“Common Pitfalls in Studying the Bible”
2/26/25
For several weeks now we’ve covered many valuable tools for your Bible study tool kit. And to wrap up our series I want to look at some of the most common pitfalls to avoid when interpreting Scripture:
Allegorizing
Hyper-literalism
Over-personalizing
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So let’s talk about the first one—ALLEGORIZING.
ALLEGORY: finding a second, underlying meaning as opposed to the plain, obvious interpretation. Instead of concentrating on the clear and obvious meaning, the allegorizer seeks a “hidden” meaning beyond or behind the text. The phrase “this stands for” or “this symbolizes” is common to allegorical teachers.
To pick a famous example of hyper-allegorizing would be, when commenting on the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:30-35, Augustine taught that the Samaritan represents Christ, the robbers are the devil & his angels, the inn is the Church, and the innkeeper is the Apostle Paul. Bit of a stretch, no?
The idea behind allegorizing is that, since the Bible is a spiritual book inspired by the Holy Spirit, it therefore contains hidden or secret meanings. Therefore, the truly spiritual person can discern meanings to passages of the Bible that are hidden from the unenlightened.
There are indeed some passages in the Bible that seem to justify this view. 1 Cor 2:14 says, “The natural man does not receive things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”
But the context is clear—it is talking about the world’s inability to understand the Cross of Christ. It in no way teaches hidden meanings in Scripture that only the hyper-spiritual can discern and untangle. In other words, it is not an invitation to continuously seek allegorical interpretations.
Now, the Bible itself is rich with legitimate allegories. One great example is the famous parable of the Prodigal Son.
Jesus uses the allegory of a wayward son who squanders his inheritance to highlight forgiveness, redemption, and the unconditional love of God.
The father in the story represents God’s unwavering love and mercy, while the prodigal son symbolizes humanity’s tendency to wander away from the father’s house into sin.
Then it shows the futility and emptiness of life outside the Father’s will, and the father’s willingness to forgive and receive us back.
The parable is obviously allegorical and easy to apply.
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Another great example of allegory can be found in the Book of Revelation.
The vivid imagery and symbolism we find all throughout the book are rich with allegorical meaning, describing cosmic battles between good and evil.
For instance, in chapter 17 we find a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. Clearly, this is allegory intended to describe an evil religious/secular system that will lock the world of the Tribulation into an evil death grip.
But here’s the thing: These and other examples are clearly intended to be symbolic of something else. It is obvious allegory and invites us to seek out what it symbolizes.
But over-allegorizing, seeking some hidden meaning in the entire Bible, or making allegorizing your primary approach to interpreting Scripture is one of the worst ways to read your Bible.
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Another popular form of allegorizing in our day is by attributing special meaning to numbers.
Many use numbers to allegorize—read some hidden meaning—into a text. For example, some teachers will take bible chapter and verse numbers, add up the numerical value of the number, or the Biblical meaning of the number, and use that to read into the text some prophetic or hidden meaning.
This teaching has been taken to an extreme in some quarters, like waking up at night and noticing that your digital clock is reading 3:33 in the morning. Then the next night the same thing. Then immediately assuming God is trying to tell you something through the numbers 3:33!
I’ve even heard it taught that God will speak to you from the license plate number in front of you at a red light! Or on the price tag of an item in Kroger! This is not God. It is omen reading and fortune telling.
Lev.19:26 “You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.”
Omens involved activities that are considered abominations in the sight of God, as they rely on sources other than the divine revelation provided by God Himself.
Now, numbers in the Bible can indeed have significance. Three is the number for perfection as with the Godhead, six is the number for man, seven the number for completion, forty the number for testing, and so on.
However, nowhere are we taught to look for hidden meanings through numbers. The only exception I can think of might be the 666 mark of the beast. But we are clearly encouraged by God himself to consider the meaning behind that number!
The truth is you can find whatever you want in the Bible through numbers. If you look hard enough or manipulate the numbers, patterns or meanings can be found anywhere. At this point it really transforms you from being a student of the Bible to making things up out of whole cloth.
Not to mention the Bible chapters and verses that some use to find hidden meanings are man-made, not inspired like the actual words are.
Bible chapters didn’t even exist until the early 1200’s and Bible verses were added in 1551. Both were created to help bible readers find the text they were looking for. But they are MAN MADE and in no way should be used to extract a hidden meaning out of a verse!
There is no need to try to use numbers to predict your future or to decode some secret meanings in a text. Teaching people to always search for a secret, symbolic meaning to Scripture verses, or to Bible numbers, robs them of feeding off of the simple, plain truth God intended.
Always remember the golden rule of Bible interpretation:
When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense to avoid nonsense!
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Another pitfall in Bible study is HYPER-LITERALISM.
Are we to take the Bible literally? Yes and no.
Should we approach it as literally the Word of God? Absolutely!
But should we take every verse literally? No!
For instance, how about this one: “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”—Matt 6:29-30
Or this one: “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.”—Mark 11:23
These verses are literally the Word of God, but they are not intended to be taken literally! Jesus is simply using the literary device of exaggeration to make a point.
Unfortunately, many in days past have taken these verses literally and maimed themselves—which, by the way, never fixes the sin problem!
So in studying our Bibles, we must learn to distinguish between what is to be taken literally and what is an intentional exaggeration to bring home a truth.
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A third and final pitfall is OVER-PERSONALIZING.
Let me ask a question: Is the entire word of God given to us by God Himself for our own personal benefit? Yes!
2 Tim. 3:16-17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
But is the entire word of God to be made about us? No!
The Bible isn’t a self-help book or a collection of personal promises tailored to us. Does it have promises to us and for us? Yes!
But is the overall purpose of Scripture about us? No! It’s the story of God’s redemptive plan for the world. It’s His revelation of Himself.
So instead of making it all about me, I should ask myself this question: Is this verse or these verses DESCRIPTIVE or PRESCRIPTIVE.
In other words, is this story or text in the Bible DESCRIBING an event or promise or instruction made to someone in their time and for their crisis an isolated event, or is God PRESCRIBING the very same promise and instruction to me for my time and crisis?
For example, in Ps 35 David is beset by vicious enemies and he offers what we call an imprecatory prayer where he is asking God to destroy his enemies:
4 “Let those be put to shame and brought to dishonor Who seek after my life; Let those be turned back and brought to confusion who plot my hurt. 5 Let them be like chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the Lord chase them.6 Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord pursue them…8 Let destruction come upon him unexpectedly, and let his net that he has hidden catch himself; into that very destruction let him fall.” (Vs. 4-8)
Now, there are 14 psalms like this one that pray for all kinds of evil to fall upon enemies.
But are they PRESCRIPTIVE, or DESCRIPTIVE?
We know they are not prescriptive for us, for Jesus instructed his followers to “Bless those that curse you, pray for those that use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father in heaven.” (Matt 5:43-45)
Some passages and promises are indeed PRESCRIBED for us, but some simply DESCRIBE what God did in a particular time and context for someone else.
We can absolutely lay hold of God being our Provider, but just because it says of Abraham, “Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold” (Gen 13:2), doesn’t mean God has PRESCRIBED the same for us!
Just because Jesus spitting on the ground, making mud out of it, and placing it on the eyes of a blind man is DESCRIBED in the Bible, doesn’t mean God has PRESCRIBED we do the same thing!
So these are just a few of the most common pitfalls of studying the Bible. I hope it helps!