The "Pashat" meaning of scripture is it's literal meaning. This means scripture is understood to mean exactly what it says -- it's not an allegory. If scripture's literal meaning is denied, then verses could be made to mean most anything!

If scripture is read as an allegory, then no two people would agree on much. When I studied literature in college we had so many opinions on what each author *really* meant. Everyone saw a different meaning, and since it was subjective, who could really say who was right? But in science courses, where textbooks were accepted as fact and read literally, everyone agreed on their meaning. Scripture isn't fiction, it's G-d's Word to us --- the "textbook" G-d gives us. And I think He revealed absolute truth in it, not allegories alluding to truths. If scripture is reduced to allegory status, what separates it from the pagan legends? And even if we only relegated parts of scripture to allegory status, who's to say which parts are allegory and which are absolute fact?

I use the golden rule of interpretation when I study:

"When the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore, take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate context, studied in the light of related passages and axiomatic and fundamental truths, indicate clearly otherwise." 1

(David L. Cooper, "The World's Greatest Library: Graphically Illustrated [Los Angeles: Biblical Research Society, 1970], 11)

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