De sensu.
When Words Resist Meaning
A sense may be unfitting when it appears absurd or false, as seen in several striking scriptural examples.
A sense is sometimes fitting, sometimes unfitting. Unfitting when it's unbelievable, impossible, absurd, or false. You find many instances of this kind in Scripture, like the line, 'They ate Jacob.' And that line, 'Under whom bow those who carry the world.' And that line, 'My soul has chosen hanging,' and many others.
Plain Words, Perplexing Sense
Isaiah's prophecy about seven women seizing one man uses clear language, yet the overall meaning remains elusive to the reader.
There are certain places in divine Scripture where, although the meaning of the words is clear, no coherent sense seems to emerge — whether because of an unusual way of speaking, or because of some circumstance that blocks the reader's understanding — as, for example, what Isaiah says: 'Seven women shall lay hold of one man in that day, saying, "We will eat our own bread, and wear our own clothing; only let your name be called upon us — take away our disgrace."' The words themselves are plain and clear. You understand well enough: 'Seven women shall lay hold of one man.' You understand: 'We will eat our bread.' You understand: 'We will be covered with our garments.' You understand: 'Only let your name be invoked over us.' You understand: 'Take away our reproach.'
The Turn to Spiritual Interpretation
Unable to grasp a literal meaning, the reader naturally turns to a spiritual interpretation, seeing the seven women as gifts of the Spirit seizing Christ.
But perhaps you can't grasp what this whole thing together is supposed to mean. You don't know what the prophet meant to say, whether he promised good or threatened evil. So it happens that you believe it must be understood only spiritually, because you don't see how it could have been meant literally. So you say the seven women are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which will seize one man—that is, Christ—in whom it pleased all the fullness of grace to dwell, because he alone received the Spirit without measure; he alone removes their reproach, so that they may find in him a place to rest, since no other man was alive for them to demand the gifts of the Holy Spirit from.✦✦✦1 See, you've interpreted it spiritually, and you don't understand what it means to say it literally.
Recovering the Literal Sense
Despite the spiritual reading, the prophet may have intended a literal meaning after all, describing a catastrophic shortage of men that reverses social customs.
Still, the prophet could have meant something literally through these words as well. For because he had spoken just above about the destruction of the transgressing people, he now adds that such a slaughter will come upon that same people, and the race of men will be wiped out to such an extent that seven women will scarcely find one man, whereas right now one woman is accustomed to have one man.✦ And while women are now accustomed to being asked by men, then, with the custom reversed, women will ask the men. And so that one man might not be afraid to take seven women at once, since he wouldn't have the means to feed and clothe them, they say to him: 'We will eat our own bread, and we will wear our own clothing.'✦ 'You don't need to be anxious about us; only let your name be invoked over us, so that you may be called our husband and may be ours, lest we be cast off as rejected, and die barren and childless — which at that time was a great disgrace.'✦ 'And this is what they say: Take away our disgrace.'✦ You find many things like this in the Scriptures, and especially in the Old Testament, sayings expressed in the idiom of that language, which, although they are clear there, seem to have no meaning for us.
Read the original Latin
Sensus, alius congruus, alius incongruus. incongruus, alius incredibilis, alius impossibilis, alius absurdus, alius falsus. multa huiusmodi invenis in scripturis, ut illud: Comederunt Iacob. et illud: Sub quo curvantur hi qui portant orbem. et illud: Elegit suspendium anima mea, et multa alia. sunt loca quaedam in divina scriptura, ubi, licet sit aperta verborum significatio, nullus tamen sensus esse videtur, vel propter inusitatum modum loquendi, sive propter aliquam circumstantiam quae legentis intelligentiam impedit, ut est, verbi gratia, illud quod dicit Isaias: Apprehendent septem mulieres virum unum in die illa dicentes: 'Panem nostrum comedemus, et vestimentis nostris operiemur, tantummodo invocetur nomen tuum super nos, aufer opprobrium nostrum.' plana sunt et aperta verba. intelligis satis: Apprehendent septem mulieres virum unum.
intelligis: Panem nostrum comedemus. intelligis: Vestimentis nostris operiemur. intelligis: Tantummodo invocetur nomen tuum super nos. intelligis: Aufer opprobrium nostrum.
Sed fortasse quid hoc totum simul significare velit, intelligere non potes. quid dicere voluerit propheta, bonum promiserit an malum minatus fuerit, ignoras. unde evenit ut spiritualiter tantum intelligendum credas quod, qualiter ad litteram dictum sit, non vides. dicis igitur septem mulieres septem esse dona Spiritus Sancti, quae unum virum apprehendent, id est, Christum, in quo omnem plenitudinem gratiae placuit inhabitare, quia ipse solus sine mensura Spiritum accepit, qui solus earum opprobrium aufert, ut inveniant in quo requiescant, nullo alio vivente ut Spiritus Sancti dona poscebant. ecce spiritualiter interpretatus es, et quid sit dicere ad litteram non intelligis. potuit tamen propheta per haec verba etiam ad litteram aliquid significare. quia enim supra de internecione populi praevaricatoris locutus fuerat, subiungit nunc tantam in eodem populo cladem futuram, et usque adeo virorum genus delendum, ut vix septem mulieres unum virum inveniant, cum modo una unum habere soleat. et cum mulieres nunc a viris rogari soleant, tunc converso more mulieres viros rogabunt.
et ne forte unus vir septem mulieres simul ducere formidaret, cum, unde eas pasceret et vestiret, non haberet, dicunt ei: Panem nostrum comedemus, et vestimentis nostris operiemur. non te oportet de nobis esse sollicitum, tantummodo invocetur nomen tuum super nos, ut dicaris vir noster, et sis, ne repudiatae dicamur, et steriles, et sine semine moriamur, quod eo tempore magnum opprobrium fuit. et hoc est quod dicunt: Aufer opprobrium nostrum. multa huiusmodi invenis in scripturis, et maxime in Veteri Testamento, secundum idioma illius linguae dicta, quae, cum ibi aperta sint, nihil apud nos significare videntur.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Isa.4.1 — And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing; only let your name be called upon us—take away our disgrace."
- ↩John.3.34 — For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.
- ↩Col.1.19 — For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,
- ↩Isa.3.1-Isa.4.1 — For behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, is removing from Jerusalem and from Judah support and supply, the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water. Isa.3.2 — the mighty man and the man of war, the judge and the prophet and the diviner and the elder Isa.3.3 — the captain of fifty and the honored counselor, the skilled craftsman and the clever enchanter Isa.3.4 — And I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. Isa.3.5 — And the people will be crushed, one person against another and each against his neighbor. The youth will act presumptuously against the elder, and the base against the honorable. Isa.3.6 — For a man shall seize his brother of his father's house: "You have a cloak; be our leader. Let this ruin be under your hand." Isa.3.7 — On that day he will refuse, saying, "I will not be a healer; in my house there is no bread and no clothing. You shall not make me ruler of the people." Isa.3.8 — For Jerusalem has stumbled, and Judah has fallen, for their tongue and their deeds are against the LORD, defying the eyes of his glory. Isa.3.9 — The look on their faces bears witness against them; they declare their sin like Sodom, they do not hide it. Woe to their souls, for they have dealt out evil to themselves. Isa.3.10 — Say to the righteous that it is well, for the fruit of their deeds they shall eat. Isa.3.11 — Woe to the wicked! Evil! For what his hands have done will be done to him. Isa.3.12 — My people—your leaders are children, and women rule over them. My people, your guides lead you astray, and the way of your paths they swallow up. Isa.3.13 — The LORD has taken His stand to plead His case and to judge the peoples. Isa.3.14 — The LORD enters into judgment with the elders of his people and their princes. It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. Isa.3.15 — What is it to you that you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor? declares the Lord, the LORD of Hosts. Isa.3.16 — And the LORD said, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet, Isa.3.17 — And the Lord will strike the scalps of the daughters of Zion with sores, and Yahweh will lay bare their private parts. Isa.3.18 — In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents— Isa.3.19 — the pendants, the charms, and the veils Isa.3.20 — the headdresses, the ankle chains, the sashes, the amulets, and the charms Isa.3.21 — the rings and the nose-rings, Isa.3.22 — the robes, the capes, the cloaks, and the purses Isa.3.23 — and the mirrors, and the linen garments, and the turbans, and the veils, Isa.3.24 — And instead of perfume there will be rot, and instead of a sash a rope, and instead of braided hair baldness, and instead of a fine robe a sackcloth wrapping — for beauty will be ashes. Isa.3.25 — Your men shall fall by the sword, and your mighty warriors in battle. Isa.3.26 — And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she shall sit desolate upon the ground. Isa.4.1 — And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing; only let your name be called upon us—take away our disgrace."
- ↩Isa.4.1 — And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing; only let your name be called upon us—take away our disgrace."
- ↩Isa.4.1 — And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing; only let your name be called upon us—take away our disgrace."
- ↩Isa.4.1 — And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing; only let your name be called upon us—take away our disgrace."
Notes
- 1 ↩The final clause ('nullo alio vivente ut Spiritus Sancti dona poscebant') is syntactically dense. Rendered here as a causal context: the women demanded the gifts because no other living man was available. An alternative reading treats 'ut' as comparative ('in the way that they demanded'), but the causal sense better fits the immediate context of seeking rest in Christ alone.
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