Mystical Interpretation

Mystical Interpretation otherwise termed spiritual, figurative, is either tropological or anagogical, i.e., according to it words having a distinct literal sense receive either a moral or heavenly reference. Some include the allegorical under the mystical. The mystical differs from the literal sense in this, that the meaning cannot at once be derived from the words; but the literal sense being assumed from it, and from the things signified by it, the meaning wrapped up in the words is disclosed. — Blunt, Dict. Doct. and Histor. Theol. For example, "Babylon" signifies literally a city of Chaldaea, the habitation of kings who persecuted the Hebrews, and who were overwhelmed in idolatry and wickedness. But John, in the Revelation, gives the name of Babylon, mystically, to the city of Rome. So Jerusalem is literally a city of Judaea, but mystically the heavenly Jerusalem, the habitation of the saints, etc. The "serpent" is literally or naturally a venomous reptile, but mystically the devil, the old serpent, etc. SEE INTERPRETATION.