In the last chapter I used the word "allegory" in specific
reference to symbolizing an Old Testament historical event to create a New
Testament teaching. I said that Biblical writers could do this but we
shouldn’t.
According to Webster’s Dictionary the simplest definition of an
"allegory" is a "symbolic representation of
something". Also according to Webster’s an "analogy" can
be used to represent something else if there are at least two or more
similarities between the analogy and the thing being considered. An
allegory and an analogy are often used as if they mean the same thing.
They are similar in meaning, but not exactly the same. Nevertheless, for
this chapter I will use these two words interchangeably, since I believe
many people do.
When we allegorize an Old Testament event to create a New Testament
teaching, we create a teaching out of a symbol. That’s what we shouldn’t
do. Yet we can take a New Testament teaching and explain it with an
allegory or an analogy. In this case we start with the teaching and end
with the symbol, instead of starting with the symbol and ending with the
teaching These are two different concepts altogether. In this use of
allegory we’re not deriving our teaching from the symbol. We’re using
the symbol to help explain the teaching.
Paul uses allegories, or analogies to explain a point. He speaks of our
life with Jesus as being a marathon. By using the analogy of "running
a race", he helps explain that we need to persist in our faith to the
very end, as runners do in a long race. (1 Cor. 9:24) The teaching is on
persistence. The analogy is the race.
So there is a proper use of symbols, yet even as I say this, symbols,
allegory, and analogies have their limitations. At some point an analogy
breaks down and at that point some might make the analogy explain more
than the teaching states. Some have gotten carried away in their analogies
at this point and have changed the meaning of the teaching by making too
much out of the analogy. The analogy thus becomes the basis for a new
teaching and becomes no different than allegorizing an Old Testament
event.
An example of a bad use of an allegory to explain a teaching is this.
Let’s use the marathon analogy to explain Paul’s teaching on
endurance. If we say that we’re competing with other runners, which one
does in a race, and if we then say that these runners are our brothers in
Christ, then that’s an abuse of the allegory. We are in a race, but we’re
not in competition with our brothers. This explanation goes beyond the
scope of Paul’s teaching of persistence. Paul did not have competition
with our brothers in mind when he used his analogy, or when he taught on persistence. Allegory should only
explain the teaching without adding any new idea to the teaching.
Like Paul, we can use allegory in this way because we aren’t
inventing a new Biblical teaching. We’re only explaining the Biblical
teaching that already exists, or at least that is what we should be doing.
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