Last and first

Nicholas of Lyra is known for his notion of a “double literal” sense to Scripture. For him, interpretation ad litteram includes both the historical and the doctrinal/christological senses, and he suggests that the ancient Hebrews could well have seen the Messianic sense as the literal sense. He also suggests that the christological, while “last in execution,” may be “first in intention” (from the Postilla on Exodus 12).

We might find an analogy with the four causes of Aristotle: The final cause, i.e., the purpose, is the guiding and, in a sense, the first cause. When I build a house, the final cause is the house or the use of it, which isn’t realized until the efficient and material causes have done their business; yet I wouldn’t start building unless I had the prior purpose of having and using a house.

Similarly, the sense that is last in execution may be seen as first in intention: God’s promise that His Son would sit on the throne is ultimately realized in Christ, and when He declares that promise to David and Solomon He does it with that ultimate realization in view.

Call it supralapsarian hermeneutics.