Sensus plenior
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Sensus plenior
In Latin, the phrase sensus plenior means "a fuller sense of."[1]. This phrase in Biblical exegesis, is used to describe the deeper meaning intended by God but not intended by the human author. Walter C. Kaiser notes that F. Andre Fernandez coined the term in 1927, but it was popularized by Raymond E. Brown.[2] Brown defines sensus plenior as
| “ | That additional, deeper meaning, intended by God but not clearly intended by the human author, which is seen to exist in the words of a biblical text (or group of texts, or even a whole book) when they are studied in the light of further revelation or development in the understanding of revelation.[3] | ” |
This implies that more meaning can be found within scripture than the original human authors intended, and, therefore, a study of scripture that isolates a particular book and only concerns itself with the details of the authors time and situation can be incomplete.
Sensus plenior corresponds to Rabbinical interpretations of the Hebrew Scriptures — remez ("hint"), drash ("search"), and/or sod ("secret") — whereby 'deeper meaning' is drawn out or derived from the text.
Conservative Christians have used this term to mean the larger or whole teaching of scripture.
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Contents
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Examples
Jonah
One of the clearest examples comes from the story of Jonah. In the story, Jonah runs from God and is eventually thrown overboard into the Mediterranean Sea. The Book of Jonah then says, "Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights."[4] Yet, in the New Testament, Jesus says, "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."[5] This shows that what happens literally in the story has a greater meaning than the writer of Jonah originally anticipated.
References
- ^ "Google Translate". Google Translate. http://translate.google.com/#la%7Cen. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
- ^ Walter C. Kaiser, Jr., "Single Meaning, Unified Referents: Accurate and Authoritative Citations of the Old Testament by the New Testament," in Stanley N. Gundry et al, Three Views on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2007), 47.
- ^ Raymond E. Brown, The Sensus Plenior of Sacred Scripture (Baltimore: St. Mary's University, 1955), 92.
- ^ The New King James Version (1982). Jonah 1:17. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
- ^ The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (2001). Matthew 12:40. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
Additional References
- Raymond E. Brown, "The History and Development of the Theory of a Sensus Plenior," CBQ 15 (1953) 141 - 162.
- The Jerome Biblical Commentary Vol. 1 1971, Geoffry Chapman Publishers, London, pp. 605–23.
- David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary 1992, Maryland, pp. 11–4.
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