Which things must be taken literaly from the Bible and which are mere metaphores?

Question

Is there a rule of thumb for this?

Did Lot's daughters rape him?

Did his wife turn into a cowlick?

Is the murderous God in Ezekiel just talking lightly or is he a genocidal freak?

Answer 1

Everything in it is metaphorical.

Answer 2

Do not commit murder would be at the top of my list.Cowlick that I don't get cause I had a cowlick when I was a child and my mother was always spitting on her hand an smoothin it down. Another thing about Ezekiel wasn't there a story bout a donkey who saw an angel and bucked his master off took a beating but wouldn't move past the angel some people interpret it as a ghost.. I guess if this story is true God was working every angle to be the only God

Answer 3

Not everything in the Bible is meant to be taken literally. The parables that Jesus tells are stories, we can't be certain they were true stories, but they meant something and had a moral message. I think that you can take Lot's story seriously and God isn't murderous at any time, but he can use his own people that he created however he wants, and I don't think we should question that. If you don't believe that God can do all things and is all powerful, then a talking donkey or a man swallowed alive by a whale would sound like a crazy story, but with God all things are possible, so I believe that a man can part a sea in half and I believe that a bush can burn and stay alive. 2 Peter 1:16 even says basically that the Bible isn't a bunch of silly stories, it is filled with truth and it is God's word. I hope that helps. Have a nice day and God bless.

Answer 4

It's a work of fiction inspired by the tales that bronze age middle eastern goat herders were telling at night around the camp fire, playing to scare each other...

Answer 5

The Bible is a book of metaphors to improve the human mind and enhance their morals. Most of the things in it do not seem to be true, at least to me.

Answer 6

--Lots daughters RAPED him!
--Lots wife turned into salt!

--Jehovah God destroyed a morally sick people in Sodom & Gommorah!
--WHO wanted to GANG RAPE the 2 angels who came to see how "very heavy the sin" of Sodom & G were!(Gen. 19)
--DO YOU THINK that they had good reason to destroy the perverted cities!

AS FOR Jehovah God's command at Ezekiel 9-- WHERE DO YOU SEE THAT THERE WAS AN immediate judgement by him?
--COULD IT BE that this was to be carried out prophetically at God's war of Armaggedon in our time, where there are children deserving of serious judgements?

---Columbine high school & other schools ?(I have been a teacher for over 40 years and escaped 1 riot in Ossining , NY (HIGH SCHOOL)--39 years ago--there is very little innocence in most of our children today)

---Children beaten up their parents , teachers?

---BULLYING done in schools , that has brought about the statistics THAT BECAUSE OF such bullying in schools
*****TEEN SUICIDE is the NUMBER 1 reason for attempted suicides IN the USA
____AS REPORTED on Dr. Phils?????

---HOW ABOUT the study taken in 1976 in a city in ohio where researchers found that infant siblings were being MURDERED by their bros or sis. ages 2-8 by biting them to death, dropping them on their heads and other horrific things!
--BECAUSE OF sibling jealousy!

--DO YOU THINK Jehovah God and Christ Jesus have provacation to bring on armaggedon?
--DON'T kid yourself WHEN God intervenes he & his Son have every good reason to destroy ALL THE wicked --YOUNG OR OLD!
--IT WOULD BE WISE on your part to DISTINGUISH the difference INDEED between "THE MURDEROUS GOD" you claim that Jesus' father is and THE GOD of all justice
--WHERE DO YOU stand in view of the serious judgements ahead?

Answer 7

i fell most of the bible is metaphoric,a way to explain the trails of life back then

Answer 8

The entire book is fiction, that is why the stories are so outlandish.

Answer 9

just fiction.