The Bible is a metaphor...WHAT????

Question

Explain that to me!!!!!!

Ask the people who keep saying the Bible is a metaphor, what a metaphor is.

Answer 1

Not a metaphor
B - basic
I - instructions
B - before
L - leaving
E - earth

The Bible is a life manual!!!

Answer 2

Obviously, whether one chooses to read the Bible as metaphorically true, or literally true, or not true at all, is entirely dependent upon one's own belief system. This is a matter of personal choice and of one's own sacred spiritual decisions, so it is really not susceptible to rational argument.

That said, it is clearly incorrect to say the Bible is "a metaphor." If one chooses to read the Bible as true in non-literal ways, one does not believe the Bible is "a metaphor," but rather that the Bible uses many metaphors to embody its spiritual truth.

Metaphor, in rhetorical/linguistic theory, is technically a figure of speech in which literal statements map into nonliteral meanings. (Some rhetoricians argue that metaphor is a unique trope, others that it is a highly specialized form of metonymy.)

An example of the Bible functioning metaphorically (for those who read it that way) would be this:

Genesis chapters 1 and 2 tell two very different, even contradictory, accounts of the creation of the human race by God. A metaphorical reading of these passages is not troubled by the apparent contradiction (as a literal, fundamentalist reading might be tempted to be) between an account in which Adam and Eve are created together and an account in which Adam is made first and Eve made from Adam's rib. A metaphorical reading of both narratives would arrive at the same metaphorical meaning: the human race was created as the capstone of the Earth by the Creator of all things, and that men and women are all created by the operation of God's power (the Divine breath in the story) upon the material universe (the soil in the story). Metaphorical readings focus on the religious meaning, rather than the literal verbal meaning, of Bible narratives.

Obviously, this is a matter not just of reason but also of faith. And, generally, literal or fundamentalist readings of the Bible (which have to contend with the problem of contradictions in the Bible and the importation of millennia-old scientific knowledge into the 21st century) tend to be proposed by people who are more politically reactionary and opposed to the discoveries of the last 2-4 millennia of science, while metaphorical readings tend to be proposed by people who are more politically moderate or progressive and more interested in making room for religion to explain the Why of the universe and science to explain the How.

So, to summarize. The Bible is not a metaphor. But it might contain many metaphors, and be read metaphorically. Or it might not. That is a question for individual readers and faith communities to decide.

Answer 3

Yeah, I'm sure that things like the historical genealogies in the book of Chronicles are all metaphorical. If anyone says the Bible is a metaphor, they don't know what they are talking about.

Answer 4

If you are asking about the Torah (the Five Books of Moses), then the Bible is a metaphor for how to live your life, the types of pitfalls to avoid and to understand that despite incredible obstacles, all things are possible, through God.

Answer 5

I can't explain something that isn't true - the Bible is not a metaphor.

Answer 6

"Moderate" Christians call it a book of metaphors, because science has proven so much of it to be false. When they can no longer rationally accept the absurdity of what it says, they're forced to call it a "metaphor", if they want to keep their faith.

What is unfortunate, in my opinion, is that they are willing to mutilate their religion to make it seem feasible, but they won't accept the unmutilated truth that is all around them. God is imaginary!

Answer 7

Well, you see, since god is an imaginary deity, it's manifesto is a collection of metaphors designed to keep the ignorant masses from actually thinking about how utterly ridiculous the idea of a magic sky-pixie is.
But if you prefer to keep your head in the sand and only belive what is written in an outdated book of bronze-age jewish mythology, be my guest and enjoy your ignorance. I hear it's bliss.

Answer 8

Try this one Jim....God!

I have seen people refer to the bible as a metaphor, but do they know what a metaphor means??????????????

Answer 9

Do you Know what A metaphor is?

Answer 10

Okay. The creation story in the bible can be interpreted as "God created the Universe and all life in it" rather than "The Universe was created in 6 days. Woman was created out of man's rib. Adam and Eve lived with dinosaurs" That is one example.