The Bible is Full of Allegory - Just Ask Paul

Shoes made for traveling, are tied together on a light pole.

It is an allegory for life.

These days anytime you speak about the Bible you often have to qualify your love for the Bible before you speak. Even if you are saying nice things about the Bible, it is often the case that many of us qualify our comments least someone interprets what we are saying as diminishing the Bible.

It is annoying. It is annoying because it makes critical (important) conversations much more difficult because there is a fear that you will be cast as someone who does not take the Bible "as seriously" as another. Words like "high view of scripture" or "historic understanding" are often flowery language used to imply that any other interpretation is less than and cannot be trusted. It is 2017 and I thought we could get past this by now, but here we are:

I love the Bible. I take it seriously. Like others I have tried to be absorbed by the Bible and her conversations. And so it is not a "knock" or a sign of disrespect of the Holy Scriptures or an invitation to a slippery slope leading to tossing the Bible out the door when I say - the Bible is full of Allegory. 

Just ask Paul.

"Tell me, you who desire to be subject to the law, will you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman. One, the child of the slave, was born according to the flesh; the other, the child of the free woman, was born through the promise. Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above; she is free, and she is our mother." - Galatians 4:21-26

This is just a reminder that when someone says the Bible is full of allegory, this is not a backdoor into undermining the authority of Scripture. The Bible is full of all sorts of things from allegory to poem to prose to history to every genre you can imagine. The Bible is not to be read literally - Even Paul did not read it literally. 

Allegory in the Bible is not less than True. It is more than True.

It is Holy.

"Reading the Statisticians of Our Predicament Rather Than the Prophets of Our Deliverance"

R.R. Reno

Give and Take is a conversation podcast that can be very heady and wonky for those who love theology. Frankly, the people on this podcast are too smart for me to always follow and I am humbled every time I listen - I just am not as smart as I want to think that I am.

Recently, Scott Jones (the host) had a conversation with R. R. Reno (AKA Rusty). I was introduced to R. R. Reno in Seminary via a book he wrote called In the Ruins of the Church. When I heard this podcast, I wanted to just jot down a few great ideas that came from this conversation, so that I don't forget them. I hope these notes are as inspiring to you as there are for me. 

Among the gems that I found in this conversation was the idea that too much of our time is spent reading the statisticians of our predicament rather than the prophets of our deliverance. I am aware of how much I spend reading about the "predicament" we are in. I know that it is critical to diagnose the illness before treatment can begin. It seems clear to me that too many of us (self included) are parsing diagnostic words but few prophets are discussing what the treatment is for such ills. 

We are not able to listen to these prophets for at least two reasons. First is human nature. Prophets call us to account and call us to change. Humans have done a very good job at killing prophets in our world; this is an ancient problem.

The other reason we don't listen to prophets sharing solutions feels newer. We may not listen to the prophets of our deliverance because we do not have consensus on what the problem is. 

Moses was a prophet and he was not killed by his people. Why? Perhaps it is because there was a consensus on what the problem was - the people were enslaved. There was a deep agreement that slavery is the "predicament" and so it is easier to hear the prophet who is speaking deliverance to that predicament.

I grow frustrated about how much time I spend on understanding the predicament, I also know that until there is a sense of what the "problem is" we will never be able to hear the prophet lead us toward the path of healing.

Absorbing the Bible is Easier Than Being Absorbed by the Bible

Sometimes we think of the Bible as combination of an ancient encyclopedia and fortune teller. That is to say, many of us read the Bible in order to absorb it's knowledge so that when we are faced with a situation we can fire off a few Bible verses to make sense of the situation. There is a respect given to those who are fluid in their knowledge of the Bible that often times we think that the more you absorb the more you must really know the Bible. There is a comfort in absorbing the Bible, but absorbing the Bible is easier than being absorbed by the Bible.

When we absorb the Bible often fall into the trap of using the Bible as a tool for argument. We reference the scriptures that are used as bullet points to try to make the argument. However, the Bible is not a tool for argument, it is closer to being a tool for conversation. It is a collection of conversations over time and space even into today. There are numerous conversations going on in the Bible that to pick up and begin reading at any location would be like walking into a party that was well underway and try to jump into a conversation. We don't know how the conversation got to this point, but we are now a part of it and we are invited to participate.

Just as we are absorbed in conversation, keen readers of the Bible are absorbed by it. You don't jump into the conversation with your own agenda and topics, the conversation has already begun, the direction is well underway. When we are absorbed by the Bible we are invited to take a different perspective and world view. We are invited to participate, rather than dictate the terms of the conversation. 

When we are absorbed by the Bible we are shaped, formed, transformed. We are, like clay, molded and fired. We are strangers in a foreign land and dependent upon the hospitality of our conversation partners.

Here is one way to know if we are absorbing or being absorbed by the Bible - If we believe there is one, and only one, correct interpretation to a scripture then we are absorbing the Bible. If however, we trust that the Bible is a conversation that is influenced by the Holy Spirit, if we believe the Bible is the living word open to new and fresh understanding, a book that speaks life into every age - then we are being absorbed by the Bible. 

Absorbing the Bible is much easier, it does not involve much faith or trust at all. Which may be why we are more interested in just absorbing the scriptures than being absorbed by them.