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If you believe the bible is literal,how do you explain some of the physical imposibilities in it? For example,Adam and Moses living for hundreds of years.
If you think the bible is metaphorical,then surely you are admitting that it is just a bunch of stories,yet you still believe it.Why?

2006-11-11 12:05:34 · 15 answers · asked by rosbif 6 in Society & Culture Religion & Spirituality

15 answers

I'm agnostic, but here's the deal: of course the Bible is metaphor. Garden of Eden, Noah's Ark, parting of Red Sea, Sodom & Gomorrah, Virgin Birth, Lazarus rasied from the Dead, etc. But we have to remember that those stories were all told by a group of semi-nomadic, largely illiterate people living 2000 years ago. They were simply using metaphor and allegor and symbolism to convey as best they could their understanding of God. So yes, they ARE a bunch of stories, if you want to over-simplify like that, but the big question is: what compelled them to go to such lengths to create such myths? And why would Jesus' disciples risk death--and incur death--if they thought he was a fake? After his death they could have simply disbanded, yet they continued on. To me--the reasons for the stories are more important than the literal accuracy. To read the Bible like a history book is to totallt miss the point!

2006-11-11 12:12:48 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0 2

Someone actually had a good theory about the long lifespans. There may have been a canopy of water in the atmospehere that previoulsy blocked out all harmful radiation as well as providing very high air pressure which is supposedly better for your body which allowed for slower aging and preventing major disease. After the flood though, that canopy was gone and the favorable conditions were removed via Genesis 6:3.

God did originally allow us to live long nearly disease free lives but the more wicked people became, the more cursed our existance became.

We as believers dont believe the Bible because we read it. We believe God and want his truth, therefore we read the Bible and believe it. God can do amazing things in your life if you let him!

2006-11-11 12:28:01 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0 1

Your example of an "impossibility" is in error. Science has revealed that the human body should be able to live for hundreds of years -- if it weren't for all the diseases, bad food we eat, etc. Other things you might be inclined to call impossible can be explained in various ways, not to exclude miracles.

The vast majority of the Bible is literal, even historical. However, there is a great deal of symbolism, especially in prophecies. Those people and events actually happened and existed -- even Job, though it is apparent that that story has been edited with some license.

2006-11-11 13:40:51 · answer #3 · answered by BC 6 · 0 1

Because divinely inspired metaphors are still divinely inspired. Geneticists tell us that we are descended from a single male lineage and a single female lineage (Adam and Eve). The male was a member of the ancestral population in East Africa about 50,000 years ago, and the female lineage was founded between 70 and 100 thousand years ago. At some point, around 50 thousand years ago, our consciousness had evolved to a point where we could act not merely from instinct, but from a sense of right and wrong, and knowledge of good and evil. Also at this point, our ancestors left (possibly as few as 150 individuals) Africa to start to populate the rest of the world. As we encounter the other Archaic Humans who left Africa earlier (Neanderthals and Homo Erectus), what did we do? When we met these long lost brothers, we killed them and supplanted them (Cain and Abel).

Could people living in the desert five thousand years ago have understood these facts, that took place across unimaginable spans of time? No. But how could the stories be so metaphorically close to the truth unless they were divinely inspired?

2006-11-11 12:16:27 · answer #4 · answered by Rico Toasterman JPA 7 · 0 2

Actually, a little research into the topic will show that Aramaic writings of the period often referred to people living extended time, but that it was an idiom for the tribes they represent. Examination of the actual tribes of Biblical Israel and surrounds and the names used in the Bible results in a number of correlations that make the point quite well.

So it isn't necessary for them to lived that long, and it is still justified to continue to believe in the Bible, as we use plenty of our own "impossible" phrases, such as "raining cats and dogs".

A study of Aramaic idioms is a must for serious Bible researchers. Isaac Asimov turned me onto this one.

Not a Christian, myself, but awfully glad they're here!

2006-11-11 12:29:21 · answer #5 · answered by mckenziecalhoun 7 · 0 0

In the Biblical days people did live hundreds of years. It wasn't until after the flood God changed it where people didn't live that long. God made people to live HUNDREDS of years. Then He decided there were going to be too many people on earth if they lived that long, it would be an over population problem, so he changed it so they/we only live about a hundred years.

2006-11-11 12:17:18 · answer #6 · answered by creeklops 5 · 0 0

i'm somewhat hesitant approximately answering this question because of the fact, properly, because of the fact i'm tremendously ignorant incredibly. i'm not a biblical pupil, yet i comprehend somebody who definitely is and that i'm certain that the words, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani", "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" are truthfully an particularly undesirable translation of the unique Aramaic, which meant something alongside the traces of, "i've got carried out it! I truthfully have achieved the job for which I got here right here." i think of that Christ grew to become into woke up long previously the crucifixion, as Gotama grew to become into woke up long previously he achieved Buddahood. Awakening seems to pass in tiers. Kensho is repeated with ever better realisation till Buddahood is reached, or till the dazzling moments on the go for the Christ. that's significant that we don't think of we've 'have been given there' after Awakening. not till the 2d of Nirvana - and then Parinirvana - can we be deemed to be risk-free: can we, like Jesus on the go, say, 'I truthfully have carried out what I got here right here to do.' It would desire to be obtrusive from the above that I truthfully have a issue with the exclusivity of Christ. particular, say that he's the Son of God. yet do not say that no-one else is. That, to my innovations, is the super hidden fact of Christianity.

2016-10-21 22:31:35 · answer #7 · answered by lindgren 4 · 0 0

hmm well Ill just say what Ive learned. I believe that words with certain meaning to us now might not of had the same meaning back then. LIke the creation, maybe 7 days isnt really 7 days as we know it but over a period of many many many years. I dont take everything literally but still believe in the main concepts.

2006-11-11 12:11:51 · answer #8 · answered by Michelle 2 · 0 2

It depends on the passage. Some are intended to be figerative. Some are literal. Adam lived 930 years-that is literal.

2006-11-11 12:10:38 · answer #9 · answered by Mr Marc 3 · 2 2

Why couldn't Moses and Adam have lived for hundreds of years? Are you suggesting that just because you've never seen it...then it can't happen? Surely, you don't know everything.?.?.

2006-11-11 12:08:40 · answer #10 · answered by moviesmiss1 3 · 3 2

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