What is the Allegorical Method of Interpretation?

by Dr. Ken Matto

 

(Gal 4:24 KJV) Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.

 

The word “allegory” is the Greek word “allegoreo” and is used only once in the New Testament. It basically means to speak figuratively. It is used to explain something while using the image of something else. For example, a common allegory would be the Passover as a figure of Christ. God said, “when I see the blood, I will pass over.” Those that had the blood on their doors did not suffer any loss of life because God had passed over them. It is the same with Christians, not one of us will appear before the Great White Throne Judgment, because we are covered by the blood. It is a proper allegory or figure. Now the question remains, can the allegorical system be abused? The answer is yes. Let me give an example.

 

(1 Ki 2:19 KJV) Bathsheba therefore went unto king Solomon, to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand.

 

The Roman Catholics use allegory to try to make their people believe that this is a picture of Mary reigning with Christ in Heaven. Since Roman Catholics do not question their leaders, they accept it. Harold Camping claims that Old Testament Israel is a blanket figure of the New Testament church. He arrives at this conclusion by allegory. Now there are many parallels between ancient Israel and the church. As far back as Corinth, Paul was warning them that the things that happened to ancient Israel were written for their admonition, and of course, that warning is to the church right down to the last day.

 

(1 Cor 10:11 KJV) Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

 

The word “admonition” is the word “nouthesia,” the warning.

 

Summary

While allegory is an accepted method of interpretation, extreme care must be used when applying it. A person just cannot make a blanket statement that something represents something without proper biblical justification for believing that. Allegory can be used to skew someone’s thinking toward a teaching. When representations are created within a system to persuade others into accepting it, this is abuse of the Scriptures. For example, in the Depart Out Teachings, its adherents are pulling Scriptures, with judgment in them, out of context, and are applying it to the church without any biblical justification. Scriptures which were once interpreted as the end of the world such as Sodom and Gomorrah, are now interpreted as the death of the church. This is what happens when you go from the spiritual meaning to the hyper-allegorical meaning.

Origen is the heretic which Camping has patterned himself after - This quote is from his book "Wheat and Tares"

"As we look back on the early theologians of the church age, something of great significance surfaces. One of the earliest theologians of the church age was a man named Origen who was born in the year A.D. 185. He was a Bible teacher in the town of his birth, Alexandria, and then later, he established a Bible school in Caesarea. In the 1959 edition of The Encyclopedia Britannica, a church historian writes that Origen was "the most distinguished and most influential of all the theologians of the ancient church, with the possible exception of Augustine." This church historian calls special attention to Origen's teaching of Bible interpretation or Bible hermeneutics, and says that Origen "distinguishes a three fold sense of Scripture, a grammatical-historical, a moral, and a pneumatic (spiritual), the last being the proper and highest sense." The historical record shows that Origen taught some doctrines that were not as Biblical as they should have been. But in the matter of Bible interpretation, it appears that he was entirely correct. These very same principles of interpretation have been taught by Family Radio during the past several decades (see "First Principles of Bible Study"), even though Family Radio was completely unaware of Origen's teachings."