De littera.
The Letter: Complete, Incomplete, Redundant
Hugh introduces three ways the literal sense of Scripture can appear: complete, incomplete, or redundant, with scriptural examples for each.
Sometimes the letter is complete, when, to convey what's being said, there's nothing you need to add to or take away from the words set down — as with 'All wisdom is from the Lord God'; sometimes it's incomplete, when something is left to be understood — as with 'the elder to the chosen lady'; sometimes it's redundant, whether because of repetition for emphasis or a long intervening passage, the same point is repeated or something unnecessary is added — as Paul says near the end of his letter to the Romans: 'To him, but then, after many intervening remarks, he adds: 'To whom be honor and glory.'' Here something else seems redundant. By redundant I mean what isn't needed to make the statement.
Hyperbaton: Restoring Disordered Words
Hugh explains how Scripture sometimes scrambles word order, requiring the reader to rearrange phrases into proper grammatical form.
Sometimes the wording is such that, unless it's recast into another form, it seems to mean nothing or to be incoherent — as in this example: 'The Lord in heaven his seat,' that is, 'The seat of the Lord is in heaven'; and 'the sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows,' that is, 'the teeth of the sons of men'; and 'Man, his days are as grass,' that is, 'The days of man.'✦✦✦ That is, the nominative of a noun and the genitive of a pronoun are put for a single genitive of a noun, and many other cases like this.
Construction and Continuity Belong to the Letter
Hugh concludes by affirming that grammatical construction and textual continuity are properly concerns of the literal sense.
Construction and continuity belong to the letter.
Read the original Latin
Littera aliquando perfecta est, quando ad significandum id quod dicitur nihil praeter ea quae posita sunt vel addere vel minuere oportet, ut, omnis sapientia a Domino Deo est; aliquando imminuta, quando subaudiendum aliquid relinquitur, ut, senior electae dominae; aliquando superflua, quando vel propter inculcationem vel longam interpositionem idem repetitur vel aliud non necessarium adiungitur, ut Paulus in fine Epistulae ad Romanos dicit: Ei autem, et postea multis interpositis infert: Cui est honor et gloria. aliud hic superfluum esse videtur. superfluum dico, id est, non necessarium ad enuntiationem faciendam. aliquando talis est littera, ut, nisi in aliam resolvatur, nihil significare vel incongrua esse videatur, ut est illud: Dominus in caelo sedes eius, id est, sedes Domini in caelo, et filii hominum, dentes eorum arma et sagittae, id est, filiorum hominum dentes, et Homo sicut faenum dies eius, id est, dies hominis. nominativus scilicet nominis et genitivus pronominis, pro uno genitivo nominis positi, et multa alia similiter. ad litteram constructio et continuatio pertinet.
Scripture echoes
Didascalicon de Studio Legendi (On the Study of Reading) companion
Hugh said begin with small daily portions. Start tomorrow.
Chosen Portion serves one short, ordered devotional reading each day — the medieval lectio pattern, free on iOS.
Hugh taught that formation comes from ordered, incremental daily reading, and Chosen Portion is that ordered daily portion delivered to your phone.
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