As Mike Gilbart-Smith wrote in his article on rightly studying Scripture:. Too many sermons ignore the genre of a passage, and preach… all [of them] alike as a series of propositional statements. Whilst all preaching must convey propositional truths, they should not be reduced to them. The literary context of the passages should… not… be flattened in preaching. This does not take away from the unity and central gospel message of the Bible at all. Instead, it adds a helpful diversity that allows us to see the same overall message in different lights and through the different lenses of the authors.
This brings us to the core question of this article, which is: Does the Bible contain allegory? And the simple answer is: Yes, it does! However, we must also understand that the Bible itself is not allegorical, in the same way, not all of it is poetry, narrative, etc. There is a very crucial distinction here.
According to Dictionary. In order to best understand an allegory, you have to read it in a symbolic or figurative way. For example, in Judges 9 , a man named Jotham tells a story about a time when trees gathered together to anoint an olive tree as a king over them.
It is obvious from the context that his tale is nothing more than a fable. A fable is a story that teaches a moral lesson with animals or other objects that represent people.
In fact, Jesus often taught his listeners by telling them allegorical stories. As we have already said, however, not all of the Bible is allegorical, and we cannot read it all in an allegorical way. The Holy Bible contains many allegories. These are small fables that are meant to impart an important lesson.
Characters and situations in the stories are thus symbolic of general principles such as temptation, liberation, and spiritual belief. Examples of biblical allegory include the two covenants and Nathan's poor man's tale.
Some individuals also assign allegorical value to singular symbols such as the lamb and bread and wine in Communion practices. Allegories are found in many modes of artistic expression, particularly in literature.
In some cases, an entire novel can function as an allegory. This type of fictional story can be viewed as a prolonged metaphor , which uses literal objects and beings to draw a comparison with a figurative idea or theme.
Most often, allegories as a literary device have a political, social, or religious undertone. The allegory told by the wise woman of Tekoa in 2 Samuel similarly opened David's eyes to a new perspective and caused him to spare the life of Absalom. Other Old Testament allegories include Isa ; Ezek ; ; Dan ; ; ; The parables of Jesus have a wide range of degrees of allegorical reference.
The parable of the sower is followed by an allegorical interpretation Mark that has been widely criticized, but on examination, the common objections turn out to support authenticity. For example, birds as a symbol for Satan, rather than being alien were commonly used to depict Satan in rabbinic literature e. If the Gospel tradition progressively allegorized the parables, as many allege, it is surely odd that the earliest Gospels Mark, Matthew contain the most allegorical elements, whereas the later Gospels contain progressively less Luke, John.
In Galatians Paul uses the story of the children of Sarah Isaac and Hagar Ishmael and the images of Jerusalem above and Mount Sinai as a double allegory, both pairs contrasting the covenant of freedom and the covenant of slavery.
This allegory adds an earthy, emotional appeal to Paul's arguments for freedom in Christ. See also Parable. Plus Toggle navigation. Password Assistance. Email address.
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