“Allegorical interpretation believes that beneath the letter or the obvious is the real meaning of the passage.” [1]
The idea of an allegory is that the author is trying to communicate a message underneath the actual narrative. Often a writer will reveal that the work is intended to be allegorical, or will give clues to alert the reader to the fact.
Allegorical interpretation arose, or became prominent, in Greek philosophy. The Greek religious tradition, including the works of Homer and Hesiod, “had many elements which were fanciful, grotesque, absurd, or immoral” [1]. Greek philosophers could not forsake these works, given their popularity, and so they instead turned them into allegories to get around the unsavoury elements.
This method of interpretation was taken up by some of the Jews living in Alexandria, Egypt, in the second century BC, including Arisobulus. “Aristobulus asserted (i) that Greek philosophy borrowed from the Old Testament, especially from the Law of Moses; and (ii) that by employing the allegorical method the teachings of Greek philosophy could be found in Moses and the prophets.” [1]
Philo, another Jew, in the early first century AD believed of the Old Testament that “the literal sense was the body of Scripture, and the allegorical sense its soul. Accordingly the literal was for the immature, and the allegorical for the mature.” [1]
The allegorical method came to the Christian church because of a firm belief that the “Old Testament was a Christian document.” [1] The primary method of making the Old Testament a Christian document was to interpret it allegorically.
One of the early influencers of the allegorical interpretation method in Christianity is Origen, whose fundamental thesis was that “the Bible is one vast allegory” [1]. Origen is of particular note for developing a relatively thorough set of rules that guided his interpretation. He applied this interpretation method to the whole of scripture.
Augustine of Hippo may have been the one to scale back the excesses of this method of interpretation from Origen’s day, restricting it for the most part to the realm of eschatology (prophecy). That division carried over into the reformation.
In simple terms, allegorical interpretation neglects the words, sentences and the historical sense to pursue a deeper moral, theological or mystical meaning.
[1] B. Ramm, 1970. Protestant Biblical Interpretation. Baker Book House Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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