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Reading Scripture Figurally: A Brief Introduction

~Dr. Eva Sham, Ph.D. in theology, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, is an independent scholar/researcher in historical theology.

The hermeneutic course that I audited many years ago taught that the modern grammatico-historical method of biblical interpretation (exegesis) was more “objective” than the traditional allegorical approach (for example, Paul’s use of allegory in Gal. 4:2₋₋31). Nevertheless, my longing to know God put me on a journey of exploring different ways of reading the Bible. One of them is the figural reading of Scripture.^[1] “Figural reading” originates from the term “figure” which means a word that represents another and includes literary tropes such as metaphor, analogy, and others.

Figural exegesis has its roots in the writings of the Church Fathers who distinguished the “spiritual” sense from the “literal” (“historical” or “plain”) sense of the text. The figural sense includes what medieval theologians described as three non-literal levels of meaning which refer to matters of faith (allegory), matters of morals (tropology), and matters of our final realities (anagogy), It also includes the Protestant dyad of typology and allegory. In Puritan typology, Old Testament types foreshadow New Testament antitypes such as Christ, the Church, and redemption-related events. By the seventeenth-century, however, the figural approach became increasingly regarded as an untrustworthy way to interpret the Scriptures. 

It is in the context of a growing dominance of historical-critical exegesis that Jonathan Edwards, eighteenth-century New England philosophical theologian, preacher, and pastor, continued to read Scripture figurally and typologically. For him, the entire universe is full of images/types of divine things because God has revealed himself in God’s “two books”: Scripture and nature or Creation even though the natural world during his era was regarded as an entity that could be studied independently.

For example, in the sermon “Christ, the Light of the World” based on John 8:12,^[2] Edwards uses the figure “light,” which is both a natural and scriptural type, to represent a number of things but especially Christ. For him, the beauty of light signifies Christ’s beauty. Just as light revives those in darkness, Christ (the Sun of Righteousness) awakens people from their deep sleep of sin, enlivens them, and causes them to bear fruit as children of light (John 12:35₋₋36; Eph. 5:8).

 The traditional practice of reading the Bible figurally uncovers a spiritual sense of Scripture that the modern historical-critical method of exegesis, which views the literal sense as historical reference, is unable to do. Figural practice may be described as a five-fold movement of sowing, tending, gathering, sorting, and delighting.^[3]

Let us consider the biblical word light in John 8:12. In sowing, this word is allowed to interact and resonate with other biblical texts to which it refers. We tend to this word by engaging with these texts in their diverse contexts from Genesis to Revelation, such as 

Gen. 1:1₋₋5; Is. 60:1₋₋3; 2 Cor. 4:3₋₋6; Rev. 21:9₋₋11, 22:5. Here, God’s Word does its work in our minds and hearts as we take the time to pray, reflect, and study. We then gather up and take note of all the connections that these biblical references have with the word light in John 8:12. Various theological elements relating to creation, the glory of God, life, the gospel, Christ, and the Church would emerge from these biblical texts. In sorting these theological ideas in relation to John 8:12, we might articulate the following: God’s creative Word or Scripture reveals that Christ has overcome all the darkness of evil and suffering in this world; while unbelievers are blind to the gospel of life in Christ, those who follow him will eventually behold the divine glory. In the final movement of figural practice, we rejoice in God’s Word and respond to God’s grace with prayer and praise. 

Thus, instead of treating the biblical texts as objects of analysis, we are drawn into the Word of God (Heb. 4:12). As we practise the figural reading of Scripture in small groups and are nurtured through figural sermons and teachings in our church communities, God’s Word forms us and eventually transfigures the Church (the body of Christ) as a whole to reflect the glory of Christ.

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            1. Ephraim Radner, Time and the Word: Figural Reading of the Christian Scriptures (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016), 6₋₋8.

            2. Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 10, Sermons and Discourses, 1720₋₋1723, edited by Wilson H. Kimnach (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 535₋₋546.

                  3. For the figural practice of Scripture as a five-fold movement, see Ephraim Radner, “Figural Exegesis and the Anglican Tradition,” in The Living Church, June 20, 2017, https://livingchurch.org/covenant/figural-exegesis-and-the-anglican-tradition/