Episode Details

Allegories. Christians love allegories! That’s a story element of having a person, place, or thing meant a a direct picture of something else, like Jesus or moral virtues. Some people think Jesus did this in parables, or C.S. Lewis did this with Narnia. Others point to Pilgrim’s Progress as a prime example. Even if they’re right about that, might some readers and authors focus so much on possible “allegories” that we miss great stories’ deeper meanings?

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Quotes and notes

Allegory is a form of literature in which material figures represent immaterial virtues or vices. So in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, the character Timorous represents fear and Mr. Worldly Wiseman represents worldly wisdom. In our day, distinction of genres has been muddled a bit, so we tend to regard any story with symbolic elements in it as allegorical, but it was not always this way. C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, for instance, are not allegories, even as often as they are referred to as such, and Lewis himself said as much.

The parables of Jesus could be said to contain allegorical elements, some more than others, but they are not strictly speaking themselves allegories. Jesus definitely deals in the world of virtues and vices, but he is most immediately interested in the world of human beings, their hearts, their words, and their deeds.

“How Not to Read the Parables,” Jared C. Wilson

The reason for the long history of the misinterpretation of the parables can be traced back to something Jesus himself said, as recorded in Mark 4:10–12. When asked about the purpose of parables, he seems to have suggested that they contained mysteries for those on the inside, while they hardened those on the outside. Because he then proceeded to “interpret” the parable of the sower in a semi-allegorical way, this was seen to give license to the hardening theory and endless allegorical interpretations. The parables were considered to be simple stories for those on the outside to whom the “real meanings,” the “mysteries,” were hidden; these belonged only to the church and could be uncovered by means of allegory.

How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth by Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart

1. Jesus’s parables aren’t just allegories

• Sometimes the Lord interpreted His tales this way. For example, He says the seed is like His word and different soils are like different hearers (see

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