The Bible Was Never Meant to Be Literal

A Symbolic Reading Through Neville Goddard’s Teachings

For generations, people have read the Bible as if it were historical record — a list of divine interventions, ancient characters, and miraculous events. But what if its real purpose was not to document the past, but to transform your present?

According to Neville Goddard, the Bible is a symbolic blueprint of consciousness — a story not about others, but about you.

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The Foundation: Not Fact, But Form

“The Bible is addressed to the imagination, which is spiritual sensation.” — Neville Goddard

Neville didn’t deny that people or cities like David or Egypt may have existed, but that wasn’t the point. He taught that every person, place, and story is a state of consciousness, and your life unfolds to the degree you awaken to their meaning.

• David = Manifestation of divine imagination

• Egypt = Outer bondage to the senses

• Jesus = The pattern of spiritual awakening

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Key Verses That Break the Literal Spell

These Scriptures only reveal their full meaning when read symbolically — as statements about inner reality rather than historical data:

🔹 Genesis 1:11 — “The seed is in itself.”

Everything you could ever become is already contained within your imagination. No outer condition is responsible — the seed is you.

🔹 Psalm 139 —

“Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb… I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
This is an ode to consciousness, not biology. The “womb” is symbolic of the subconscious, and your creation takes place in thought and feeling, not flesh and bone.

🔹 1 Corinthians 3:16 —

“Ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.”
Not in the sky. Not in a church. In you.

🔹 2 Corinthians 13:5 —

“Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you?”
This isn't metaphor — it's mystical anatomy. The “Christ” is your awareness of the I Am, made real through assumption.

🔹 Genesis 1:26 —

“Let us make man in our image.”
If God is spirit (John 4:24), and you're made in His image, you are made in the image of creative consciousness.

🔹 Luke 17:21 —

“The kingdom of God is within you.”
The source of all power — the kingdom — lies in your inner state, not in circumstances.

🔹 Galatians 4:19 —

“Until Christ be formed in you…”
Christ is not a man to worship, but a state to realise. He is born from within.

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Patterns of Consciousness: The Real Characters of Scripture

The Bible repeats a spiritual pattern over and over, through various characters:

Character	Symbolic Meaning
Abraham	Faith — the initial belief in the unseen
Jacob	Persistence — wrestling with contradictions
Joseph	Imagination — dreaming and embodying vision
Judah	Praise — rejoicing before evidence

Each male figure represents a developed state of being, while female figures symbolise the subconscious — the creative womb that gives birth to our assumptions.

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From Crucifixion to Creation

Even the crucifixion is symbolic, not sacrificial. Neville taught:

“Golgotha means ‘place of the skull’. That’s where the story of Jesus is enacted — in your imagination.”

Jesus is not dying on a hill, but in the mind — where the old idea must die so a new state can live. This is the fixing of an assumption — imagination nailed in place.

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Scripture as Psychological Blueprint

The Bible is rich in symbolic structure — a divine psychology:

• 🪷 “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7)
  ➤ The “heart” is the subconscious, shaped by inner dialogue.

• 🪷 “Call those things which be not as though they were.” (Romans 4:17)
  ➤ Assumption precedes experience.

• 🪷 “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2)
  ➤ Transformation doesn’t come from obedience — but from inner re-identification.

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Symbolism Sets You Free

Reading the Bible literally can lead to fear, contradiction, and dependence. But when read symbolically, the stories open like parables of inner transformation.

• You stop fearing Egypt and start recognising the bondage of sense.

• You stop waiting for a Messiah and start embodying the I Am.

• You stop reading about miracles and start living them.

“Scripture must be fulfilled in me.” — Neville Goddard

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Conclusion: Reclaim the Inner Scripture

The Bible doesn’t want to be worshipped — it wants to be embodied. It is your divine script, written not in stone but in imagination.

To read it literally is to miss the mirror.

To read it symbolically is to awaken as its author.