When we read any passage in
the Bible, it is very important that we interpret it in the right way. If a passage is meant to be understood
literally, then taking it purely non-literally is obviously going to lead to
wrong conclusions about what it is saying.
Similarly, if a text is meant to be understood non-literally, then to
take it purely literally would be a big mistake.
It is very common for
readers of the Bible to go wrong in both of these ways.
On the one hand, there are
those who deny literal interpretations to passages that should be understood
literally. Sometimes even texts that
refer to key parts of the Christian faith, like the resurrection of Jesus or
His future return, are interpreted purely symbolically. This leads to heresy.
On the other hand, there
are those who take literal interpretations of passages that should be taken
purely non-literally. In fact, many
Christians today seem to think that interpreting literally means holding true
to what Scripture teaches, while interpreting non-literally means compromising
on biblical truth.
This is actually a serious
mistake. The Bible contains a great deal
of non-literal teaching. The Psalms, for
example, constantly use vivid metaphors.
Books like Daniel and Revelation contain powerful apocalyptic imagery. And in John’s Gospel we repeatedly find Jesus
making statements that those listening to Him misunderstand precisely because
they take His words literally (John 2:19-21; 3:3-4; 4:10-15, 31-34; 11:11-13).
Biblical prophecies
One common way in which
Christians interpret the Bible literally when they shouldn’t is when interpreting
prophecies. There are many who insist on
always trying to interpret biblical prophecies as literally as possible.
Of course, some prophecies
should certainly be interpreted literally.
A good example of this can
be found in Acts 1:11, where some angels tell the eleven disciples:
“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
(Scripture readings in this
article are from the English Standard Version.)
Obviously, the angels’ words
should be taken literally. To spiritualise
them into something else would be a misinterpretation.
However, there are many
biblical prophecies that cannot be taken literally. Some of these are interpreted by Scripture
itself in a way that rules out literal interpretation. And others are so obviously non-literal that
no one in their right mind would interpret them literally. In what follows, I will give some examples of
these prophecies.
My aim in this article is
to show that the Bible contains many non-literal prophecies, and thereby to
encourage Christians not to approach biblical prophecies, including end-times
prophecies, simply assuming that they should be interpreted literally.
If, after analyzing a
prophecy, we are satisfied that it should be interpreted literally, then fair
enough. But it is a big mistake to
assume that it should be interpreted literally before even analyzing it.
Here are some examples of
biblical prophecies that cannot or clearly should not be interpreted literally:
Deuteronomy 30:6
In Deuteronomy 30:6 Moses
prophesies:
“And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”
Obviously, circumcision of
the heart is a symbolic figure of speech.
It is physically impossible that these words could be fulfilled
literally.
Psalm 118:22
In Psalm 118:22 the psalmist
writes:
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
This verse is quoted
several times in the New Testament, where it is made clear that this stone refers
prophetically and figuratively to Jesus (Matt 21:42; Mark 12:10; Luke 20:17;
Acts 4:11; 1 Pet 2:7). It is not talking
about a literal stone at all.
Isaiah 11:4
In Isaiah 11:4 we read:
“. . . and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.”
Clearly, this is figurative. God doesn’t literally have a mouth, and we
can’t expect Him to literally strike the earth with a rod.
Isaiah 40:3-4
In Isaiah 40:3-4 Isaiah
prophesies:
“3 A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.’”
Luke 3:2-6 tells us that
this prophecy was fulfilled in the preaching of John the Baptist. And most of it is obviously not meant to be
understood literally.
For example, it would be
absurd to suppose that Isaiah is referring to a literal filling in of valleys
or lowering of mountains. Instead, these
are vivid figures of speech that signify preparation.
Isaiah 55:12
In Isaiah 55:12 God says:
“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”
Clearly, this passage isn’t
referring to mountains and hills that literally sing or to trees that literally
clap their hands. Rather, this is symbolic
language.
Ezekiel 37:24
In Ezekiel 37:24 we read:
“My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd.”
“David” here refers
figuratively to Jesus. The literal king
David had been dead for hundreds of years when this prophecy was given. It is not reasonable to think that this verse
is prophesying a time when the literal David will literally be king over God’s
people.
Hosea 3:5
In Hosea 3:5 Hosea
prophesies:
“Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, . . .”
This is another prophecy
where “David” means Jesus.
Amos 9:11
In Amos 9:11 God says:
“In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, . . .”
This prophecy is quoted by James in Acts 15:16. James understands the raising up and
repairing of the booth of David to be fulfilled in the ministry of Christ, probably
both His earthly and heavenly ministries.
Nothing else makes sense in the context of Acts 15.
At first sight Amos 9:11 might have
seemed to be prophesying the restoration of the Davidic monarchy in a
succession of kings. However, this
interpretation (which is in itself far from literal) would have been a
misinterpretation. The real fulfillment
was even less literal and actually concerned Jesus’ ministry.
Nor is it possible that there were two
levels of fulfillment of this prophecy, with the first referring to a
succession of kings. That wouldn’t fit
with Jewish history, in which there was no restoration of the Davidic monarchy
after the exile.
Matthew 12:40
In Matthew 12:40 Jesus
prophesies:
“For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
In this verse Jesus prophesies
that He will be in the heart of the earth, i.e., dead, for three days and three
nights. This “three days and three nights”
that Jesus is dead for is the part of the prophecy that we are interested in
here.
Literally, three days and
three nights is about 72 hours, give or take a few hours. But Matt 27:46-28:5 clearly implies that the
time between Jesus’ death and resurrection was about 36 hours, give or take a
few hours!
The three days and three
nights in Matt 12:40 is not a symbolic kind of non-literal language. But it cannot reasonably be described as
literal, especially as Jesus was literally dead during only two periods of
night-time – the nights of Friday to Saturday and Saturday to Sunday.
There are other biblical
prophecies like this one, where the wording of the prophecy is fulfilled in a
very imprecise way.
John 2:19-21
In John 2:19-21 Jesus gives
a prophecy to some Jews while in the temple courts in Jerusalem
“19 Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20 The Jews then said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?’ 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.”
Note that the Jews
listening to Jesus take His prophecy literally.
They pour scorn on His supposed claim to be able to build such a
magnificent structure as the temple in three days.
As v. 21 makes clear,
however, this prophecy was actually symbolic and referred to Jesus’ body. By interpreting the prophecy literally, His
hearers had misunderstood it.
It is true that Jesus’
words may have some kind of secondary level of meaning that refers to the literal
temple, and scholars debate this.
Nevertheless, even if there
is a secondary level to the saying, the
primary level of meaning is still non-literal.
Even more importantly, any secondary level of meaning is certainly not
literal as far as the raising up of the temple in three days is
concerned. That time reference can only apply
to what happened to the symbolic temple, i.e., Jesus’ body. It cannot apply to the literal temple.
Cautious in interpretation
The examples we have looked at show
clearly that there are biblical prophecies that cannot or should not be taken
literally. And, as I have also noted, there
are some prophecies that certainly should be interpreted literally. A number of prophecies actually have both a literal level and a non-literal level of fulfillment.
Unless it is immediately obvious how to interpret a given prophecy,
we should be cautious and start by being open to interpreting it purely literally,
or purely non-literally, or both literally and non-literally. Any other approach doesn’t do justice to what we find in the Bible
itself.
False expectations of a new temple
My main motivation for
writing this article is to try to oppose some wrong ideas about the future that
many Christians have.
There are many believers
today who think that the Bible prophesies the existence of another literal
temple in Jerusalem.
Those who think this are
making a terrible mistake.
According to Scripture, the
sacrificial system was right at the heart of how the Jerusalem Jerusalem
What is more, the Bible
describes both the individual Christian’s body, and Christians corporately, as God’s
temple (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16; Eph 2:21). The reason for this description is that under
the New Covenant in Christ’s blood we are now God’s dwelling place instead of
the Jerusalem
It is therefore
inconceivable that God wants there to be another literal temple in Jerusalem at
some point in the future. Thinking that
He does is a very serious error.
Those who claim that the
Bible does prophesy the existence of another literal temple appeal to various
passages as support for their view. The
main ones are Ezek 40-47; Dan 9:27; 11:31; 12:11; Matt 24:15 and 2 Thess 2:3-4.
However, once we recognise
that biblical prophecies should often be interpreted non-literally, it becomes
clear that none of these passages needs to be understood to refer to a future,
literal temple.
See also:
