A Reflection on Allegory
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother (Gal 4.22-26).
This year’s summer Elder series finds us in St. Paul’s epistle to the Galatians focusing on the key theme of the letter – justification by faith alone. Dr. Brett, Pastors Zack, and Andrew have faithfully ministered the Word to us, and we look forward to Pastor Shane’s homily on Galatians 4 this Sunday. In preparation for Sunday’s homily, I have been reading through the fourth chapter of Galatians. Verse 24 got me thinking – not about justification, but – about hermeneutics and homiletics.
Hermeneutics refers to the science of interpretation, i.e. how we interpret Scripture. Homiletics refers to the science of preaching. If you’ve been a member of CCC for any length of time you know that one of our strongest – if not the strongest – emphases is on Christ-centered hermeneutics and Christ-centered homiletics – the Bible is about Jesus, so we preach Jesus from every passage in the Bible. The key text grounding this methodology is Luke 24 where the resurrected Lord Jesus teaches His disciples this Christocentric hermeneutic. One of the many ways that we see Jesus in all of Scripture is on display here in this passage: allegory.
St. Paul uses Sarah and Hagar as an allegory for those who are merely born of the flesh (Hagar), and those who are born again (Sarah; cf. John 3). The phrase interpreted allegorically comes from the Greek: ἀλληγορουμενα[allēgoroumena], which is “compounded of ἀλλο [allo], “another,” and ἀγορευω [agoreuō], “to speak,” and so means speaking something else than what the language means.”[1] Allegorical interpretation is not something new with the Apostles; St. Paul would have been familiar with Rabbi Akiba, who found a mystical sense in every hook and crook of the Hebrew letters.[2] Allegorical interpretation is employed here in Galatians 4, but can be found elsewhere in the Apostolic Canon (the book of Hebrews, which many scholars now consider to be an early Apostolic homily, and 1 Cor. 10.11, where St. Paul enlists typology, which is a cousin to allegory, and is a key hermeneutical tool).
The Patristics were famous for their allegorical homilies, some good, some bad, but there was no doubt they understood there was more to the Scripture than mere grammatical-historical interpretation. The Medieval Scholastics and the Reformers did the same. It wasn’t until the Enlightenment and the rise of 19th century German Protestant liberalism that conservative Christians, especially with the rise of fundamentalism and dispensationalism, began to insist that the Scriptures must be interpreted merely using grammatical-historical methodology – i.e. the original human author’s intent is the meaning of the text.
I had one professor in seminary tell me that St. Matthew’s interpretation of Jesus Christ fulfilling Hosea 11.1 in Matthew 2.15 is only true because St. Matthew was inspired by the Holy Spirit, but that is not an intrinsically true way of interpreting Hosea 11.1 – aka if St. Matthew wasn’t an inspired apostle, he would have failed that professor’s hermeneutics class. The same can be argued (from these woefully wrong brothers) about Galatians 4 – that Christocentric allegory is not a legitimate method of interpretation; that Galatians 4 is only true because St. Paul was inspired, otherwise it wouldn’t be. Poppycock! The Apostles did not merely leave us the content of their inspired writings, but they also left us an inspired hermeneutic – an inspired method of interpreting the Bible.
This is to your benefit. The more you read the New Testament and notice how the Apostles read the Old Testament, the more you submit yourself to Christ-centered preaching at church, the more your imagination will be sanctified and you will see Christ as you read the Scripture too! You will see Jesus in the types and shadows. You will see Christ in the heroes and antitypes. The themes will preach the gospel to you and the Holy Spirit will form you into the image of Christ Jesus through His Word.
Let’s remember that as we come to church Sunday. As we gather around the ministry of the Word, let us behold Jesus. By His grace we are children of the promise. We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. Let us cast out any self-righteousness that feeds our pride and whispers the lie to us that we are righteous before God by any means other than faith in the good news of the true Son of Abraham.
[1]Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Ga 4:24). Broadman Press.
[2]Ibid.