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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

ALLEGORY*

A method of interpretation (“allegorizing”), especially biblical interpretation, that seeks to find a deeper moral, theological, spiritual meaning behind the words and literal imagery of the text.

Allegory began among the ancient Greeks, for whom the writings of such epic poets as Hesiod and Homer provided the basis for religion and piety. Later developments in the understandings of life and the universe made these writings appear obsolete. Further, with the passage of time, the significance and identity of some literal expressions of historical, geographic, cultural, and social elements in the poets were lost. In order to maintain the validity of their traditions, interpreters began to employ ingenious schemes through which abiding truths and values were sought by using the objective, literal features of the texts as symbols pointing beyond themselves.

Hellenistic Judaism, best exemplified by the first-century Philo of Alexandria, used allegory to make the OT relevant in the Greco-Roman world. Later, a group of Christian interpreters centered around Alexandria employed allegory as their principal method of handling both the OT and NT. In one form or another allegory was the dominant interpretative method of the Middle Ages. It continues to be highly regarded by some pietistically and mystically oriented contemporary Christians, both Protestant and Roman Catholic.

Since allegorizing is a highly individualized interpretative method, its features widely differ from one practitioner to another. For all allegorists the obvious, literal, objective features and meaning of a text are either irrelevant or of only secondary importance; the significant or true meanings may well be dissociated from objective statements or the historical setting. In more advanced applications of the method the external and obvious are irrelevant and even the historicity of an account is of no consequence. Indeed, the understanding and intention of the original author may count for nothing in determining the “true,” “spiritual” meaning of a biblical passage. External and obvious features of a writing are but clues pointing beyond themselves to spiritual meanings. Hence the allegorist makes free use of devices that establish arbitrary connections between ancient and contemporary events, seeks alleged meanings and derivations of word roots or the supposed relationship between similar words and sounds, and emphasizes prepositions. He assigns symbolic significance to individual parts such as persons, places, things, numbers, colors, and the like and may claim to discover truth hidden even in the shapes of letters.

Although the allegorical method has had a long history in the Christian church (and indeed is once specifically used by Paul in Gal 4:24, 26), it has inherent difficulties. These led the Reformers Luther and Calvin to reject allegory as a valid method of interpreting Scripture. The most serious problems include allegory’s separation of the meaning of the text from its plain statements in their original historical-grammatical-cultural setting and its inability to provide a basis for evaluating competing, contradictory interpretations of the same passage. Allegory provides no “controls” to protect the interpreter from reading his own meanings into Scripture rather than drawing out the Scripture’s more objective message.