Religious Allegory Meaningful

[Moksha]

Isn't the symbolic wisdom found in religious texts great?

Symbolic wisdom and truths can be gleaned from such sacred allegory. The writers of the Bible understood that when they included the older epic of the Great Flood and Ark. They knew it contained a lesson of preparing for hardship and calamity. Even that crazy part of Noah cursing his son had the lesson of not being caught with your pants down.

Any thoughts?

[Yekcidmij]

Originally Posted by Moksha

Isn't the symbolic wisdom found in religious texts great?

Symbolic wisdom and truths can be gleaned from such sacred allegory. The writers of the Bible understood that when they included the older epic of the Great Flood and Ark. They knew it contained a lesson of preparing for hardship and calamity. Even that crazy part of Noah cursing his son had the lesson of not being caught with your pants down.

Any thoughts?

Jews used Midrash in order to study and do exegesis on scripture. Their system has been dubbed "Pardes" (an acronym) where they believed every scripture had 4 levels of interpretation:

- Plain, direct, literal meaning
- a deeper more allegoric meaning
- comparative meaning
- Secret/mystery/divine meaning.


Christianity in the Middle Ages had a similar approach in some circles:
-literal meaning
-typological meaning
-moral meaning
-analogical meaning


To do Midrash properly, you had to start at the base (the literal meaning) and build on that. You couldn't do one stage without the other. One of the major problems with doing an allegorical or homelitical approach is that you stand the risk of losing the literal and original meaning of the text, and before too long you write a book that has 7 levels of heaven and 7 levels of hell where a big monster is chewing on Judas at the bottom of a pit. That or you preach a sermon on how Christians are to be filthy rich. Anything can be taken too far. I've seen many clever sermons where one verse was taken and expounded on and applied to some modern day situation without the expounder ever stopping to think, "is this what the author really intended for me to know"? The books of Revelation and Ezekiel are prime targets of modern day allegorical approaches that step out too far and just think all of the book applies to modern day audiences, then you mix in the allegory, and you end up with a long series of books about being left behind. Revelation was written to a group of 7 late 1st century churches under persecution, and somehow that has morphed into tanks, jets, nuclear bombs, and a convoluted war scenario that all begins with a rapture. So, just be careful when doing allegory and don't take it too far, don't lose the base literal meaning and original intent of the author.

It should be noted that the New Testament writers do seem to employ Midrash at times (eg. the virgin birth reference to Isaiah is a possible one), and even Jesus Himself seems to have employed a Midrash technique on occasion (eg. His reference to Jonah).

I think it's important to ask, how did a text apply to the original context and audience? In light of that, how can it apply to us today? In light of those things, how does it, or does it even, apply to the future?

[HoosierGuy]

Originally Posted by Moksha

Isn't the symbolic wisdom found in religious texts great?

Symbolic wisdom and truths can be gleaned from such sacred allegory.

Any thoughts?

And the meanings and lessons in many verses can change over time as we re-read them, study and ponder them. We can get more and more from the same verses each time we read them.

[Godless]

I can definately appreciate the symbolism of the Bible, particularly the story of Eden in Genesis 1. While I don't believe that the story is literally true in any way, I believe that it's a very good allegory of humanity's emergence into consciousness and self-awareness.

[Captain_Curmudgeon]

On the other hand, I like to read the Gospels in the NT as history, so to speak. Jesus was just such an iconoclast: hanging with publicans (NOT republicans), turning water to wine, throwing down on His mom, hanging around with women, never giving straight answers.

I think I may be one of those few people who believe in Jesus without believing in Christ.

So, is that what the song is about: "Jesus Is Just All Right With Me"?

[MrNirom]

I love the way Jesus used the earth as his chalkboard.

Example: The Garden of Gethsemane.. in Hebrew means "oil press". This is were the only writer of the New Testaments, Luke, who is a physician.. describes the anguish of the Christ in Gethsemane was so deep that "his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

If anyone has even seen the color of olive oil as it is pressed from the olive.. you will notice that it is red... like blood.

And here in the Garden.. where Christ took upon him the the weight of the sins of the world.. it literally pressed the blood from his pores.

Or how the place of Christ's baptism happens to be below sea level. So when Christ was baptized.. he actually buried underground. Plus it is the same spot where the the Israelites crossed the Jordan River to start their new life in the promised land.

Just some interesting facts.. and there are many more!