Extension of Bible metaphor question: Why wouldn't God want those he chose to write it do it the same way?

Question

Why isn't it all literal then? I get the idea that its from different authors but wouldn't they write it the way God told them and not put a spin on it? BTW, if all the examples are metaphors, then where is evidence.

Once again, not an attack just a fair question.

Answer 1

You have to understand that the Bible was written by people from all kinds of lives. From all social classes, in different times. Some were prophets and others were christian persecutors. Some books are Poetry, Narrative Literature, Letters, ect... So theres different kinds of expression from the authors.

People 100 years back didn't talk the same way as we talk today, they used different words and vocabulary. We can't understand their writings at first instance because they used different type of "expressions" or another type of language as the one we know now. But, people communicated that way in those times and everyone understood. Imagine people from 2000 or 2500 years from now. We would have to study profoundly to be able to understand.

Its important to know that God didn't write phisically the Bible. He inspired the authors. They all wrote according to their own personality. In the case of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John; you can see that it's the same story, but from different perspectives. You may see some things that appear in some of these books, but in others, they don't. This is because these books are written according to their own perspectives. But they are all Inspired by the God. One of HIS qualities is that he doesn't discriminate, HE chooses from all social classes, different times, different places and this is one of the things that makes HIM be glorified.

Hope this answers your question.

Answer 2

There are different types of writing that are found in the Bible.
Some are narative which can be found in the Gospels
Some are epistles, which make up the majority of the New Testament, these are the letters
And others are apocalyptic literature, which is the book of Revelation, and parts of Daniel and Ezekiel.
Some are parables, which can be found in the Gospels.

The authors are not putting their own spin on things, they are merely using different writing styles.

Answer 3

How long do you spoon feed your babies?
How long before you expect them to feed themselves?
How long do you expect God to spoon feed you?
How long before God can expect you to "get it?"

How much would be enough for you to believe?
How much did Judas Iscariot see, and hear, and experience? And yet he is not known for his faith, but for being the trator!
How much sin did Paul commit in persecuting the people of God, before God knocked him off his high horse, all but twisting his arm to provoke faith?

Not everything in the Bible is metaphore.

There are several genres in the Bible. History, poetry, prophecy, Gospel, letters, etc. Even within the genre of Gospel there are subsets like history, and parable.
You cannot read poetry with the same mind set that you approach history with, same idea with letters.

Archeology has provided more and more evidences of the things recorded in the Bible. There was a time that historians thought that Pilate was a made up character, until they found a record of him written in a stone in ampitheater. Isaiah was suposed to be a myth, until the seal used by his secretary, Baruch, was found.

Mark 4:3-9
3 "Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow;
4 as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up.
5 "Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil.
6 "And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
7 "Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.
8 "Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."
9 And He was saying, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Answer 4

The Books of the Bible were written by men inspired by God. They did not sit down and take dictation. Further, the bible is written in many different styles metaphoric, allegoric, poetic, proverbs, historic, legal and Apocalyptical.

The only “spin” associated with the Bible is when folks take verses out of context to support their ideology.

Answer 5

Not all examples are metaphors..only some. Many things in the bible are literal and are to be taken literally.
The bible must be studied with an open heart and an understanding of the times it was written in.

Answer 6

I don't think people put a "spin" on it. Some of it is harder to understand because of the metaphors, but a lot of that was cleared up through later prophets like Joseph Smith. God saw the confusion on some things and called latter day prophets to straighten it out.

Answer 7

Hey, you put 12 monkeys in a room with computers and see if they produce a coherent version of War & Peace. Monkeys don't speak english, and neither did the people that wrote the bible. They spoke giberish. Give them a break for god's sake. It's a miracle they can even remember to give the messiah the same name (instead of Mithras, Horus, Dionysus, etc).

Answer 8

Critically analyzing the metaphor excuse leads to its destruction in under 4 minutes; I timed it. Exhaustively. I tried every possible defense I could think of for it.

4 minutes people.

Answer 9

when christians say inspired by god it may mean that the writers were drunk the day they wrote it.
inspired by god means nothing at all.