I think that the reason many misinterpret the Bible is that they are too literal in the way they read it. I thought this was a modern problem, but that famous 11th century Rabbi, Maimonides, in his Guide to the Perplexed put it this way:
Ignorant and superficial readers take them in a literal, not in a figurative sense. Even well-informed persons are bewildered if they understand these passages in their literal signification, but they are entirely relieved of their perplexity when we explain the figure, or merely suggest that the terms are figurative. For this reason I have called this book Guide for the Perplexed.
I remember one ad I read when I was still living in Branson. The ad was for a “Bible Believing” church. They said that they took the Bible literally, except where it was symbolic. Well, isn’t that what everyone does?
I do not remember High School English. I wish I did, as that is where most of us learn these things. For me it was EGO—Eyes Glazed Over. I only learned these things in graduate school—things like similes, analogies, metaphor, or poetry. If I had paid more attention in High School, I would have understood the Bible better earlier.
Maybe you have heard the phrase, or seen the bumper sticker, “The Bible says what it means, and means what it says.” This is true of course, but sometimes the Bible says what it says in poetry, or in proverbs, or in symbols. If you take poetry as literal you have things like the book of Isaiah where trees clap their hands, or stars falling from heaven as referencing the fall of political leaders being viewed as literal heavenly objects falling. (Oh wait—people do make that particular mistake all the time … never mind.)
Let me give you one example of the words of Jesus being taken in a way he did not intend. Luke 10 tells us Jesus said this. Yes, it is in red in some Bibles.
18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
The Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it.
What is then done with this scripture in certain circles is to develop an elaborate theology of angels and demons, mostly apart from the Bible.
My friend and ProphecyPodcast.com editor, Pam Dewey, has a site where she documents this.
What they do is take this scripture literally and out of context, and combine it with other scriptures taken literally and out of context, and voila, a new doctrine is born.
Is This What Jesus saw? You can go to Pam’s site to delve deeply into this if you wish, but let me give you the full context of “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
Luke 10
Jesus Sends Out the Seventy-Two
1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.
5 “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’ 6If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages. Do not move around from house to house.
8 “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. 9 Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11’Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’12 I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.
13 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. 14 But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades.[b]
16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”
17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. 19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
So what Jesus says is in response to the success of the missionary journeys of the 72 “elders” he sent out to Israel on a missionary trip. It has nothing to do with a supposed primordial fall of Satan. Satan was defeated on the earth and was symbolically bought down from heaven. (This is a common motif in prophecy, the fall of “heavenly” things is caused by a defeat here on the earth.)
So when one examines a scripture some questions need to be asked—the kind of questions we were supposed to learn to ask in High School English. Is the scripture a metaphor? Is it symbolic? Is it poetry? What is the context? Asking these simple questions will keep us out of trouble when we interpret the Bible.