The Usefulness of Allegory

Most students of the Bible today would consider allegory to be less than useful. In fact they would judge it to be a fanciful, even dangerous way to interpret passages of Scripture. By “allegory,” they understand basically what the editors of the Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary understood: “the expression by means of symbolic fictional figures and actions of truths or generalizations about human experience.” For example, Homer’s epics are to be interpreted allegorically, taking persons and events as symbols (in the weak sense of the term) or simple metaphors that refer to various acts and experiences we ourselves know, such as our personal “odyssey” through the storms of daily life or the value of courage and heroism.

As it was developed by the early Church Fathers, allegory took up and expanded an ancient approach to the Hebrew Scriptures identified especially with the Hellenistic Jew Philo of Alexandria. To recapitulate the main points from the last chapter: the allegorical approach to interpretation sought to discern in the figures, events and rituals of the Old Testament a hidden reference to similar realities of the New Testament that fulfilled those earlier images. While the Fathers placed different emphases on the historical value of any given Old Testament passage, they were united in their tendency to look beyond its purely historical significance, in order to discover the deeper, higher or fuller meaning that God Himself, acting through the Holy Spirit, wished to convey. (If you are saying to yourself, “this is typology, not allegory,” it is important to understand that typology is in fact an aspect or function of the larger interpretive process of allegory.)

Today, most biblical scholars reject the allegorical approach as arbitrary. They cite examples from the ancient patristic writers where the sense of the biblical text is clearly deformed, usually in the interests of drawing from it some lesson to be applied to the Christian’s moral life. The Cross and Resurrection of Christ, for example, were seen by some not so much as the means by which our redemption from sin and death is achieved, but as an image of the struggle of the human soul or heart against demonic influence. Without question, the allegorical approach led frequently to exaggerations and outright distortions.

Nevertheless, it is worthwhile recalling that Jesus Himself occasionally used allegory to make a point (e.g., the “sign of Jonah” as an image of His burial and resurrection; His parables), and that virtually every interpreter and preacher of the gospel does the same, whether they recognize it or not. Whenever we attempt to translate a biblical passage into a message for today—to hear the Word that God is speaking to us now, through the text itself—then we are resorting in some degree to “allegory.”

An example from the patristic tradition, chosen at random, will illustrate this point and indicate the continuing usefulness of allegory in our efforts to preach and teach the Scriptures.

The theologian Peter of Damaskos (ca. twelfth century) composed many works that are included in the collection of spiritual writings known as the Philokalia. In “the Fourth Stage of Contemplation,”¹ he quotes Jesus’ words from Luke 17:21, which speak of the presence of the kingdom. The Revised Standard Version translates this as: “nor will they say, ‘Lo, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” The expression “in the midst” or “among you” renders the Greek term entos. Depending on the context, however, this word can mean either “among” or “within.” Most interpreters today note that from the beginning of His ministry Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God as “drawing near” and being present in His very person. Where Jesus is, there is the realm, or, better, the reign of God. God is present and acting through the person of His Son, with or among Jesus’ followers. Therefore they render entos as “among you” or “in your midst.”

This may in fact be the “literal” meaning of the passage: the meaning St Luke wanted to express (although the more natural reading of the Greek term is indeed “within”). According to this reading, Jesus affirms that the reign of divine power has already dawned, and those who follow Him can perceive the awaited kingdom in His person and therefore “in their midst.” In any case, St Luke’s primary focus in this passage is on Jesus and the kingdom.

St Peter of Damaskos, on the other hand, attempts to draw from this passage another more “spiritual” (one might say, more existential) meaning for his readers. With most of the Church Fathers, he interprets entos as “within you,” affirming that the presence and power of God are realized within the inner life of the believer, to guide the believer toward holiness and salvation.

“What can be simpler,” he asks, “than giving a glass of cold water or a piece of bread, or than refraining from one’s own desires and petty thoughts. Yet through such things the kingdom of heaven is offered to us, by the grace of Him who said: ‘Behold, the kingdom of heaven [sic] is within you.’ For, as St John of Damaskos says, the kingdom of heaven is not far away, not outside us, but within us. Simply choose to overcome the passions, and you will possess it within you because you live in accordance with the will of God.”

In a manner typical of the Church Fathers, Peter passes from the original, “literal” or historical sense of the passage, to a more “spiritual” sense, one that applies to the growth in faith and sanctity of the individual believer. There are two dangers with this approach. First, it risks obscuring the communal, ecclesial framework in which Jesus’ teachings need to be placed, by stressing the significance of the passage for each individual Christian. Second, and more important, it shifts the focus from the primary meaning given to these words by Jesus and the evangelist, and places it almost exclusively on the believer’s moral and spiritual development.

Some such shift, however, is inevitable when we attempt to draw from the text a message for our time. The Bible, once again, is not simply a historical record of past events. Its proclamation (and celebration) creates a personal encounter between the Word of God and us. That Word is none other than the person of Jesus Christ. To read, proclaim and celebrate His Word, then, is the God- given means by which, through the grace and power of the Spirit working within the Church, words of antiquity become a living witness for today.

As with all things in Orthodoxy, equilibrium—a just balance— is essential. This is especially true in the realm of biblical interpretation. We begin with the gospel witness and make every attempt to discern, accurately and faithfully, the original meaning of a given passage. Yet we move beyond that literal sense, in order to hear and to be nourished by the Living Word who speaks to us today through the biblical text, to realize not only “among” us, but within the very depths of our being, the presence and power of the heavenly kingdom.

1. The Philokalia, vol. 3 (trans. and ed. by G.E.H. Palmer, Ph. Sherrard and K. Ware [London: Faber and Faber, 1984], 126). ↩︎