Over the course of my teaching career one of the biggest misconceptions I’ve encountered about Bible interpretation is the idea that interpreting what the Bible says symbolically or metaphorically equates to concluding that what you’re reading isn’t real. This is deeply flawed thinking. But it’s nevertheless understandable.
Bible teachers and preachers are fond of saying that the Bible needs to be interpreted literally for it to be taken seriously. Taking something “literally” means you’re ruling out any type of figurative language. That only makes sense if the biblical authors wanted to be taken that way. Sometimes they didn’t. Since they were human, much of what they wrote could have meaning on more than one level. Insisting only on literalism stifles communication.
We use words every day in ways that would be comical or offensive if taken literally, yet we never expect what we say to be denigrated or considered phony. When you say on a hot day, “I was roasting out there today,” were you? When you say you’re madly in love with your wife, should I presume you’re insane for being attracted to her? If your boss is hard-hearted, have you just diagnosed arteriosclerosis? When you tell your neighbor his new car is a sweet ride, will he ask you not to lick it again? We can laugh at these absurdities, but all of these statements are meant to be taken seriously. They all have meaning that corresponds to reality.
Biblical writers didn’t live in an alternate universe where people never used figurative language, metaphors, or symbolic references. All of those things are stock elements of the way language works. Pitting “literalism” and “figurative” against each other in some sort of semantic death match demonstrates poor thinking.
The reason we can understand when to take a statement figuratively or literally is because the world we’ve experienced informs us how to interpret it. In other words, the cumulative effect of our upbringing, our cultural setting, our experiences, and our worldview wires us in such a way that we intuitively know what is meant. To reject figurative interpretations of the Bible is to deny the biblical writers their humanity. Instead of letting them be the authority for understanding what they wrote, we assume we know better.
Instead of bending the book of Revelation to our own will in the name of literalism, we need to do everything we can to think like the writers did and to read what they wrote through ancient eyes. We need to learn all we can about their culture, worldview, beliefs, and historical times. That takes work. Fortunately, we have an abundance of resources today that can help us with that task.