Parting the Waters: the Anagogical Sense in Maximus’ Ambiguum 10

Abstract Those who wish to see an example of anagogical interpretation of the Bible will find abundant examples of it in the tenth of Maximus the Confessor’s Ambigua to John . This article explores Maximus’ approach to the spiritual sense of Scripture as exemplified in Ambiguum 10, particularly as it adumbrates a biblical basis for the elements of his theological anthropology. It begins with an overview of Maximus’ approach to biblical interpretation and pertinent elements of his anthropology. After presenting examples of Maximus’ anagogical exegesis, the article concludes by evaluating these interpretations by the inner logic of the spiritual senses (called here “formal continuity”) to show how an anagogical interpretation can be authentically understood to reveal a major element of that anthropology, namely the fall of man.