By Jim Nichols

There are multiple folk versions of the parable of the blindmen trying to describe an elephant. You will remember that one man felt the side of the animal and described it as a wall. Another felt the trunk and said it was a snake. Various other descriptions were a spear (tusk), tree (leg), fan (ear), rope (tail,) and water jar or storeroom (head/body).

A main point of the story is that each describer is specifically correct, but wrong overall. The perception of each was limited and they needed a combination of perspectives to approach accuracy and a full picture.

Another version of the story plays out as we observe a human infant grow and have experiences from a newborn becoming a toddler. Are we not all amazed (and maybe repulsed) at how babies put everything into their mouths? Tasting, seeing, smelling, hearing, and touching make up their daily life. They are, in fact, learning about the world in five distinct ways. They have five different “languages” that have limitations when taken individually but collectively introduce the entire world to them. Their brains do not seem to say, “That did not taste like what it looked like, so I must be wrong.” “I heard a sound, but it did not match what I am seeing. I must be incorrect.” The young lives are simply gathering information and learning to integrate it.

Unfortunately, this human tendency to segregate different perceptions does not disappear with adulthood. Not only do we segregate the perceptions, but we ignore many of them because they do not fit our pre-understandings. You and I are not comfortable with that thought, but we are, frankly, quite selective about what matters we accept as truth or acceptable thought and behavior patterns. Perhaps we need to keep reminding each other that we may be feeling an elephant’s trunk and mistaking it for something else.

We each desire some set of standards that will allow us to avoid this “mistake trap” that causes us to misidentify aspects of our lives. It is easy to get the positives and negatives reversed. 

Throughout history, many interested in being God-followers have logically used the Bible as an important source for guidance. Each of us has heard repeated in some form, “That’s what the Bible says. I believe it. That settles it.” Even writing that down or reading it causes red lights to go off in our head, does it not? We each have the feeling that God and God’s ways are obviously more complicated than that. The “plain reading” of scripture leaves us still wondering and wandering often.

Each of us has had the experience of reading some particular Bible passage today that we have read many times in the past. However, this time, we hear and feel some different meaning from this familiar passage. What has happened? Has the Bible changed? Have I changed? Has the Holy Spirit revealed something different using familiar words?

If we consider the Bible from only one perspective, we flatten it for the sake of simplicity. A better way is to be open to curiosity and respect for history, as well as other perspectives. Somehow, we have bought into an acceptance that the “plain text” or “literal” approach is God’s exclusive plan. But remember the elephant; what is obvious may not tell the complete story.

Jesus’ teachings are significantly in the “parable” category; hearers must interpret them and, probably, give quite personal applications. How often does Jesus begin a teaching with, “The kingdom of God is like . . . “

Is there allegory in scripture? Is there symbolism in scripture? Are there moral teachings that extend true throughout history? Is there eschatology where fantastic images are the teachers?

Come with me into the book of Revelation and let us talk about the “plain reading” of scripture.

Does all this sound too uncertain and squishy? Does this mean we can let the Bible say anything we want it to say? Of course not. This is apparently what God wants us to hear in written form. But our brains do not die as we read the scripture. 

Another writer suggests that wandering through faith allows us to have a more complete and accurate sense of God’s communication with us. Let us not get stuck identifying the elephant’s tail as a rope.

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain