Rambam ('Maimonides') and Allegory: The most authoritative voice of Jewish Traditional philosophical beliefs has been that of Maimonides, whose views have reigned for the last eight hundred years. Seven hundred years before Darwin, Maimonides wrote:

“..the account given in Scripture of the creation is not, as is generally believed, intended to be in all its parts literal.”[1] “The literal meaning of the words might lead us to conceive corrupt ideas and to form false opinions about God, or even to entirely abandon and reject the principles of our Faith.”

He states categorically that according to Tradition, the Garden of Eden account is allegorical. Of course that they are meant allegorically does not mean that they are trivial stories, or “untrue”. R. Crescas, in his commentary on Rambam’s statement that the creation account is at least partially allegory[2], states:

“ Allegories....means that the mention in Scripture of the Garden of Eden, the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, the description of Adam, his initial condition and what he later became, the serpent, Eve, the naming of Adam’s sons Cain and Abel, and all that long narrative, all refer to extremely deep matters which are inaccessible to the common run of humanity and were therefore given in the form of allegory.” [3].

For more discussion, see the discussions in the webpages below.