Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/770

 EXEDRA

692

EXEGESIS

forbidden in the grant, or unless it is apparent that he is selected by reason of his knowledge or other personal qualities specially fitting him for the office. It is im- portant to know whether an executor is chosen for his personal characteristics, or on account of his office: in the former case the delegation is personal, in the latter it is attached to the position, and passes on to the successor of the same office. A rescript given to the ordinary may likewise be executed by the vicar geneml. An executor must know the rules for inter- preting rescripts, also, when they are rendered void, because surreptitiously obtained or for other cause. Rescripts emanating from the Sacred Penitentiaria are executed in the confessional, and are then de- stroyed by the confessor, as they treat of matters of conscience. When the rescript pertains to the exter- nal forum, a decree should be drawn up to the effect that all necessary formalities have been observed in its execution; these formalities should be specified. No fee is allowed for the execution of Apostolic Letters, lest the executor's judgment be influenced therebv-

Humphrey. Urba el Orbis (London, 1899), pp. 320-322; Fer- R.\Ris, Prompta Bibliotheca, s. v. Executor.

Andrew B. Meehan.

Exedra. — A semicircular stone or marble seat; a rectangular or semicircular recess; the portico of the Grecian palaestra, or gj-mnasium, in which disputa- tions of the learned were held among the ancients; also, in private houses, the parastas, or vestibule, used for conversation. The term is sometimes applied to a porch or chapel which projects from a larger building. Also used, as synonymous with cathedra, for a throne or seat of any kind; for a small private chamber; the space between an oriel window and the small chapels between the buttresses of a large church or cathedral.

Anderson .and Spikrs. Architecture of Greece and Rome (I.<jndon), 21. 108. 262, 27S; Parker, Glossary of Architecture, (O.xford and London, 1845), I, 159; B. .and B. F. Fletcher, A History of Architecture (London and New York, 1905), 691.

Thomas H. Poole.

Exegesis (Biblical) is the branch of theology which investigates and expresses the true sense of Sacred Scripture. The exegete does not inquire which books constitute Sacred Scripture, nor does he investigate their genuineness, nor, again, does he study their double authorship. He accepts the books which, ac- cording to the concurrent testimony of history and ecclesiastical authority, belong to the Canon of Sacred Scripture. Obedient to the decree of the Council of Trent, he regards the Vulgate as the authentic Latin version, without neglecting the results of sober textual criticism, based on the readings found in the other versions approved by Christian antiquity, in the Scrip- tural citations of the Fathers, and in the more ancient manuscripts. With regard to the authorship of the Sacred Books, too, the exegete follows the authorita- tive teaching of the Church and the prevalent opinions of her theologians on the question of Biblical inspira- tion. Not that these three questions concerning the Canon, the genuine text, and the inspiration of Sacred Scriptures exert no influence on Biblical exegesis: unless a book forms part of the Canon, it will not be the subject of exegesis at all; only the best supported rea'lings of its text will be made the basis of its theo- logical explanation; and the doctrine of inspiration with its logical corollaries will l)e found to have a con- stant bearing on the results of exegesis. Still, exe- gesis, as such, does not deal with these three subjects; the reader will fiinl them treated in the articles Canon OF THE Holy Scuii'Tures; Criticism, Biblkwl, sub- title: Crilirixm, Textual; and In.spir.vtion.

The early Refornjers were wont to claim that the genuine text of the inspired and canonical books is self-sufficient and clear. This contention does not owe its origin to the sixteenth century. The words of Origen (De princip., IV), St. Augustine (l)e doctr.

Christ., I-III), and St. Jerome (ad Paulin., ep. liii, 6, 7) show that similar views existed among the sciolists in the early age of the Church. The exegetical results flowing from the supposed clearness of the Bible may be inferred from the fact that one century after the rise of the Reformation Bossuet could give to the world two volumes entitled, " A History of the Varia- tions of the Protestant Churches". A Protestant theologian, S. AVerenfels, sets forth the same truth in a telling epigram: —

Hie fiber est in quo quaerit sua dogmata quisque,

Invenit et pariter dogmata quisque sua, which may be rendered in an English paraphrase: —

Men ope this book, their favourite creed in mind;

Each seeks his own, and each his own doth find. Agreeing with the warning of the Fathers, Pope Leo XIII, in his Encyclical " Provident issimus Deus", in- sisted on the difficulty of rightly interpreting the Bible. "It must be observed", he wrote, "that in addition to the usual reasons which make ancient writings more or less difficult to understand, there are some which are peculiar to the Bible. For the lan- guage of the Bible is employed to express, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, many things which are beyond the power and scope of the reason of man — that is to say. Divine mysteries and all that is related to them. There is sometimes in such passages a full- ness and a hidden depth of meaning which the letter hardly expresses and which the laws of grammatical interpretation hardly warrant. Moreover, the literal sense itself frequently admits other senses, adapted to illustrate dogma or to confirm morality. Wherefore, it must be recognized that the Sacred Writings are wrapt in a certain religious obscurity, and that no one can enter into their interior without a guide; God so dis- posing, as the Holy Fathers commonly teach, in order that men may investigate them with greater ardour and earnestness, and that what is attained with diffi- culty may sink more deeply into the mind and heart; and, most of all, that they may understand that God has delivered the Holy Scriptures to the Church, and that in reading and making use of His word, they must follow the Church as their guide and their teacher."

But it is not our purpose so much to prove the need of Biblical exegesis as to explain its aim, describe its methods, indicate the various forms of its results, and outline its history. Exegesis aims at investigating the sense of Sacred Scripture; its method is contained in the rules of interpretation; its results are expressetl in the various ways in which the sense of the Bible is wont to be communicated; its history comprises the work done by Cliristian and Jewish interpreters, by Catholics and Protestants. We shall endeavour to consider these various elements under the four heads: I. Sense of Sacred Scripture; II. Hermeneutics; III. Sacred Rhetoric; IV. History of Exegesis.

I. Sense of Sacred Scripture. — In general, the sense of Sacred Scripture is the truth actually con- veyed by it. We must well distinguish between the sense and the signification of a word. A good diction- ary will give us, in the case of most words, a list of their various possible meanings or significations; but no reader will be tempted to believe that a word has all these meanings wherever it occurs. The context or some other restrictive element will determine the meaning in which each word is u.'^ed in any given pas- sage, and this meaning is the sense of the word. The signification of the word is its possible meaning; the sense of a word is its actual meaning in any given con- text. A sentence, like a word, may have several pos- sible significations, l)ut it has only one sense or mean- ing intended by the author. Here, again, the signifi- cation denotes the posJ;ible meaning of the sentence, while the sense is the meaning which the sentence here and now conveys. In the case of the Bilile, it must be kept in mind that God is its author, and that God, the Sovereign Lord of all things, can manifest truth not