Of old You laid the foundation of the earth,
And the heavens are the work of Your hands.
— Psalm 102:25
Does God have hands? Absolutely not. If God had hands, He would not be God, because He would be composed of a body. Lest we fall into the historical heresy of the Anthropomorphites, we need to understand that the Bible uses language we are familiar with in order to communicate true or literal things (phenomenological language). The idea of literal interpretation has been terribly misunderstood over the two-hundred or so years. Literal interpretation has been hijacked by biblicists who, if consistent, would end up in the heresy of the Anthropomorphites, ascribing literal hands, arms, and noses to God. Thankfully, many biblicists are not consistent. But, there are still significant issues plaguing those who hold to a false view of what literal interpretation is.
Literal interpretation does not say that all modes of communication in Scripture are literal. Literal truth can be communicated via various means, such as allegory, metaphor, metonymy, idiomatic statements, etc. Moreover, there is a popular idea that what is spiritual is therefore not literal. But, this too risks skewing the true meaning of the Scriptures. What makes heaven less real than earth? What makes our souls less real than our bodies? These false assumptions arose along with Enlightenment thinking and have been perpetuated by postmodern and higher critical thought. The postmodernist says the Spirit is less real than matter. The Bible says nothing is more real than the Spirit. The postmodernist says literal meaning can only be communicated literally or not at all. The Bible says God often communicates literal things through non-literal modes of communication.
All of this boils down to a fundamental error of not allowing the Bible to speak on the Bible’s terms. For many years, we have not derived our hermeneutic from but have imposed it upon the pages of Scripture.
Literal Meaning
We need to understand, given the above, that we should always be trying to discover the literal meaning in the Scriptures on Scriptures’ own terms. But, this means that the literal meaning is not always communicated literally. In other words, God often reveals His literal truth to us through metaphor or allegory. For example, when the Bible attributes arms, hands, fingers, and noses to God it doesn’t mean to say that God literally has arms and noses (Ex. 15:8; Ps. 89:10). Yet, while the divine arms and noses are metaphorical, they are communicating something literally true about God. In the case of Psalm 89, God’s mighty arm stands for God’s ableness, His power. God is literally able to scatter His enemies, and this is a great comfort to His people.
Moreover, when the Bible speaks of spiritual things, it’s not speaking of anything that’s less real or literal than the material. In fact, it appears that the biblical authors viewed the spiritual as more ultimate, more literal, more stable, more significant, and more foundational than the material. Hebrews 12:27 says, “Now this, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.” Speaking of the old creation, the author of Hebrews indicates that, while this world is passing away, that which cannot be shaken will remain. Again, we need to let the Bible speak on its own terms. The spiritual or heavenly is no less literal than the material, currently visible world around us. In fact, it appears to be even more literal than the first creation.
Conclusion
Following from this first article, I would like to publish a second on typology. The idea that God uses historical, literal things to signify that which is other and greater is crucially important to consider as we read the Old Testament as New Testament people. The take-away from this article is that God’s meaning is always literal—if by literal we mean objectively true—but it’s not always communicated through literal or univocal language. We need to let the Bible speak on its own terms, and sometimes the Bible speaks in terms of metaphor and allegory in order to communicate absolutely literal things. Conversely, and hopefully a follow-up article will help to clarify, God often uses literal things to signify other, better literal things. This is the idea of typology.
— J. S.