Against Heresies: Book II
Chapter 27: Appropriate Methods of Interpreting Parables and Obscure Scripture Passages
A sound mind, which does not expose its owner to danger and is devoted to piety and the love of truth, will eagerly reflect on the things God has placed within human control and subjected to our understanding. This mind will make progress in knowing them, making understanding easier through daily study. These things are those that are clearly observable and unambiguously expressed in the Sacred Scriptures. Therefore, parables should not be adapted to unclear expressions. If this isn’t done, both the one who explains them will do so safely, and the parables will receive a consistent interpretation from all, keeping the body of truth intact, with a harmonious arrangement of its parts, and without any conflict. But applying unclear expressions to interpret the parables, based on individual inclinations, is unreasonable. This way, no one will have the standard of truth; instead, there will be as many interpretations of truth as there are people explaining the parables, resulting in conflicting doctrines, much like the debates among Gentile philosophers.
According to this course of action, therefore, man would always be questioning but never finding answers, because he has rejected the very method of discovery. And when the Bridegroom comes, the person who has his lamp untrimmed, and not burning with the brightness of a steady light, is counted among those who obscure the interpretations of the parables, abandoning Him who by His plain announcements freely gives gifts to all who come to Him, and is denied entry to His marriage-chamber.
Since, therefore, the entire Scriptures, the prophets, and the Gospels, can be clearly, unambiguously, and harmoniously understood by everyone, even though not everyone believes them; and since they declare that only one God, excluding all others, created all things by His word, whether visible or invisible, heavenly or earthly, in the water or under the earth, as I have shown from the very words of Scripture; and since the very system of creation to which we belong testifies, through what we observe, that one Being made and governs it,—those persons will truly seem foolish who close their eyes to such a clear demonstration and refuse to see the light of the announcement made to them; but they place chains upon themselves, and each of them imagines, through their obscure interpretations of the parables, that they have discovered a God of their own.
For there is nothing openly, expressly, and without controversy stated in any part of Scripture regarding the Father conceived of by those who hold a contrary opinion, as they themselves testify when they claim that the Saviour privately taught these same things not to everyone, but to only certain disciples who could understand them, and who grasped what was intended by Him through arguments, riddles, and parables. They ultimately come to the point that they argue there is one Being who is proclaimed as God, and another as Father, the latter being revealed through parables and riddles.
But since parables can have many interpretations, who that loves truth would not admit that claiming to find God through these, while abandoning what is certain, undeniable, and true, is the behavior of those who recklessly throw themselves into danger and act as if they lack reason? Isn't such behavior like building one's house not on a firm and strong rock, but on shifting sand? As a result, the collapse of such a building is easy.