Four Fold Interpretation

 I watched youtube clip about the word Paradise. It is based on a Hebrew word, 

pardas פרדס

 It means a walled, cultivated garden. It transferred into English with a religious connotation for fairly obvious reasons. 

It also just so happens that פרדס is also an acronym for the four ways to interpret scripture. There is a exegetical tradition (I actually don't know if it is from the Midrash or is a later Christian development) where you take a scripture and try to interpret it in four different ways. The letters of the different ways in Hebrew coincide with the letters in the word,  .פרדס 

 פ= Peshat =פשט =literal

ר=Remez= רמז=symbolic

ד=Drash= דרש=context

ס=Sod =סוד =secret or sacred

I find this an interesting way to approach a passage of scripture.  It forces me to open my mind to different possibilities.  Here is an example of this applied to the creation story in Genesis 1-3.

1. Literal: Some people really want to take Genesis 1 as a literal account of the creation of the world.  Others look at is semi-literally.  For instance, maybe the earth wasn't created in six days, but the order of the creation coincides with the basic order that things evolved on earth.

2. Symbolic: Many people see the creation story as primarily symbolic.  It shows that we believe in a god that is all powerful and has ultimate authority over this world.  It suggests that the earth has a divinely appointed purpose, order and beauty. It also shows that God intended that man should have "dominion" to both utilize the resources in the world, and take care of them.

3. Context: According to tradition, Moses wrote the book of Genesis.  He was raised in a culture (Egyptian) that worshiped a pantheon of different gods, each of which ruled over one aspect of nature, e.g. a sky god, an earth god, a sun god, a moon god...etc. By starting his account with this creation story, he is showing his contemporaries in the house of Israel, that the god they worship is greater than any the surrounding people might worship because he is god of everything, not just one thing.  King of kings, and Lord of lords.

4. Sacred or Secret: Just as God was able to take the unorganized elements and organize them into an earth with which he was "well pleased", God can take the chaotic elements in our life and organize them into something of beauty, usefullness and value.  But in order for that to happen, we must obey God's commands, like the water and earth did, yield to the spirit that broods over our souls just as the spirit of God brooded over the face of the deep. 

So there you have a four fold interpretation by a total amateur exegesist.  I am not suggesting that every scripture can or should be interpreted this way, but I do think it is a useful tool for approaching scripture study.