DOC6/557 - Elijah goes to heaven in a fiery quadriga watched by Elisha

LASSUS, Jean (1973) - L'Illustration Byzantine du Livre des Rois. Vaticanus Graecus. Va, Livre IV, p. 83-84. Bibliotheque des Cahiers Archeologiques IX, Ed. Klincksieck, Paris. --- 2 King 2: And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces.

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Biblical Interpretation in the Middle Ages and the Reformation - Dr. Kenneth Hagen [Bethany Lutheran College, S. C. Ylvisaker Fine Arts Center, Mankato, Minnesota, October 26 and 27, 2000.

 

We are going to take a ride on our chariot and see where it (she) takes us. The most common assertion about biblical interpretation in the Middle Ages and the Reformation is that medieval theologians employed the fourfold method of interpreting Scripture known as the quadriga and the reformers rejected it. The four senses were: history, allegory, tropology, and anagogy.

“The medieval quadriga” is the common coinage. But if you look in your classical Latin dictionary you will find that quadriga means “A chariot with its team of four horses running abreast,” or “a team of four chariot horses,” “four abreast,” “a four-horse team,” “four-horse chariot,” or just “chariot.” We might say a four-horse rig. Medieval and ecclesiastical Latin dictionaries continue defining quadriga as “chariot” or “wagon.” How do we go then from a four-horse rig to the four senses of Scripture? I had a colleague who always bugged me about where this quadriga came from. “Well, it’s medieval and comes from John Cassian,” I would reply; all histories of hermeneutics will tell you that. All medievals used a threefold or fourfold scheme to designate the multiple senses of Scripture. The fourfold scheme is the quadriga. Right? Well, it not only is not so easy; it may not be true. And then there is Luther; he rejected allegory and the whole quadriga, right? Well, here again it is not so easy and may not be true.

 

Data on Quadriga.

If you want to know the meaning and use of a word in medieval theology, you must know its usage in the Vulgate because the Latin of medieval theology is the Latin of the Bible. The Latin Vulgate permeated the style and vocabulary of most medieval literature and certainly all of medieval theology. Medieval theologians have been described as “walking concordances” because they carried the whole of Scripture in their heads and hearts. Melanchthon said that Luther had memorized the whole Bible.

 

Meaning of Quadriga in the Latin Bible.

The six instances of quadriga in the nominative singular in the Vulgate all translate “chariot.”

Zech. 6:1-5 is cited throughout the Middle Ages: NRSV Zech. 6:1. And again 1 looked up and saw four chariots coming out from between two mountains—mountains of bronze. The first chariot had red horses, the second chariot black horses, the third chariot white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled gray horses. Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” The angel answered me, “These are the four winds of heaven going out, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth.” There are eight instances of quadrigae in the plural, all mean chariots. Example: NRSV Isa. 66:15. For the LORD will come in fire, and his chariots like the whirlwind, to pay back his anger in fury, and his rebuke in flames of fire.

The four instances of quadrigam (in accusative singular) all mean chariot: NRSV Isa. 43:17. ...who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick.

The eleven instances of quadrigarum (genitive plural) all translate chariots: NRSV 1 Sam. 8:11. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots.”

The four instances of quadrigas (accusative plural) mean chariots: NRSV 1 Chron. 18:4. David took from him one thousand chariots, seven thousand cavalry, and twenty thousand foot soldiers. David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but left one hundred of them.

Five instances of quadrigis (a blative plural), all chariots: NRSV 2 Chron. 16:8. Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a huge army with exceedingly many chariots and cavalry? Yet because you relied on the LORD, he gave them into your hand.

Conclusion regarding quadriga in the Vulgate: The thirty-eight instances of quadriga (in various case endings) in the Latin Vulgata all translate and mean chariot(s). Plain old rigs, all connoting horses, charioteers, battles, blood and guts. No connection to senses or meaning of anything, let alone Scripture. As I imagine sitting behind a “stinken” old four-horse team, what flies in my face is anything but the sweetness of Scripture.

 

What happens to the word “quadriga,” chariot, in the Middle Ages? In the Patrologia Latina Database (PLD) are 311 instances of quadriga in the nominative singular. There is some variation on quadriga in the Middle Ages. Beyond the biblical references to chariots on earth

engaged in battles, using horses and soldiers, the word “quadriga” takes on a figure of speech beyond the temporal world. To use Patristic language, it becomes an image, a symbol, a metaphor: Martyrs are carried away in chariots to glory (PLD, vol. 17). The New Testament—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—is the chariot of the Lord (vol. 22 and elsewhere). The Lord sits in the heavens in his chariot and the angels praise him (26). Lie (falsehood) is the chariot of the demons (39). Spousal obedience, you are a perfect ladder to heaven, you a chariot by which Elijah was carried to heaven, you are the gateway to paradise (40). Prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude—these are enclosed in the regions of heaven; you chariot as charioteer of Christ carries to the goal (30).

Virtues, four cardinal virtues: chariot of the virtues of heaven (46). Chariot of friends, full of love (100). Ancient customs are brought together into one chariot—Richard, Hugo, Willelmus, Hamo (163). The chariot of Christ (Quadriga Christi) is the Gospel; the four wheels are the four evangelists. The chariot of Aminadab are the four Gospels (172). Conclusions regarding quadriga in Scripture and the Middle Ages: In Scripture and throughout the Middle Ages, quadriga means chariot (singular or plural), a four-horse chariot. Most often in the Middle Ages, quadriga means one of the chariots of battle cited in Scripture. Less often but sometimes in the Middle Ages, quadriga takes on metaphoric usage, the four horses become four virtues, four vices, four Gospels. One could say that it would be a short step from quadriga as four Gospels to quadriga as the four senses of Scripture. The question is “Who first took that step and when?” The fourfold sense or meaning (quadrifariam) of Scripture goes back to the early period (Jerome, Cassian).

 

A threefold division goes back to Origen’s anthropology of body, soul, and spirit, hence historical, moral, and mystical senses of Scripture. Images of three and four a bound. One threefold, classic image, having to do with building a house, came from Gregory the Great and was used by Hugh of St. Victor: the historical sense is the foundation, the structure built thereon is the allegorical sense, the decoration is the tropological sense.

Configurations of four abound: four Gospels, four corners of the world, four winds, four rivers of paradise, four legs of the table in the temple. The fourfold division emerged as the dominant practice by the end of the Middle Ages. The fourfold meaning was put to rhyme, nobody knows exactly when for the first time, and called a “verse” by Lyra; Lyra refers to these four senses (istorum quatuor sensuum). The most comprehensive and respected survey of medieval exeges is by Henri De Lubac finds the earliest usage of the rhyme (distich) to come from a Dane, Augustine (Aage) of Denmark, in a document published around 1260. Lyra’s dates are 1270-1349. The verse (distich, a verse couplet) is as follows:

 

Littera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria,

Moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia.

 

The letter teaches what happened, the allegorical what you are to believe, the moral what you are to do,the anagogical where you are going. Jerusalem (literally) is the city; Jerusalem (allegorically) is the church; Jerusalem (morally) is the human soul; Jerusalem (anagogically) is heaven. Nobody up to Lyra applies the word “quadriga” to the well-known verse (from my research); neither does Lyra. Lyra says, “Sacred Scripture has quadruplicem sensum [fourfold meaning]” and later cites “the verse.” I think it is safe to say that if anyone were to assign the verse (distich) to quadriga the greatest biblical scholar of the age, Nicholas of Lyra, would have done so. Lyra, like Luther’s amanuensis Rörer, was a vacuumcleaner that sucked up the wealth of medieval biblical learning. Now mind you that Lyra is not just some fourteenth-century manuscript, though many copies were made of his commentaries (Postillae). Lyra was in the Bible, Luther’s Bible (literally!). That is, when the Great Froben Bibles were printed, starting in 1498 and continuing to 1508, Lyra’s commentaries occupied the whole right side of the page of the Bible. The Froben Bible (1506-1508) was the edition available to Luther in Wittenberg. So when Luther opened his Bible to his favorite Epistle, Galatians, there he saw Lyra say, “Sacred Scripture has quadruplicem sensum [fourfold meaning]”; quadruplex not quadriga.

 

Quadriga in Luther.

What we have then is that at the end of the Middle Ages the famous “verse” is given by the best-known and most influential biblical scholar, Lyra. The word used by everyone to describe this verse, quadriga, cannot be located and connected to the verse (before 1508). The first person to use the verse and the word “quadriga” is Luther (between 1517 and 1521). You might think that this is an acceptable solution, Luther put quadriga on the map; Luther is more well-known and more influential than Lyra. The problem with this is that when Luther does refer to “quadriga” he does so in a manner that seems to indicate it is a well-known word descriptive of the four senses. Furthermore, Luther’s use and comments about quadriga are not unequivocal (he vacillates somewhat): at first he is critical of quadriga, calling it a game and saying it does not lead to true understanding of Scripture. About two years later he is mildly supportive of quadriga. Then about two years later still he attacks quadriga. Then after 1521, he reverts to the medieval usage of quadriga as “chariot” in the biblical sense of the word and not the four senses of Scripture.

In 1516, as in 1513, Luther uses the traditional four senses, then in 1516 (On Galatians) he recites the verse (distich) as well. However, no word “quadriga” is attached. In his 1516 comments on Gal. 4:24, Luther introduces the distich with these words: Quadruplex sensus scripturae habetur in usu (there is a fourfold meaning of Scripture in use today).

Note that Luther says quadruple, not quadriga; quadruplex was the customary word (Lyra’s word). In 1516 he sees problems with the usual delimitation of the four senses as too narrow and too inconsistent. The first usage of “quadriga” comes in a Sermon on the Ten Commandments early in 1517. Here, he is negative, saying that the most impious deal with “that quadriga.” “The most impious” are called Scholastic doctors. Their most accurate name, however, is “stage actors,” “humorists,” and “mockers” because they make inept games out of the literal, allegorical, moral, and anagogical senses.

The word “that” (illam) denotes that famous quadriga, as though everyone knew what Luther was talking about. The demonstrative pronoun (that) puzzles me since I cannot (nor can anyone else) find “quadriga” as the “famous four fold meaning” in print. In 1519, when he gives mild approval, he refers again to “that quadriga” with a different demonstrative pronoun (ista) as though it is well-known (in this case he seems to use 'ista' with a negative connotation). In 1519 (on Gal. 4:24), Luther again knows and uses the word “quadriga” applied to the four senses of Scripture. He does so in a way that indicates that he is not making any of this up. He speaks of the usual interpretation of the four senses and even calls it a “game” played by some, which is okay if it is not used to the extreme and if it adds ornamentation to the legitimate sense. Often for Luther allegory means an example for the not well-instructed, or a “milky teaching.” Then Luther’s next point is: “That quadriga, though I do not disapprove of it, is not sufficiently supported by the authority of Scripture, by the custom of the Fathers, or by grammatical principles” (LW 27:311). The American Edition translates quadriga as “four-horse team” which makes no sense as translation but is correct as to its classical usage. Soon after 1519, in his second commentary on the Psalms from 1519-21, Luther has another thought about the quadriga, this time completely unfavorable. His concern here is with those who slice up Scripture into various pieces, going back to Origen and Jerome and continuing up to Scholasticism and the Antichrist.

Actually Luther’s term is very strong; he attacks those corrupters who “lace rate,” mangle, Scripture into four parts and “divide the robe of Christ.” To paraphrase, toward the end of the Operationes in Psalmos: Scripture began to be lacerated with the falling apart (down) of the Fathers and to deteriorate in succeeding generations. Then with the Universities and the reigning of the Antichrist, confirmed in the hand of the Roman Pontiff, came not the mystery of iniquity but iniquity itself in control and its abomination standing in the holy place openly, as Christ and his Apostles became extinct. Soon Saint Thomas with Lyra and his kind began to publish to the world quadrigam illam sensuum scripturae, literalem, tropologicum, allegoricum et anagogicum, and thus divide the robe of Christ into four parts; and all the authors, doctors, inquistors were audacious corrupters of Scripture.

Luther sees the “quadriga” to be so named (made known to the world) by Thomas, then Lyra and others. He goes on to repeat that the Scholastics in their lacerations of Scripture know nothing of the legitimate meaning of Scripture. What we may have here I have seen elsewhere in medieval theology, namely, that some position is attributed to someone and that attribution continues to be repeated without any basis in fact. I cannot see where quadriga in Thomas is used in any way other than chariots and horses.

These three references, 1517, 1519, 1521, are the only three references in all of Luther’s works where he connects quadriga with the four senses of Scripture; otherwise, in thirteen other uses “quadriga” refers to chariot(s); except in one place where it means “fourfold meaning of sins.”

Something tells me that I must conclude that Luther in 1517 is the first to use quadriga in print as applied to the fourfold meaning of Scripture. You could even say the four-horse chariot has become the fourfold meaning of Scripture, a logical extension of medieval metaphor. Now mind you that Luther is not terribly excited about the fourfold meaning (now called quadriga by him), and says that it cannot be used to establish a doctrine of faith (which is Aquinas’s position as well). Plus he says that the distinctions among the four senses are not clearly and consistently made among the Fathers. Nevertheless, Luther uses the three spiritual senses off and on throughout his life, not for doctrine but for example and ornamentation.

 

 

Done