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Study Section 8: Interpreting Figurative Passages

8.1 Connect.

When my children were small, they liked for me to read them “fairy tales.” Of particular
interest was the story of Jack and the Bean Stock. A little boy named Jack found a
special bean that grew a huge bean stock that seemed to go up to heaven. He climbed
the stalk and found another world at its top, including a golden egg and a large giant.
But the story was not real. It was a tale.

Some Bible interpreters try to say that some stories in the Bible are not real, but “fairy tales.” “How can
a man live in the belly of a great fish for several days,” they ask? So they say the Bible is an allegory or a
the stories, while not real, represent a nice thought.

There are passages in the Bible that don’t seem to make sense. There are verses that definitely describe
figurative rather than literal figures. So how do we manage these verses without throwing out the literal
interpretation of the Bible? That is the challenging question we plan to embark upon today.

8.2 Objectives.

1. The student should be able to describe how to interpret figurative words or phrases in the Bible.

2. The student should be able to explain how to understand some difficult and problematic portions of
the Bible that are not really clear to us.

3. The student should be able to discuss why we may never be able to understand 100% of the
Bible, but we will learn to trust the One who wrote it without error.

8.3 Dealing with Figurative Passages

Some passages of Scripture are figurative because they simply cannot be understood
literally. Sometimes a symbol is described which has no connection to reality. In some
cases, the passage itself gives you the meaning of that which is figurative. In other cases, it
appears that God leaves that up to a future date to reveal the meaning of a passage.

Here are a couple examples of figurative verses:

John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears
much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

When Jesus said that he is the vine did he mean that he is a woody plant? It is obvious that Jesus is not
a vine, so we have to look at what that could possibly mean. It has to do with bearing fruit and being
connected to the plant and roots. Proper Interpretation: As a branch is connected to a vine to bear
fruit, so we are to be connected to Christ so that we can bear fruit.

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