And when He had opened the second seal,
I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
And there went out another horse that was red:
and power was given to Him that sat thereon
to take peace from the earth, and that they
should kill one another: and there was given
unto Him a great sword. And when He had
opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say,
Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse:
and He that sat on him had a pair of balances
in His hand. And I heard a voice in the midst
of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat
for a penny, and three measures of barley
for a penny; and see thou hurt not
the oil and the wine.
Revelation 6:3-8
A good question would be: Why does the Bible use symbols and how are we to understand them? How does the Bible use symbolism? I fear that today our children, and for a long time, have not learned or have been taught grammar. I find this often when I speak with a young person that they have little knowledge how grammar works or even that it is important to know grammar. I ask what is a metaphor and many of the ones I ask do not have an answer or a clear answer but only some thought to the meaning or how it is to be used, or used. This lack of understanding carries over into interpretation of the symbols, and metaphors, used in the Bible leading to new innovations or even false teaching. Throughout history metaphors and symbols were part of the culture and they are used today as they are powerful word tools that give deeper, concrete meaning to abstract concepts. What does abstract mean? The meaning is that it is thought apart from concrete realities, or specific objects, or actual instances, that a symbol is difficult to understand. An abstract word used often is "justice," and we use the word "abstract" for a type of painting. The symbols used in the Bible are recognizable to us but are so often have cultural references that make them hard to translate, therefore, we must use the whole of the Bible, the whole of their use in the Bible to come to an understanding of a symbol or metaphor.
Should we always in every case interpret the Bible literally? If that question is asked the questioner probably has an attitude of unbelief an incredulity to actually believe that the Bible should be read as nonfiction. An example of this attempt to discredit the Bible is when John states: that Jesus says, 'I am the door,' well does this mean that Jesus is an actual door? Or when the Psalmist asks to be sheltered under God's wings, then is God a bird? The questioner is using "reductio ad absurdum," which is a proposition, or set of propositions that is refuted by attempting to show that the proposition leads logically to an absurd consequence. Using the wrong methodological method to interpret will always lead to wrong understanding. Understanding is part of the forming of our character, so then, wrong understanding leads to a poor or wrong character leading to wrong actions or exercises, especially in the case of faith and worship.
What is the best method when attempting to translate and interpret the Bible? I would not hesitate to state: The best method is the literal-historical-grammatical method. Why? This method has as it aim the discovery of the meaning of the passage the original author would have intended and what the hearers would have understood. The Bible is unique as it is candor, and uses various genres, i.e., narrative, poetry, didactic teaching, and metaphors, hyperbole, etc., and all this does not take away from the literalness of the Bible as in these methods and techniques they are even standard fare for nonfiction literature that uses everyday language to communicate. The Bible uses, and this is a very difficult word and not used much if at all in everyday speech, phenomenological language (phew!) and this means to describe everyday things in common speech. It means to classify phenomena relevant to itself, as in the case of symbols, or metaphor.
In the case of metaphors, as the Bible is full of them, figures of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something which it is not, that which may seem awkward, without animation, or without awareness to suggest a resemblance, as in the case mention above where Jesus says that He is the "door," which did not mean that He had hinges, or was flat, but that He was the way into the kingdom of God. Symbolism seems to cause the various of interpretations but we must remember that symbolism points to the literal object behind the figurative language.
When we come to understand this it becomes much easier to embrace that the literal-historical-grammatical method for Bible interpretation is the best and the obvious method to come to a correct interpretation.
So why have I taken this time to point all this out? Because if we do not have a correct method then we will not understand and misuse what God by inspiration had the Bible writers to write, and in the Book of Revelation the lack for good interpretation has led to many, many, different interpretations. A person' presupposition, if misunderstood, leads to their interpretation and this leads to false teaching. So now, we have come to some symbols that have been interpreted many different ways so we must come to a correct Biblical understanding, i.e., horse, swords, scales, etc., so when I begin, and I will tomorrow, to teach with simplicity about those symbols in the verses that have them, we will not go off into some rabbit trail that leads nowhere, or to false teaching. So hold on to your hats, open your mind, read, study, pray, for I know that if you are an Authentic Christian you want the truth.
Search me, O God, and know my heart:
try me, and know my thoughts: and
see if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139:23-24
Test all things: hold on to the good
Richard L. Crumb
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