In traditional Bible study shared by Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, Scripture is said to have 4 senses. In the back of my mind, I remember reading that at times the list was as long as 7 senses. Google confirmed my memory:
Many Ways of Knowing — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)">
Unknown to many post-Reformation Christians, early centuries of Christianity—through authoritative teachers like Origen, Cyril of Alexandria, Augustine, and Gregory the Great—encouraged as many as seven “senses” of Scripture. The literal, historical, allegorical, moral, symbolic, eschatological (the trajectory of history and growth), and “primordial” or archetypal (commonly agreed-upon symbolism) levels of a text were often given serious weight among scholars. These levels were gradually picked up by the ordinary Christian through Sunday preaching (as is still true today) and presumed to be normative by those who heard them.
Does anyone know of a resource that discusses "all" the proposed senses and which Father was the first to use it?
