HIDDEN WISDOM OF THE BIBLE - 1

Why
symbolic
interpretation?

In New Thought churches, we interpret the Bible symbolically rather than literally. I want to discuss why we do this, and why it is important to know something of the symbolic way of reading the Bible or any of the ancient (or modern) mystical texts.

At the far end of the scale from us are the literalists or fundamentalists, who advocate a strict literal interpretation of the Bible as the only valid guide for living. This approach leads to some problems, for a number of reasons, apart from the personal inflexibility it creates:

First, translations always lose something of the original meaning. This does not inspire confidence in something that I am going to allow to have authority over my life. hi several versions, the Bible contains translations of translations; compunding the chance for misinterpretation and error.

Secondly, a literal interpretation runs smack into reality, in the form of scientific discoveries and obvious facts.

Thirdly, the culture of Biblical times and of the Israelite people is not our culture; their idioms are not our idioms. Russian-bom comedian Yakov Smirnof says that learning English gets very hard when you hear phrases like "The door is ajar” or "Exact change please”. We may have less trouble with, “What's goin' down, bro?” or "He got some bad mojo, man" than we do with biblical phrases from thousands of years ago. They had their own idioms in Biblical times, too, so a literal translation can result in a certain amount of nonsense.

The stories told in the Bible look like a literal history of the Hebrew people, and that's partially what they are. But if that was all they were, this book would not have become the guide to living of hundreds of millions around the globe.

If I wrote my family history, I don't care how good a writer I am, it would not sell billions of copies over a few thousand years, and become the guide to living for hundreds of millions of people. It is the wisdom buried in bible stories which is the real treasure. The stories may be true, but their literal truth is not the point.

Have you read the Celestine Prophecy? Is that a true story? No. Does it matter whether it is or not? No. Because it conveys an ancient wisdom to us in yet another form. It speaks past the mind, straight to the heart.

Great works like the bible do the same. The story matters a lot less than the message.