WORD_SCRIPTURE
The Bible as Allegory
The Bible is not a historical record but a metaphysical allegory, where all characters and stories represent eternal spiritual states and the journey of the…
Related Bible passages
- Galatians 4:24
- 2 Corinthians 5:16
- Galatians 4:21
- Galatians 4:31
- Matthew 1:1
- 1 Corinthians 3:19
Related ideas
An Assured Understanding
Now I see the entire Bible as an allegory. Paul puts it quite clearly when he says: “The story of Abraham is an allegory.” As a devout Jew, Paul thought Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived as men after the flesh; but when his eyes were opened he saw all scriptural characters as backgrounds - spiritual eternal states that culminate in the one in whom the ideal blooms. Then he knew he could not see the blooming ideal as flesh, when all the others are spirit. All of the characters in scripture are eternal states of the spirit through which the immortal soul passes and comes to that final state called Jesus, when the seed called Isaac which was planted in you in the beginning of time, comes to fruition.
The Bible is not a historical record but a metaphysical allegory, where all characters and stories represent eternal spiritual states and the journey of the immortal soul towards the final realization of its divine identity as Jesus (the Christ ideal).
The Gospel
If the story of Abraham as stated in the 4th chapter of Galatians is an allegory, and the New Testament begins: “This is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” - is the story of Jesus Christ not an allegory, written for us to learn its message? This doesn’t mean the story is a lie, but because man cannot grasp the mystery of God, it is told in the form of a tale. Unfortunately, man has accepted the story instead of its message.
Neville teaches that biblical stories, including those of Abraham and Jesus Christ, are 'allegories.' They are not literal historical accounts but tales designed to convey profound spiritual messages and the 'mystery of God,' which human understanding struggles to grasp directly. The error is in accepting the story literally instead of extracting its spiritual message.
How To Manifest Your Desires
That you may receive the full benefit of these instructions, let me state now that the Bible has no reference at all to any persons who ever existed or to any event that ever occurred upon earth. The ancient story tellers were not writing history but an allegorical picture lesson of certain basic principles which they clothed in the garb of history, and they adapted these stories to the limited capacity of a most uncritical and credulous people. ... The difference between the form of the Bible and its substance is as great as the difference between a grain of corn and the life germ within that grain. As our assimilative organs discriminate between food that can be built into our system and food that must be discarded, so do our awakened intuitive faculties discover beneath allegory and parable, the psychological lifegerm of the Bible; and, feeding on this, we, too, cast off the form which conveyed the message.
The Bible is not literal history but a collection of allegorical stories and parables designed to convey psychological and spiritual truths. Its characters and events are personifications of abstract ideas and states of consciousness within the individual.