1. SENSES OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURE

2. LITERAL SENSE The meaning of words in their literary and historical context. Example: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gn 1:1).

3. Proper Sense The words understood according to their ordinary meaning. Example: “Male and female he created them” (Gn 1:27).

4. Improper The words understood figuratively and symbolically. Example: Any of the next five senses.

5. Metaphor or simile A comparison. Example: Jesus is the Lamb of God.

6. Hyperbole An exaggeration. Example: Abraham’s descendants will be as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore.

7. Parable A story illustrating a moral or spiritual truth. Example: The Prodigal Son.

8. Allegory A prolonged metaphor. Example: The Good Shepherd and the hireling.

9. Fable A story with animals or plants as characters that illustrates a moral or spiritual truth. Example: The story in Judges of the trees wanting a tree-king to rule over them.

10. Spiritual The people, things, and events Scripture describes as signs of something else. Example: The water that flows out of the Temple of the New Jerusalem represents grace and the sacraments.

11. Allegorical People and events in salvation history pointing forward to other times. Example: The sacrifice of Isaac foreshadows the sacrifice of Christ of the Cross.

12. Moral How we can use the heroes of Scripture as a pattern for our own lives to do good and avoid evil. Example: Samson lost all his strength because he consorted with a pagan woman.

13. Anagogical How the events of Scripture point upward to what we will know in Heaven. Example: The garden of Eden and the Promised Land are indicators of what Heaven will be like.