Scholastica commentaria in Primam Partem Summae Theologicae

IT IS DOUBTED third, whether in the New Testament the four senses can be distinguished which St. Thomas distinguishes in this article?

To this Abulensis, q. 28 on Matthew 13, answers that the allegorical sense alone is not found in the New Testament. And he proves it. Since the allegorical sense is when things done signify something which pertains to the Church militant, or to Christ: but in the New Testament no things done are narrated which are a figure of the Church militant; therefore there is no allegorical sense. And he confirms it from St. Augustine, in the book On the Usefulness of Believing, ch. 3, where he teaches that the Old Testament is expounded fourfold, therefore that fourfold sense does not pertain to the New Testament.

Nevertheless we hold as a certain conclusion: the New Testament can also be expounded according to the fourfold sense. And it is proved in the history which is narrated in Mt 21 concerning the entry of Christ the Lord into Jerusalem. In which deed, beyond the literal sense, we understand three others to be mystically signified from the teaching of the holy Fathers; for Chrysostom says on that same passage of Matthew that the Lord so fulfilled the prophecies that he himself gave the beginning of another prophecy, which was to be signified by those very deeds. Then he says: «For to me he seems not only to have sat upon an ass, but also to have instructed us in the philosophy of living. For he provides us a rule, that we not seek for greater things than necessary use demands». And St. Jerome explains the deed of the Apostles, that they placed their garments upon the beasts, to signify that Ecclesiastical Dogmas are necessary, so that Christ may sit upon the soul. On which matter see Thomas Waldensis in the Prologue of the book «On the Sacraments». And finally St. Jerome. «Remigius and Origen say that that deed of Christ was a figure of the entry of Christ into heaven. Everywhere too the holy Fathers explain many miracles and deeds of Christ allegorically, concerning the distinction of the people of the Jews and of the Gentiles, or concerning their conversion.

But to St. Augustine in the book On the Usefulness of Believing it is answered that he does not say that only the Old Testament can be expounded according to the fourfold sense. It is true, however, that allegory is more frequent in the Old Testament than in the New. Nevertheless, since Christ was the head of both peoples, of the Jews and of the Gentiles, by his deeds and wonders he not only fulfilled the ancient things but also figured the things that were to be in the Church. Whence quite suitably many deeds of Christ are explained allegorically by the Saints.