The Bible and Symbolism | How to Read the Bible Semester Discussion Guide

Part 4: The Bible and Symbolism

The following should be read aloud as a group, with each person reading one paragraph before passing on to the next person. Afterwards discussion will follow with the provided discussion questions.

The mystery of the Incarnation of the Word contains in itself the meaning of all the symbols and all the enigmas of Scripture, as well as the hidden meaning of all sensible and intelligible creation. He who knows the mystery of the Cross and the Tomb knows also the essential principle of all things.

St. Maximos the Confessor¹

The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

2 Corinthians 3:6²

Nothing in the Bible, or in any text, has meaning only with reference to itself. Indeed, the point of all Scripture is ultimately to point us to a living person who is not confined by the text: Jesus Christ. If Scripture is meant to point us to Christ, how is the Orthodox Christian to read passages which do not directly speak of Christ, such as the historical books or wisdom literature of the Old Testament?

For the Church, the answer to this question lies mainly in the tool of symbolism. The ancients understood that the entire world, both what was seen and what could not be seen, was laden with meanings and patterns that were not obvious to the average person. Because creation itself is reasonable and created by Reason (i.e., the Logos, namely Christ), all creation has a hidden logic to it. The process of placing two or more things, events, or patterns together in order to perceive this hidden logic is known as symbolism. St. Paul describes this process of symbolic interpretation as moving from the letter to the spirit, that is, moving from the immediate sense of the text to the deeper spiritual meaning as one is guided by the Holy Spirit.²

As an example, consider the following passage from the prophecy of Ezekiel:

Thus says the Lord: “When they have completed these days, then from the eighth day onward the priests shall offer upon the altar your burnt offerings and your peace offerings; and I will accept you, says the Lord God.” Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces east; and it was shut. And the Lord said to me, “This gate shall remain shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it; for the Lord, the God of Israel, shall enter by it; therefore it shall remain shut. Only the prince shall sit in it to eat bread before the Lord; he shall enter by way of the vestibule of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.” Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple; and I looked, and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.³

At first glance, this passage seems to be a rather strange description of a gate in the temple that is shut because only God is allowed to enter through it. However, if one pauses to consider what else in Scripture this connects to, i.e. where else is God said to be the sole one to enter through a specific entrance, one will quickly realize the connection with the Theotokos, who had no other biological children except for Christ, who alone entered the world through her womb. This interpretation is confirmed by this being one of three Old Testament readings at Great Vespers on the eve of every Marian feast in the Orthodox Church and is further confirmed by the writings of the Church Fathers. St. Jerome of Rome, for example, writes, “Some people nobly understand the Virgin Mary as the door that is closed, who before and after birth remained a virgin, through which only the Lord God of Israel enters.”⁴ This is a classic example of symbolic interpretation, of putting two things side by side (the closed gate of the temple in Ezekiel and the virginity of Mary in the New Testament) to see a hidden meaning of the passage.

As another example of symbolic interpretation, consider the following passage from 4 Kingdoms about the Prophet Elisha:

Then Naaman, commander of the army of Syria, went with his horses and chariot and stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and bathe in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” But Naaman became furious and went away, saying, “Indeed, I told myself that Elisha would come out to greet me; that he would stand and call on the name of his God; and that he would put his hand upon the place and heal the leprosy. Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Can I not bathe in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. Then his servants approached and said to him, “If the prophet were to tell you to do something great, would you not complete it? But here the prophet said to you, ‘Bathe and be clean.'” So Naaman went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to Elisha’s instruction, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was cleansed.⁵

Thinking along the same lines, one can pause to think about other passages in the Bible that involve cleansing and healing through contact with water, and in particular with the Jordan River. For an Orthodox Christian, the mind quickly goes to baptism, and particularly Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River celebrated on Theophany. Just as Christ cleansed the waters by his baptism in the Jordan, and just as we are cleansed from sin through our own baptism, Naaman the Syrian was cleansed from his disease of leprosy by means of bathing in the Jordan, a foreshadowing of the baptism of Christ that was to come. This is confirmed both by this being one of three Old Testament readings for Great Vespers on the eve of Theophany and by patristic commentary on the passage. St. Ephrem the Syrian, for example, says the following:

Indeed, sin is the leprosy of the soul, which is not perceived by the senses, but intelligence has the proof of it, and human nature must be delivered from this disease by Christ’s power which is hidden in baptism. It was necessary that Naaman, in order to be purified from two diseases, that of the soul and that of the body, might represent in his own person the purification of all the nations through the bath of regeneration, whose beginning was in the river Jordan, the mother and originator of baptism.⁶

In other words, just as Namaan the Syrian was a Gentile who received healing from the water of the Jordan, so also do all the Gentiles receive healing and sanctification through the water of baptism which began with Christ in the Jordan River.

Another important topic in symbolic interpretation of the Bible is typology. Typology comes from the Greek word tupto, meaning to hit. The idea is that just as a fist makes an impression when hitting Play-Doh, so also future events leave echoes or shadows of that event in the past, known as types. This is why St. Paul can say that Adam was “a type of the One to come,”; just as Adam was the one man through which sin and death entered the world, so also is Christ the one man through which reconciliation with God and the resurrection enter the world.⁷ Christ is the archetype of which Adam is the type. This kind of typology is also to be found between Eve and the Theotokos. According to the Orthodox hymnographic tradition, Mary is the fulfillment of the reality of which Eve was a shadow and poor imitation. Just as Eve listened to a fallen angel and through receiving him fell into sin, so also did the Virgin Mary listen to an archangel and through him received God into her womb, bringing life to the world. In other words, Eve is a type of which the Theotokos is the archetype. St. Irenaeus of Lyons puts it in the following way:

In accordance with this design, Mary the Virgin is found obedient, saying, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word.” But Eve was disobedient; for she did not obey when as yet she was a virgin. And even as she, having indeed a husband, Adam, but being nevertheless as yet a virgin…having become disobedient, was made the cause of death, both to herself and to the entire human race; so also did Mary, having a man betrothed [to her], and being nevertheless a virgin, by yielding obedience, become the cause of salvation, both to herself and the whole human race…For this reason did the Lord declare that the first should in truth be last, and the last first…Wherefore also Luke, commencing the genealogy with the Lord, carried it back to Adam, indicating that it was He who regenerated them into the Gospel of life, and not they Him. And thus also it was that the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith.⁸

Next week we will discuss general guidelines for reading and interpreting the Bible. May God continue to bless us through the prayers of his most pure mother and all the saints!

Discussion Questions

• How does symbolism help reveal Christ in passages that don’t mention Him directly?
• What do the parallels between Adam and Christ, or Eve and Mary, tell us about the way God works in history?
• Why do you think God often communicates through symbols and images rather than plain explanations?
• What symbols in Scripture have been especially meaningful or surprising to you?

_________

¹ St. Maximos the Confessor, Gnostic Centuries. Translation from Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church.

² 2 Corinthians 3:6 NKJV.

³ Ezekiel 43:27-44:4, St. Athanasius Academy Septuagint.

⁴ St. Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel, quoted from Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture.

⁵ 4 Kingdoms 5:9-14, St. Athanasius Academy Septuagint.

⁶ St. Ephrem the Syrian, Second Book of Kings, as quoted from Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture.

⁷ Romans 5:14 RSV, cf. 1 Corinthians 15.

⁸ St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, Book 3, Chapter 22. Translated by Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut.