In biblical usage, allegory refers to a narrative or figure in which a deeper spiritual meaning runs beneath the literal surface. Paul uses the Greek verb allegoreo in Galatians 4:24, interpreting Hagar and Sarah as representing two covenants — law and grace. This is not a denial of historical fact but a declaration that the historical events carry additional typological meaning. The allegorical method, used carefully, illuminates how the Old Testament anticipates Christ. However, Scripture itself — not human imagination — controls when and how allegory applies. Allegorical reading untethered from authorial intent became the gateway to eisegesis.
Webster 1828: ALLEGORY — n. A figurative sentence or discourse, in which the principal subject is described by another subject resembling it in its properties and circumstances. The moral meaning is the primary intention; the literal narrative is the vehicle. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is a sustained allegory.
Post-Enlightenment liberalism weaponized allegory to dissolve historical claims in Scripture. If the Exodus is “merely allegorical,” the resurrection can be too. This move evacuates the faith of its objective, historical grounding. Paul's use of allegory in Galatians 4 presupposes the literal truth of the story — Hagar and Sarah were real women, and their historical reality carries typological weight. Allegory as hermeneutical escape hatch is the enemy of allegory as Spirit-illumined depth reading.
• Galatians 4:24 — “Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants.”
• 1 Corinthians 10:11 — “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us.”
• Hebrews 10:1 — “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming.”
• John 3:14 — “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”