📖 Biblical Definition
Paul uses the word "allegory" once in Scripture: "Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants" (Galatians 4:24), referring to Hagar and Sarah as representing the old and new covenants. Importantly, Paul does not deny the historicity of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar -- he treats them as real persons whose real history also carries typological and covenantal significance. This is closer to typology than to the allegorical method of Origen, who often dissolved the historical sense entirely in favor of spiritual abstractions. Legitimate biblical allegory (or "allegorizing" as Paul does it) recognizes deeper meaning within real history, while illegitimate allegory replaces history with human-invented symbolic meanings.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
A figurative sentence or discourse, in which the principal subject is described by another resembling it.
expand to see more
AL'LEGORY, n. [Gr. allegoria.] A figurative sentence or discourse, in which the principal subject is described by another subject resembling it in its properties and circumstances. The real subject is thus kept out of view, and we are left to collect the intentions of the writer or speaker, by the resemblance of the secondary to the primary subject. Webster understood allegory as an indirect form of communication, which when applied to Scripture requires careful discernment to avoid reading in what is not there.
📖 Key Scripture
• Galatians 4:24 — "Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants."
• Galatians 4:25-26 — "For this Agar is mount Sinai... But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all."
• Ezekiel 17:2-10 — "Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel."
• John 15:1-5 — "I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Uncontrolled allegorizing turns Scripture into a mirror of the interpreter's imagination.
expand to see more
The allegorical method, inherited from Philo and Origen, dominated medieval exegesis and produced wildly fanciful interpretations untethered from the text's actual meaning. The Reformers rightly rejected this method, insisting on the primacy of the literal-grammatical-historical sense. However, some modern interpreters have swung to the opposite extreme, denying any deeper meaning in Old Testament narratives and reducing them to mere history lessons or moral examples. The biblical balance is found in typology: real history with divinely intended forward-pointing significance. Paul's "allegorizing" in Galatians 4 is actually typological -- he preserves the historicity of the events while drawing out their covenantal significance. The test of any deeper reading is whether it has warrant in Scripture itself.
Usage
• "Paul's use of allegory in Galatians 4 does not deny the historical reality of Sarah and Hagar -- it recognizes that their real history carries deeper covenantal significance."
• "The allegorical method of Origen made the Bible a wax nose that could be shaped to mean anything -- the Reformers rightly rejected it in favor of the literal-grammatical-historical method."