Abstract
Abstract The difficulties presented by figurative meaning in the Bible are extensive and pervasive. Early modern Protestant writers generally defined the literal sense as the principal meaning intended by the author, allowing significant space for figurative language within that meaning. But enfolding metaphor, simile, metonymy, and other figurative linguistic forms within the literal sense brought its own range of problems. This chapter explores Protestant–Catholic debate regarding how to tell if a biblical verse was intended to be read as figurative or as literal, before examining approaches to biblical enigma: figurative language in which the intention of the biblical author seemed entirely opaque. Focusing on approaches to the enigmatical figurative use of manna in the Bible by a range of writers including Richard Crashaw and George Herbert, this chapter explores what early modern writers and readers did with scriptural metaphors that seem to mean almost anything.
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