Is the Bible Allegorical or Literal?

[wellwisher]

OK, and how do you do that? For example we know that the flood story is a myth, what in the text tells us to read it that way?

One of the problems is connected to revisionist history. This is where you assume what we know today, was known a long time ago, so people of the past, should have known better, and we caught them in a lie.

If you lived in Biblical times, you would more than likely traveled on foot, or maybe on a donkey. It was also not safe to wander too far from home. This was slow travel, so you never saw or knew about the entire earth, like we do today based on Satellite views, books, TV, internet and tales of modern explorers. How many of you have gone to Antartica? The earth to you, back then, would be what you had seen and maybe what others you trusted had seen, which was a tiny percent of the whole earth. But that was the earth you knew. A large flood could appear to cover the earth, in your world view.

For example, in the US in 1927, 27,000 miles flooded due to a Mississippi River flood. That is three times as large as the state of Israel. People during that 1927 flood would not know just how large this was since it would take days before any news came; before cells phones and a full electric grid. For all practical purposes, such a flood was your whole world after wading all day and still in the water.

A world flood may not be an exaggeration, if you knew no other world, but the one you have traveled, without books, TV and modern science. With modern 20/20 hindsight, we can misinterpret, what the ancient world meant to them, so we can run a scam.

The political left likes to use revisionist history to suit a class of scams. A hypothetical example of a possible Lefty revised history argument, might be connected to the observation, that nobody in 1960 bought the Call of Duty video game. To them, this could mean all such video games were taboo, when in reality, it was due this date being before video games were invented. If you did not know better, but assume the past is the present, you would get this all wrong.

Slavery for example was different for the ancient people compare to us today. There would still be slavery for another nearly 2000 years after the Old Testament was written. The ancients saw it differently, with no end in sight. Reparations is based on revisionist history, condemning those who lived at a time, when they did not have our modern 20/20 hindsight. This game can be profitable, if you are crooked enough.

I like historical fiction, since it places one in another time, through the eyes of the past naive to the future. Human nature does not change, over time, but our knowledge of the world was different. Their future is not yet defined, but was still unfolding in time.

Say you buy a lottery ticket. You may have all the hopes and dreams of winning. Once the winning ticket is made known and it is not you, your world views changes away from the hopes and dreams. You would not have dreamed the dream, if you had 20/20 hindsight; hope versus cynicism.

 

[Muffled]

Hint: dont try to talk science

I believe I can talk about the easy stuff in science but quantum mechanics is too much for me.

 

[Muffled]

Imaginary characters can't be into nonsense, so you are correct.

Of course we see many humans use God as a central character in their nonsense.

I believe God is real and it takes a great deal of imagination to believe He isn't.

 

[Apostle John]

Another question disputed for ages causing Christian unity to be split into thousands of sects over interpretations of the Bible.

Some examples - you may wish to add more.

The seven days of creation - allegorical or literal truth?
Science has proven the earth is 4.5 billion years old.

Adam and Eve - Allegorical or literal?

The Second Coming - Riding on a cloud with angels - literal or allegorical?

Christ said ‘let the dead bury the dead - literal or allegorical? (Luke 9:60)

All literal and Spiritual. You have no evidence the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, that’s hearsay, or that the distant sky at night is no more than an optical illusion set up by God, there’s no tangible evidence.

Heaven and Hell are the literal truth and exist but imho need interpreting.

 

[Subduction Zone]

One of the problems is connected to revisionist history. This is where you assume what we know today, was known a long time ago, so people of the past, should have known better, and we caught them in a lie.

If you lived in Biblical times, you would more than likely traveled on foot, or maybe on a donkey. It was also not safe to wander too far from home. This was slow travel, so you never saw or knew about the entire earth, like we do today based on Satellite views, books, TV, internet and tales of modern explorers. How many of you have gone to Antartica? The earth to you, back then, would be what you had seen and maybe what others you trusted had seen, which was a tiny percent of the whole earth. But that was the earth you knew. A large flood could appear to cover the earth, in your world view.

For example, in the US in 1927, 27,000 miles flooded due to a Mississippi River flood. That is three times as large as the state of Israel. People during that 1927 flood would not know just how large this was since it would take days before any news came; before cells phones and a full electric grid. For all practical purposes, such a flood was your whole world after wading all day and still in the water.

A world flood may not be an exaggeration, if you knew no other world, but the one you have traveled, without books, TV and modern science. With modern 20/20 hindsight, we can misinterpret, what the ancient world meant to them, so we can run a scam.

The political left likes to use revisionist history to suit a class of scams. A hypothetical example of a possible Lefty revised history argument, might be connected to the observation, that nobody in 1960 bought the Call of Duty video game. To them, this could mean all such video games were taboo, when in reality, it was due this date being before video games were invented. If you did not know better, but assume the past is the present, you would get this all wrong.

Slavery for example was different for the ancient people compare to us today. There would still be slavery for another nearly 2000 years after the Old Testament was written. The ancients saw it differently, with no end in sight. Reparations is based on revisionist history, condemning those who lived at a time, when they did not have our modern 20/20 hindsight. This game can be profitable, if you are crooked enough.

I like historical fiction, since it places one in another time, through the eyes of the past naive to the future. Human nature does not change, over time, but our knowledge of the world was different. Their future is not yet defined, but was still unfolding in time.

Say you buy a lottery ticket. You may have all the hopes and dreams of winning. Once the winning ticket is made known and it is not you, your world views changes away from the hopes and dreams. You would not have dreamed the dream, if you had 20/20 hindsight; hope versus cynicism.

Lame excuses. Yes, the myth was likely based upon a real flood, but the Flood of Noah would have never accomplished the goals of God claimed in the Bible.

You not only have to redefine the myth, you also need to redefine God's goals.

 

[robocop (actually)]

Another question disputed for ages causing Christian unity to be split into thousands of sects over interpretations of the Bible.

Some examples - you may wish to add more.

The seven days of creation - allegorical or literal truth?
Science has proven the earth is 4.5 billion years old.

Adam and Eve - Allegorical or literal?

The Second Coming - Riding on a cloud with angels - literal or allegorical?

Christ said ‘let the dead bury the dead - literal or allegorical? (Luke 9:60)

Another question disputed for ages causing Christian unity to be split into thousands of sects over interpretations of the Bible.

Some examples - you may wish to add more.

The seven days of creation - allegorical or literal truth?
Science has proven the earth is 4.5 billion years old.

Adam and Eve - Allegorical or literal?

The Second Coming - Riding on a cloud with angels - literal or allegorical?

Christ said ‘let the dead bury the dead - literal or allegorical? (Luke 9:60)

Some.times literal, sometimes allegorical, sometimes both.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

The political left likes to use revisionist history to suit a class of scams. A hypothetical example of a possible Lefty revised history argument, might be connected to the observation, that nobody in 1960 bought the Call of Duty video game.

Slip-slidin' away ...

... the comic devolution from literal to allegorical to ludicrous.​

 

[pearl]

Christ said ‘let the dead bury the dead - literal or allegorical? (Luke 9:60)

"And to another Jesus said, 'Follow me.' But he replied, 'Lord, let me go first and bury my father.' But Jesus answered him, 'Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.'"
Jesus seems to invite transgression of the fourth commandment, which says that we must honor our father and mother. Jesus asks someone to forget about burying his own father and elsewhere he says that whoever loves father and mother more than him is not worthy of him.

A son was only permitted to leave his father's house to study the Torah. But Jesus does not say, "Whoever loves father or mother more than the Torah is not worthy of the Torah." He says, "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." He puts himself in the place of the Torah.
Context helps.
Others on the list are not to be taken literal, as in a literalist interpretation.

 

[Apostle John]

Lame excuses. Yes, the myth was likely based upon a real flood, but the Flood of Noah would have never accomplished the goals of God claimed in the Bible.

You not only have to redefine the myth, you also need to redefine God's goals.

There’s enough evidence there was a cataclysmic world wide flood. All science proves that. God’s goals have been achieved as atheists believe the lies some unproved science perpetuate.

 

[Subduction Zone]

There’s enough evidence there was a cataclysmic world wide flood. All science proves that. God’s goals have been achieved as atheists believe the lies some unproved science perpetuate.

Sorry but the evidence is all against such a flood.

What evidence do you think that there is for a flood? And before you even start what is your hypothesis? What reasonable test could refute it?

You do not appear to know what evidence is or even what science is.

 

[Audie]

I believe I can talk about the easy stuff in science but quantum mechanics is too much for me.

Of course you can. You can talk as knowldeably about neurosurgery and 12th century Chinese poetry too, if it pleases you.

Clint though might observe that
" A man should know his limitations"

 

[Audie]

There’s enough evidence there was a cataclysmic world wide flood. All science proves that. God’s goals have been achieved as atheists believe the lies some unproved science perpetuate.

Actually all relevant science indicates there
was not, and could not have been such a flood.

Making up falsehoods does nothing to honour
such "god " as you may choose to believe in.

Speaking of " proof" in science and "unproven theory " is just ignorance in action.
Do you even know why?

 

[Apostle John]

Please provide hard evidence instead of making assertions using various accounts like some madcap wizard of Oz. I know over half the members on here are you but there must be someone genuine and interested in the truth. Stop perpetuating lies.

 

[Audie]

All literal and Spiritual. You have no evidence the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, that’s hearsay, or that the distant sky at night is no more than an optical illusion set up by God, there’s no tangible evidence.

Heaven and Hell are the literal truth and exist but imho need interpreting.

Honestly, people in America!

When EVERYTHING about " god" is hearsay,
you call the concrete phyiscal,evidence e for
earth's age " hearsay".

 

[Audie]

One of the problems is connected to revisionist history. This is where you assume what we know today, was known a long time ago, so people of the past, should have known better, and we caught them in a lie.

If you lived in Biblical times, you would more than likely traveled on foot, or maybe on a donkey. It was also not safe to wander too far from home. This was slow travel, so you never saw or knew about the entire earth, like we do today based on Satellite views, books, TV, internet and tales of modern explorers. How many of you have gone to Antartica? The earth to you, back then, would be what you had seen and maybe what others you trusted had seen, which was a tiny percent of the whole earth. But that was the earth you knew. A large flood could appear to cover the earth, in your world view.

For example, in the US in 1927, 27,000 miles flooded due to a Mississippi River flood. That is three times as large as the state of Israel. People during that 1927 flood would not know just how large this was since it would take days before any news came; before cells phones and a full electric grid. For all practical purposes, such a flood was your whole world after wading all day and still in the water.

A world flood may not be an exaggeration, if you knew no other world, but the one you have traveled, without books, TV and modern science. With modern 20/20 hindsight, we can misinterpret, what the ancient world meant to them, so we can run a scam.

The political left likes to use revisionist history to suit a class of scams. A hypothetical example of a possible Lefty revised history argument, might be connected to the observation, that nobody in 1960 bought the Call of Duty video game. To them, this could mean all such video games were taboo, when in reality, it was due this date being before video games were invented. If you did not know better, but assume the past is the present, you would get this all wrong.

Slavery for example was different for the ancient people compare to us today. There would still be slavery for another nearly 2000 years after the Old Testament was written. The ancients saw it differently, with no end in sight. Reparations is based on revisionist history, condemning those who lived at a time, when they did not have our modern 20/20 hindsight. This game can be profitable, if you are crooked enough.

I like historical fiction, since it places one in another time, through the eyes of the past naive to the future. Human nature does not change, over time, but our knowledge of the world was different. Their future is not yet defined, but was still unfolding in time.

Say you buy a lottery ticket. You may have all the hopes and dreams of winning. Once the winning ticket is made known and it is not you, your world views changes away from the hopes and dreams. You would not have dreamed the dream, if you had 20/20 hindsight; hope versus cynicism.

The flood story may or may not
be based on an a actual flood.
like wildly exaggerated / 99+% made up.
A hundred year "ark", all the animals 2x2?

In either case it's untrue, and puts " god"
in the role of a total psycho.

 

[Apostle John]

Honestly, people in America!

When EVERYTHING about " god" is hearsay,
you call the concrete phyiscal,evidence e for
earth's age " hearsay".

You cannot date a rock by a star and vice versa. Where’s the tangible evidence and not the optical in the distant sky, that’s an illusion.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Please provide hard evidence instead of making assertions using various accounts like some madcap wizard of Oz. I know over half the members on here are you but there must be someone genuine and interested in the truth. Stop perpetuating lies.

What do you mean by "hard evidence"? I could post evidence, but I do not know which version of the flood you are supporting. You have not given us your version of the flood.

For example, when were the sedimentary rocks deposited?

 

[Subduction Zone]

You cannot date a rock by a star and vice versa. Where’s the tangible evidence and not the optical in the distant sky, that’s an illusion.

We can date some rocks by the radioactive materials inside them,

 

[Apostle John]

We can date some rocks by the radioactive materials inside them,

All methods of dating don’t agree, there’s a clue. A cataclysmic world wide flood will render them useless.

 

[Yazata]

Another question disputed for ages causing Christian unity to be split into thousands of sects over interpretations of the Bible.

Doesn't Bahai present the same kind of questions? It seems to me that most revealed religions would.

Some examples - you may wish to add more.

The seven days of creation - allegorical or literal truth?

In my opinion (which won't be shared by many Christians or Muslims) the early parts of Genesis are clearly myths. By 'myth' I mean stories that help people make sense of things. 'Myths' in this sense provide a broader plot narrative into which the events of life can be fitted to give them meaning.

I see the creation stories as intended to show that reality (as it was conceived then) was entirely the work of God, that it was purposeful, and perhaps to say something about the relative relationships of its parts.

Science has proven the earth is 4.5 billion years old.

'Proof' only applies in mathematics and logic. Science has discovered multiple sorts of evidence that the Earth may be approximately that old, but it's far from apodeictic proof.

Science can only make conclusions more likely, not logically necessary. I personally accept the 4.5 billion year age of the Earth as a rough working assumption, not as something that has to be true. It forms the foundation of my thinking about biological evolution, life's origins, planetology and things like that, but it might nevertheless be mistaken,

In that sense, I perceive science as playing a role very akin to ancient myth in our modern day and age: as a body of accepted stories that help us make sense of experience by giving individual events a broader interpretive context.