that
originally intended" (Catholic Dictionary)
Also, note that when
persons speak of "four senses of Scripture", they are actually referring to the
two senses (literal and spiritual), but have subdivided the spiritual sense into
the allegorical sense, the moral sense, and the anagogical sense.
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