Four Levels of Analysis
Medieval theologians believed Biblical texts could be understood on four levels, levels of
interpretation that increased in difficulty and required greater depths of knowledge and
understanding. I think the seriousness with which the medieval theologian approached the
Biblical texts, especially the language of the text, is useful to consider when reading and trying to
understand, any difficult text, sacred or secular. The four levels of interpretation are:

The Literal Interpretation, that is the words mean what they say and can be understood at
this level by anyone capable of reading the words (which may have required more
education than most living in the Middle Ages possessed). The medieval theologian
would assert that all scripture would have to be understood at this level before the
interpreter could move on to the next level. In fact each level presupposes an adequate
understanding of the text at the level that precedes it.

The Historical Interpretation, that is the text needs next be understood within an
historical, and probably cultural, context. This level of interpretation suggests that an
understanding of the time and circumstances that produced the text amplifies our
understanding of that text and brings out additional dimensions to our understanding of
what we are reading. The medieval theologian would probably assert also that no
understanding suggested by the historical or cultural context can contradict or in any way
diminish the literal understanding, and this is to be understood as true for each of the
levels of interpretation that follows, as the interpreter proceeds from one level of
interpretation to the next nothing found in a previous level can be contradicted. Part of
what guarantees a proper understanding of the text is that each interpretation has to be, if
not supported, not contradicted by any other level of interpretation, it must be true at all
levels.

The Allegorical Interpretation, that is characters, events, themes, etc. are all “types”, that
is they represent principles, values, and truths, that make them models for daily life, they
are guideposts that reveal to the interpreter how life should and should not be lived.

The Eschatological Interpretation, that is the texts point to how all things will end and the
knowledge necessary for meeting that ultimate end. This refers to the ending of all things
in a final judgment, but it also to each individual’s ending at the time of their death and
therefore gives each individual truths that need to be known in order to prepare for that
death.
Obviously these levels of interpretation cannot be introduced, at least not in this fashion into an
English class, or into any other kind of public school classroom, but there are principles here that
are transferable and it is useful to bear in mind that any literary text, that is any text that can
withstand multiple readings at different stages in one’s life, operates at many different levels and
what a story, poem, essay, or play means at a literal level is probably only a place to begin. Many
who read literature, not the stuff read solely for entertainment, though no work of literature
would be likely to survive if it did not entertain, but the complicated, multi-layered texts that
make a literary work literary, read not only for the story it tells but for all the things going on
around the story.