The Reformulation of the Overall Meaning of Scripture Proceeding from Allegorical Interpretation

Part One     Part Two

Satanic Attack on the Bible

Satan opposes God and does this in major fashion by attacking scripture.  This undermines or eliminates God’s authority with people, leaving them living on their own according to their own will.   Saving faith comes also by hearing the actual Word of God.  Early in the history of Christianity, Satan’s denigration of God’s Word came by interposing a contradistinct system of interpretation from that of Jesus and the Apostles.  Instead of receiving scripture according to its plain meaning, men began allegorizing or spiritualizing the text according to their worldly, pagan Platonic philosophy.

The Bible, although still the Bible, became a different book.  People were then reading — with this new scheme — with enough of an alternative meaning, that it was essentially not the same book any more.  It also allowed people to read into it what they wanted, resulting in their replacement of their selves as the authority instead of God.  With that as their presupposition, it got only worse from there as this continued in its variated divergent paths.

The Big, Yet Subtle Effects, of Allegorization

Hidden Spiritual Meaning of Scripture

I could list many obvious results in false doctrine and practice, perverting scripture.  However, some of the more subtle ones, that may not get the same attention, perhaps caused even greater overall damage.  For one, allegorical interpretation emphasized hidden, spiritual meanings of scripture over literal or historical readings. Rather than a literal and historical document, the Bible became a moral story, like a fable, with the actual names, places, and events close to meaningless.  They may have existed or happened, but their importance is found in the deeper spiritualized, mystical sense.

Rather than specific ethnic or cultural histories, by aligning biblical narratives with Platonic concepts, texts instead related to all humanity, not any specific audience.  It was easy to turn the Bible into a philosophical system compatible with Hellenistic thought.  For instance, instead of a true account of God’s creation in Genesis 1-2, allegory permitted the reader to treat it as a tale of the soul’s formation or the ordering of the cosmos.  Scriptural narratives became moral or ethical lessons that were easily and heavily adaptable.  All that became a deeper meaning, a true intention to the allegorizers.

Archtypes

Through the requirement of allegorization, a reader could make archetypes of the main characters of the Bible.  He could use scripture as a spiritualized guide for personal ethical development.  This also allowed him to soften the impact of morally challenging passages by framing them as symbolic.  This appealed to an educated audience.  David and Goliath were not, say, David and Goliath, but the soul’s triumph over passion or evil rather than a historical event where God used a faithful servant to fulfill His covenant with a real chosen people.  The burning bush is essentially a symbol of the soul’s encounter with the eternal.

Allegory poses as transcendent, portraying God beyond human comprehension, yet accessible through human insight, as long as one applies the mystical key.  The difficulty of understanding would require human intermediaries to span the distance between God and normal humans.  This elevated the need for human reason.  Allegory treats real rituals as symbols of abstract concepts.   This subordinated the literal text to ideals and a philosophical text.

Elevation of the Metaphysical

Influenced by early allegorization, which prioritized spiritual realities over physical ones, theologians elevated the most metaphysical teachings.  They necessitated a theological hierarchy that emphasized spiritualization rather than structure, detail, and tangible practices.  The latter then became optional and ranked as less essential.  Real physical steps for and boundaries of sanctification undercut spiritualization, so they became the most malleable of biblical instruction.

Arising from the misguided and perverted approach of allegorization came historical and traditional doctrines not found in the Bible.  The allegorical interpreters read them into the text using this highly subjective methodology.  With very powerful elite and then government behind it, the doctrine and practices emanating from allegorization became the authorized viewpoint.  The fruits of this early concoction buttressed future worse twisting and distortion.

False Doctrine Dovetailing with A State Church

False doctrine has its own history, sanctioned by how ancient it is.  As theology dovetailed with the state in the Roman Empire, theologians wielded significant authority.  The alliance between church and state could use theology for outcomes convenient for maximum state power.  Theologians could also make Christianity respectable in the Greco-Roman world.

Augustine cited Luke 14:23 (“Compel them to come in”) allegorically to justify state intervention in religious matters.  His interpretation  served the practical need of suppressing dissent to maintain a unified state church, reflecting the priorities of a Christian empire.  Divine purposes could serve the state with the tool of allegorical interpretation.  Augustine channeled his work in the Bible toward  state interests.  His emphasis on Petrine authority in Matthew 16:18 bolstered state church legitimacy.

What was allegorical interpretation, spiritualizing the text of scripture, progressed to a system of interpretation.  It became the official approach of the state church and Christendom.   Churches separate from the state church rejected it and went a different direction.  At the arrival of the Reformation, the Protestant Reformers said “no” to some allegorization, but kept much of it.  They retained the ecclesiology, the eschatology, and a portion of the rituals that preceded from their alligorization.