A SHORT HISTORY OF LITERAL INTERPRETATION
In many denominations it is a settled fact that for every scripture there is only one, literal meaning. There are several problems with this thinking:

Reviewing this list, most readers would say that they would not want to be guilty of offending God in any of these ways. Nevertheless, most readers who are totally honest would have to confess that they have consciously or unconsciously adopted the “literal” attitude about scripture. It is an easy and understandable attitude to adopt because that is what most religious leaders teach and because the Bible is admittedly hard to understand in many place.

It is a fact that the “literal” philosophy has become the default approach to scripture interpretation. We might be wrong about this because we do not have a vantage point from which we can accurately view and judge all Jewish and Christian denominations. Nevertheless, we will venture the opinion that Jewish and Christian denominations, old and new, large and small, have built their organizations and leadership around this philosophy. It is hard, therefore, to be a religionist in good standing in one of these organizations without adopting the same attitude because people who think differently (i.e. they take the symbolic approach) are suspect for their non-literal view of the Bible — if they dare to express that view publicly.

Because of this prevailing tendency to interpret the Bible literally, a good portion of scripture is confusing to most readers. And we should not be surprised at that because God, in his wisdom, has loaded it with symbolic mystery from beginning to end.

STUDY TIP: See Mystery and Literal or Symbolic Interpretation: Part 2. These pages cite many scriptures that verify and explain parables, dark sayings, symbols, types and patterns, figurative language, shadows and deep mysteries that are hidden in throughout the Bible.

It is curious that, despite the fact that God is very forward about the presence of all these deep things, religious leaders and their followers still hold on to their literal philosophy. Those who are most religious will often claim to believe and trust the entire Bible, but the veracity of their claims breaks down when it comes to all the mysterious stuff that is hard to understand. Somehow they have contrived an exception to their claims that they fail to disclose to their followers.

The conclusion we derive from this inconsistency is that those who claim to trust the Bible are hypocrites. They say one thing but do another. Worse yet, they have led their followers into hypocrisy also. And so both religious leaders and their followers continue merrily along doing their religious thing week after week with never a second thought that might prompt them to begin exploring what God means in all the difficult scriptures that they conveniently slide over when they read and discuss the Bible.

With this irresponsible attitude firmly in place for hundreds of years, it is not surprising that the confusing parts do not become any clearer no matter how many sermons they hear, no matter how much they read their Bibles, and no matter how many spiritual books they have read. If they were humble enough to admit it, they would have to say that much of the Bible remains a mystery to them. But they don’t say it because no one is asking and saying it would create an internal cognitive dissonance that would be hard for them to live with.

On the other hand, many religious people will proudly say that the Bible makes perfect sense. Christians get creation, sin, hell, Jesus, salvation and all the other doctrines their respective denominations and teachers emphasize. And Jews get the letter of the Torah. Each will hold up their Bibles or their Torah scrolls and claim it as God’s Holy word and that they believe every word of it. When Christians get to the Books of the Law (i.e. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) and the prophets, however, they are less sure, but they don’t let that bother them too much. They still claim to trust all of it. Jews also have problems with some Old Testament scriptures and with the entire New Testament, but they do not hide or equivocate in their mistrust of anything related to Jesus.

Somehow, what God said about “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” gets set aside by religious people when applied to the parts of the Bible they do not understand or with which they do not agree. We don’t know how religious organizations and individuals reconcile themselves to this inconsistency, but we will say without fear of contradiction that they have somehow learned to live with the confusion and carry on in zealously in their religious pursuits.  In our way of thinking, such readers are Old/First Covenant religionists. They have the letter of the law but not the Spirit — or at least not all of the Spirit.

So, what we have within the great population of those who claim to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, is a divergent spectrum of attitudes and understandings about the Bible. The way we see it, all who are honest would need to confess that there is much of the Bible that they do not understand. And even if they would not publicly acknowledge any confusion, it is a Biblical certainty that they do not understand all of it. They may be able to quote chapter and verse of large portions of the Bible, but that is not the same thing as understanding it. A child or a parrot can be trained to quote scripture, but that does not mean they truly understand what they are saying. And if any would dare say that they do understand all of it,  they would be liars because they would be claiming themselves equal to God.

Most of us, however, will not claim to be God’s equal. We try to be faithful to do our daily devotions but it is a constant struggle for most believers to keep up. Many solve this problem with help from expert authors who appear to have the Bible figured out. These authors are so confident in their knowledge of the Bible that they create publications and charge people for their accumulated wisdom. Preachers do the same with their preaching. Because this religious lingo is so nicely packaged, Ignorant religionists conclude, that authors and preachers know what they are talking about. Those religionists, believing that they will benefit from the wisdom of religious leaders are willing to pay for it — all the while ignoring that they are beneficiaries of commercial religion.

Many other readers faithfully (more or less) maintain their Bible reading schedule (e.g. a chapter a day, the Bible in a year, or whatever). They have been exhorted by pastors and friends that reading their Bible is good for their relationship with God, and so they read. But, if they are honest, they would need to confess that reading has become an issue of quantity and has little to do with quality. That means they read more as a chore to be done like brushing our teeth, and less for real understanding. On a good day, there will be little “aha” moments of inspiration, understanding, or application, but these do not compare in frequency with pages of boredom (e.g. endless genealogies, the books of Numbers and Leviticus, etc.) or confusion (e.g. stoning, prostitution, idolatry, etc.)  that are the norm for most Bible readers.

We might regret that this is the way it is more if we did not know that this is the way it has been for over two thousand years going back to the exile of Israel after the destruction of the first temple.

So this is our little review of the history of how Jews and Christians got stuck in Biblical literalism. It may not seem like a big spiritual deal to most readers, but it really is. Keep reading to learn why it is such a big deal.