TIP of the day: from the blogs - Biblical use of typology and allegoryFrom the Coptic Orthodox

MJ. Smith

From the Coptic Orthodox Church Network's article "The Allegorical Interpretation of the Scripture", part of an interesting series on patrology.

Allegorism was well established in Alexandrian Judaism, especially by Philo, who made a systematic use of it to bridge the chasm between the Old Testament revelation and the Platonic philosophy. Philo compares the literal sense of Scripture to the shadow which the body casts, finding its authentic, profounder truth in the spiritual meaning which it symbolizes. He does not want to depreciate or abolish the literal or the historical meaning, but looks to it as man’s body which merits the fullest respect.

The School of Alexandria adopted the allegorical interpretation of the Holy Scripture, believing that it hides the truth and at the same time reveals it. It hides the truth from the ignorant, whose eyes are blinded by sin and pride, hence they are prevented from the knowledge of the truth. At the same time it always reveals what is new to the renewed eyes of believers. St. Clement of Alexandria is considered the first Christian theologian (writer) who uses allegorical interpretation, giving a cause of using it in a practical way. He says that the Bible has hidden meanings to incite us to search and discover the words of salvation, which are hidden from those who despise them. The truth is in the pearls which must not be offered to the swines. His disciple, Origen, adds other justifications of using allegorical interpretation to the Scriptures.

Nevertheless a vigorous reaction against the Alexandrian allegorism made itself manifest in the fourth and fifth centuries. Its center was Antioch, which concentrated on the literal sense of the holy Scriptures.

As Kelly says, "It has been fashionable to distinguish different schools of patristic exegesis, notably the Alexandrian with its bias towards allegory, and the Antiochene with its passion for literalism."

 

 

ALLEGORY

The word "allegory," is derived from the Greek "alla," meaning "other," and "agoreuo," meaning "proclaim." It originally referred to a figure of speech that Cicero defined as a "continuous stream of metaphors." According to St. Augustine, allegory is a mode of speech in which one thing is understood by another. Allegory differs from the parable in its more systematic presentation of the different features of the idea which it illustrates, as well as in its contents which are concerned with the exposition of theoretical truths rather than practical exhortation.

 

 

ALLEGORY AND TYPOLOGY

The holy Scriptures use at least three kinds of allegory: figurative allegory, narrative allegory and typological allegory. St. Paul’s Ode to Charity (Corinthians 13) is figurative allegory. So is Wisdom, as she is presented in Proverbs 8. In some parables - those for instance of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 30-35) and the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) - the allegory is narrative. The most characteristic biblical form is the typological allegory, a New Testament exegetic method which treats events and figures of the Old Testament as combining historical reality with prophetic meaning in terms of the Gospels and the Christian Dispensation.

Modern distinction between allegory and typology stems from Antiochene criticism of Alexandrian allegory. For example, Jean Dani�lou states, "It would be an entire abuse of language to include moral allegory with typology under the one heading of spiritual sense, as opposed to the literal sense: typology is a legitimate extension of literal sense, while moral allegory is something entirely alien: the former is in truth exegesis, the latter is not. Origen was the first to bring together these two interpretations in a forceful synthesis. But they are in reality two distinct approaches, artificially put side by side."

Some scholars distinguish "allegory," defined as a method in which earthly realities are interpreted symbolically to refer to heavenly realities, from "typology," in which historical reality is interpreted as foreshadowing another, especially the person and work of Christ.

The word "type," tupoi in Greek has its basic meaning, ‘something struck out; a print, impression of a seal.’ The seal is the New Testament event, which has struck out a prophetic impression of itself in the pages of the Old Testament.

J.N.D. Kelly gives a base for the distinction between allegory and typology, saying,

... the word (allegory) led to confusion even in the patristic age, and its accepted meaning to day denotes a somewhat different type of exegesis from typology. Since the fathers employed both typology and allegory (in its modern sense), the distinction between the two methods needs to be clearly brought out...

In allegorical exegesis the sacred text is treated as a mere symbol, or allegory, of spiritual truths. The literal, historical sense, if it is regarded at all, plays a relatively minor role, and the aim of the exegete is to elicit the moral, theological or mystical meaning which each passage, indeed each verse and even each word, is presumed to contain...

Typological exegesis works along very different lines. Essentially it is a technique for bringing out the correspondence between the two Testaments: a technique where the Old reflects the New, i.e. prefigures and anticipates the events and personages of the New. The typologist takes history seriously; it is the scene of the progressive unfolding of God’s consistent redemptive purpose...

Jean Dani�lou also says, "The typology of the Fathers is based on the continuity which exists between the Old and New Testaments.

 

 

Allegory and the Jewish exegesis

According to Philo, the allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures was practiced in Palestinian Rabbinical schools.

In Palestinian Jewish exegesis, allegory provides material for haggadah, the interpretation of non-legal passages of Scripture. An example of this Jewish allegorical exegesis is Rabbi Jochanan ben Zakkai's (ca. A.D 70) explanation that a robber receives a lighter punishment than a thief because the thief, by acting secretly, has contempt for God's oversight. Also the interpretation that unclean animals, such as the hare and the pig, refer to Greece and Rome.

Although Palestinian allegory is generally more restrained than Hellenistic Jewish allegory and careful in particular to maintain legal validity, Rabbi Akiba (ca. AD. 50-132) could interpret the Song of Solomon allegorically to refer to the love between Israel and God.

The Alexandrian Jew Philo, as we mentioned above, uses two kinds of interpretation, literal and allegorical, which he links to the Platonic concept of a dual world - one of which is spiritual and immaterial like God, an archetype and model, and the other world being visible and corporeal. In Philo's opinion the literal sense, the written word, is concerned with appearance, while the allegorical sense expresses only what can be seized by intelligence and leads directly to the truth.

John Dillon in the preface of the book "Philo of Alexandria" says, "Philo did contribute enormously, through the Christian thinkers of the Alexandrian School, to the tradition of spirituality both in the Western Europe and in the Eastern Orthodox world, and the magnificent intellectual tour-de-force constituted by his Platonizing allegory of the Pentateuch deserves recognition and honor."

Jean Dani�lou, in his speech of the effect of Philo on the Alexandrian Didascalia, assures that the Alexandrian Fathers who adopted Philo’s method of interpretation, christianized it, giving it a Christological and more spiritual understanding. He says,

In his treatise on Paradise, Ambrose, who was much influenced by Philo, writes as follows: "Philo confined his attention to the moral sense, because his Judaic outlook prevented him from a more spiritual understanding." Spiritualia here denotes the Christological or typological sense, while moralia implies philosophical allegory...

This allegorizing of Philo will be adopted by that succession of Alexandrian Didascalia which will transform it into a Christian theology. Not that this will be, as with Philo, the only interpretation; but whereas, until then, typology was the only Christian interpretation, afterwards Origen, St. Ambrose and the Middle Ages will make use of allegory also...

A whole stream of Patristic tradition shows us the union of the Pauline typological "mystery" with the Philonian allegorical "mystery." While borrowing from Philo his principle, quite unexceptionable in itself, of a hidden meaning in the whole Bible, the Christian exegesis of Alexandria will give to these themes a meaning which is quite beyond the allegorizing of Philo. It will endow them with the whole mystery of Christ, who is truly the "fullness of grace."

 

Allegory and TYPOLOGY IN the New Testament

The term "allegory" is used by St. Paul in Gal. 4:24, "which things contain an allegory." Some scholars believe that he introduces the allegorical interpretation of the Law by the question "Is it for the oxen that God cares, or says He altogether for our sake?" (1 Cor. 9:10) does not necessarily mean that Paul, besides abolishing this particular law with his advocacy of the abrogation of the Law as a whole, also denies that this law was ever meant to be taken literally.

The New Testament uses allegory and typology. Here are some examples.

* The Gospels present our Lord Jesus using allegory as a rhetorical device in his own parables (cf. Matt. 13:18-35; Mark 4:12-20, 33-34; Luke 8:11-15), and the two witnesses whose testimony is true (Deut. 19:15; John 8:17-18). The majority of the New Testament parables are examples of prophetic and situational allegory, not involving typology.

* Our Lord interprets allegorically the brazen serpent (Num. 21:9; John 3:14) as a type of salvation by His Cross.

* The words of our Lord in Matt. 12:42 concerning the queen of the south reveals that our Lord uses allegory to speak of the Song of Solomon in terms of the mutual love of Christ and the Church. Solomon is a type of Christ, the Queen of Sheba represents the Church, as well as the New Testament authority for the interpretation is to be found in Matthew 12:42.

* In Matt. 12:40-42 we acknowledge Jonah in the whale’s belly as an allegory of the Descent into Hell and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus during Good Friday and Bright Saturday.

* St. Paul sees the relationship between the Church and the Synagogue prefigured in the story of Isaac and Ishmael. He applies allegory to the two mountains, Sinai and Zion, in Galatians 4:22-29. Hagar, Paul says, is a type of Mount Sinai, where Moses later received the Old Law, and so of the Jerusalem of his own day, the site of the Jewish Temple, and the center of the Jewish people and religion. Sarah is a type of the Heavenly Jerusalem of the Christian Church. The miraculous birth of Isaac typifies the virgin birth of Christ, as is further illustrated by the messianic quotation from Isaiah 54:I.

* Allegory is also applied to cleaning out the old leaven at the Passover to indicate the Christian community's purity (1 Cor. 5:6-8).

* Hebrews 8-10 interprets the Levitical sanctuary and sacrificial system as a temporary earthly manifestation of a heavenly reality revealed in Christ.

* In I Corinthians 10:6-13, St. Paul teaches that events mentioned in Exodus and Numbers, while the people of Israel wandered in the wilderness (Exod. 13:21-22; 14:22-29; 16:4,35), prefigure Christian sacraments. He further claims that such happenings are intended "typically" to forewarn Christians about the coming of Christ and the consequences of His ministry.

* In Romans 5:14 St. Paul suggests that Adam was a "type" of the Christ who was to come.

* The main Old Testament personages who typify aspects of the New Testament - ‘so great a cloud of witnesses’ - are listed in Hebrews 11. They are Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the Prophets. In this list we have a stage in the development of a new point of view, In the full Christian form, this sees history, not as sequence, but as process, directed from Creation and the Fall of Man towards the Incarnation and Redemption, and finally to Judgment Day. The ultimately significant events are concentrated into the few years of the earthly life of Jesus, the carpenter’s son from Nazareth. All history becomes a typology, whose meaning is to be assessed in terms of a single humble life which had apparently ended in ignominy.

Such explanations illuminate the New Testament idea that all incidents during the old dispensation predicted the major events of the career of Jesus Christ and of the early church, which relived them in a Christian sense. Most obvious analogies concern the flood and the ark, the liberation of the people of Israel from Egypt (the Exodus), the wandering in the wilderness, the crossing of the River Jordan, the later return from exile, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Actual historical episodes are seen to foreshadow later events not in a literal but in a spiritual sense; thus, the liberation from Egypt is paralleled in Christ’s freeing us from our sins. These types are perpetuated and enormously increased in the writings of the ancient Christian Fathers. Indeed, the Bible is ransacked to extract types regarded as fulfilled in the Christian dispensation, some of them absurd and farfetched...

The use of types in this manner may be said to have entered deeply into Christian prayer, worship, hymnology, and piety generally.

According to St. Augustine, the allegories which New Testament writers find in the Old Testament are not mere rhetorical figures but historical facts ("non in verbis sed in facto"); God, the true author of Scripture, foreordained certain facts recorded in the Bible in such a manner as to be, apart from historical reality, also a prophetic announcement of future events.

All the work of the prophets, which is of cardinal importance in the Old Testament, rests on a twofold movement; it recalls the great works of God in the past, but it recalls them only as a foundation for a faith in great works to come. The past is only recalled as a foundation for future hope. As God had set man in Paradise so must Israel wait to be brought into a New Paradise. This is precisely the essence of typology, which is to show how past events are a figure of events to come.

In the New Testament, we have four kinds of non-literal interpretations of Old Testament texts:

1. Interpretations dealing with predictions of the first coming of Christ.

2. Interpretations dealing with predictions of the second coming of Christ.

3. Interpretations dealing with the pre-existence of Christ.

4. Interpretations dealing with legal or moral matters.

We refer to these four kinds of non-literal interpretations as adventual, eschatological, pre-existential, and moral, respectively. All these non-literal interpretations are of the rabbinical midrashic kind; none of them is of the Philonic philosophical kind, except perhaps the pre-existential, which may reflect indirectly some philosophic view. Still, several instances of adventual, non-literal interpretation is explicitly described by the Philonic terms of allegory, type, shadow, and parable; undoubtedly it is only by mere accident that these terms are not used in connection with other instances of adventual interpretation, and also in connection with eschatological, pre-existential, and moral, non-literal interpretations. Thus, according to St. Paul, for a non-literal interpretation of a text of Scripture to be described by the Philonic term allegorical it is not necessary that it be philosophical. It is with these four kinds of non-literal interpretations found in the New Testament - adventual, eschatological, pre-existential, and moral - of which only some instances of the first kind are described by the term allegory or by the terms type, shadow, and parable, that the Fathers started on their discussion of the allegorical method.

Finally, it is worthy to note that even the Old Testament uses allegory. A whole book (Song of Songs) cannot be interpreted literally but allegorically. Also it is used in the Prophets, such as in Ezek. 27-32. Tyre is presented as a magnificent merchant ship, wrecked at sea, "The rowers have brought you into great waters; the east wind has broken you in the midst of the seas" Ezek. 28:26. The east wind is Nebuchadnezzar, who captured Jerusalem in 586 B.C. The Egyptian Pharaoh is the Nile crocodile, hooked and thrown out to rot on the desert. Also in the New Testament, there is the Book of Revelation, a connected series of visions, which cannot be interpreted except allegorically.