One of the reasons why Christians cannot assume all texts of Scripture are to be followed according to their literal face value is that we can find examples where verses, taken that way, would end up in conflict with one another. Perhaps no better example can be found than a text from the Torah, where the literal meaning should not give us any difficulty in interpreting:
“You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain” (Deut. 25:4 RSV). Here, we see the law is concerned about what happens to an ox — it needs to be fed when it is out doing work. God’s law seems to have placed within Jewish thinking a sense of compassion for their animals. It was making sure that beasts of burden, such as oxen, would not be over used and abused. An ox needs food if it is to work properly, and if it is hungry, it needs to be able to eat. Muzzling the ox might try to prevent eating on the job, but it will only cause undue pressure and stress on the animal. And, as we know from the New Testament, the Jews would understand this and similar passages of Scripture, and develop them so as to end up believing that the Sabbath did not prohibit them from doing work to save the life of their animals. Jesus affirmed this development of Jewish tradition and used it to explain why he was also free to do the “work” of healing on the Sabbath: “And he said to them, ‘Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well, will not immediately pull him out on a sabbath day?'” (Luke 14:5 RSV).
This should all be very clear. On the literal face value, no one should have any problems figuring out the command in Deuteronomy. Yet, as many authors remind us, even those who are more literally minded when dealing with Scripture: “we do not limit our attention to the bare letter of Scripture but also scrutinize the sense.”[1] And this text is one which we find should not be taken literally. Why ever not, you might ask? Because of what Paul says:
“For it is written in the law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.’ Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of a share in the crop” (1Cor 9:9- 10 RSV)
If we follow the simple, literal words of Paul, we must understand the simple, literal words of Deut. 25:4 have no validity. He says God is not showing any concern for oxen, and that it was “entirely” meant for “our sake.” It is not that he finds a principle in the text and applies it to his ministry, it is that he finds a principle while denying any value being given to the oxen at all.[2] If we follow Paul literally, we must come to conclude this passage cannot be taken on its simple, literal level.[3] If not this passage, where the literal meaning of the text should not lead to any controversy, then clearly those passages of Scripture which might should at least be considered as potentially non-literal as well. Clearly, Paul is telling us that Scripture is not so easy to interpret, and we must be careful and not assume its implications, even if the implications seem obvious when we first read it. Thus, not only does Paul affirm the use of allegorical interpretation, he also affirms that we do not have to accept a literal meaning for all texts in Scripture. No wonder this was a favorite passage of many early Christian writers as they were confronted with moral difficulties in the Old Testament, for they saw their way out was pre-affirmed by Scripture itself.
[1] Theodoret of Cyrus, The Questions on the Octateuch Volume I: On Genesis and Exodus. trans. Robert C. Hill (Washington, DC: The CUA Press, 2007), 267. Theodoret, who generally takes such a literal approach to Scripture that he thinks Genesis talks about a wind moving over the waters of the Earth, and not the Holy Spirit, nonetheless is willing to warn his readers that we must be careful in reading the text. He denies anthropomorphism for God, and has harsh words for those who would attribute human qualities to the divinity: “These simpletons fail to understand that the Lord God, when speaking to humans through humans, adjusts his language to the limitations of the listeners,” ibid., 51. While he uses this to dismiss some abhorrent qualities to God, he is pointing out, like Origen before him, that there will be times when we must follow a non-literal reading of the text, that we must follow those qualities which we know the divinity possesses and to interpret the Scripture in the light of such qualities — not contrary to them.
[2] James Gaffney thinks this hindered Christian appreciation of animals and their rights through the centuries: “Perhaps the severest blow dealt by the Bible to religiously grounded concerns for animals is the almost flippant way that St Paul disposes of the literal meaning of that Deuteronomical text…,” James Gaffney, “Can Catholic Morality Make Room for Animals,” in Animals on the Agenda. ed. Andrew Linzey and Dorothy Yamamoto (London: SCM Press Ltd, 1998), 102. While this is probably correct, we must also remember Paul did not say God is not concerned with animals, just that in the giving of this command he was not concerned with oxen but a principle for us which could be found via the text.
[3] Thus, St John Chrysostom says, “And on what account hath he mentioned this, having the example of the priests? Wishing to establish it far beyond what the case required. Further, lest any should say, ‘And what have we to do with the saying about the oxen?’ he works it out more exactly, saying, ‘Is it for the oxen that God careth;’ Doth God then, tell me, take no care for oxen? Well, He doth take care of them, but not so as to make a law concerning such a thing as this. So that had he not been hinting at something important, training the Jews to mercy in the case of the brutes, and through these, discoursing with them of the teachers also; he would not have taken so much interest as even to make a law to forbid the muzzling of oxen.” St John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians XXI.9 in NPNF1(12), 121.
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