The bible says it's the literal unerring word of God. Others say the stories are metaphors & not real. Help?

Question

Which is it? How does one go about cherry-picking which parts of God's scripture is to be taken literally and which parts are metaphorical license? Especially when God himself was so fond of metaphor:

1 Peter 3:20
"God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God."

Please don't take the easy way out & say "Both".

Rose: Have you heard of Ockham’s Razor? 'When you hear hoof beats look for horses, not zebras' (i.e. start with the simplest explanation, not the most obtuse).

Answer 1

The whole Bible is symbolism. Nothing is completely true, but then again, some parts are rooted in truth; otherwise, how could humans have written it? (Sorry, there is no WAY that God inspired it by whispering into some guy's ear while the guy wrote on a scroll or stone or whatever.) Nothing of the Bible is to be taken literally; we know to much with science to be able to back up the Bible's explanations.

Answer 2

I hate to tell you but the answer is both. It usually says when it is not literal. In the case of the scripture in 1 Peter, it took Noah about 120 years to build the ark. No Home Depot or Lowes. Only 8 out of the population of the earth then put faith in Jehovah. What saved them was there conscience with God. Jehovah saw their heart condition as he continues to today. Then as today, water baptism symbolizes that. The public declaration that something has changed inside of you toward God.

The facts that when the Bible says something existed, it did and at the time the Bible said, is like heaping coals on the bodies of those wanting desperately for the Bible to be wrong. They will simply have to get over it. Time and again the Bible has been proved true.

Answer 3

Why do you find the two things to be so irreconcilable? Just because someone uses a story or a metaphor to make a point, it doesn't make the point false or in any way less valid.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm certainly not above using the most cliche metaphors (ie. "I slept like a log"). What difference does it make? Will anyone not know what point I am trying to convey because I used such a metaphor?

We don't have to "cherry pick" which is which; it is plainly obvious when we ourselves use expressions like that, and it is plainly obvious in Scripture when one is being used. The only thing that confuses me is why anyone else isn't able to tell?

Answer 4

You bring up an interesting point.
The bible is written by thirty or forty different authors, none of whom were aware that their works would be compiled together. In order for the bible to say anything about "itself" you would have to have one author or at least an author who knew that all the different sources were going to be anthologized. It is impossible that the bible could verify itself as definitive.
Traditional Jewish storytelling is full of analogies and metaphors. This is the case in all ancient Jewish literature. It is simply an element of the Jewish character to use verbal illustration. Jesus teaches almost exclusively in parables which are analogous in nature. Are we to believe that there was literally a prodigal son, five brides with five lamps (or whatever), three sons who each were given talents, etc? Clearly, these stories are fables. What kind of idiot would think that Jesus talked in parables but none of the religious literature that preceded him ever used this method? Its absurd. These bible freaks are totally irrational, like people who believe that crop circles were created by aliens even after seeing photographs of people making them by walking through fields with planks on their feet.

Answer 5

The Divine Books do not contradict each other or themselves or the sound intellect.

Islamically, there are 2 types of Verses in the Qur'aan. Those that linguistically can hold only 1 meaning and those that linguistically can hold more than one meaning.

The way the meaning of the second type of Verse is known is by eliminating what does not agree with the verses that hold only 1 meaning.

For example, surat ashura 11 means: Nothing resembles Allaah in any way. That is a Verse which holds only 1 meaning.

For more explanation:

http://www.aicp.org/IslamicInformation/English/PDF/The%20Ayahs.pdf

Answer 6

I've said it elsewhere, but it bears repeating:

If you take religious language literally, you are not taking it seriously.

THE most profound experiences and realizations we have as human beings are too FUNDAMENTAL, ORIGINAL, and SIMPLE for words. Words, unless understood as "poems," are in comparison to such experiences, always already too late. They can gesture towards such realizations, they can guide and support us, they can give advice and remedy against destroying our lives and our hearts. But the real foundation of healthy and utterly beautiful human spiritual expression, is not linguistic.

It's over the top (a metaphor, a poem), but I am reminded here of a Zen saying, "Enlightenment is through the body."

Not ideas, not beliefs, but something deeply matter-of-fact.

Answer 7

You won't get a consensus and I'm going to get a lot of thumbs down, but I have always thought it was a guide. It is God inspired but not meant to be taken literally. It is filled with good parables and wise teachings.

Answer 8

Everyone understands figures of speech in everyday life. If I told you my eyes were bigger than my stomach I don't suppose you would call a doctor on my behalf.
I think it really comes down to a statement Jesus made in John's Gospel:

"If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own."
John 7:17

It really always comes down to a matter of the heart. If someone really wants to know God and do His will, they will understand how to interpret his words.

Answer 9

The chruch has hand picked bible stories from day one. Hiding any stories of Jesus being just a man, or anything else to cover up the fact the church is power and money hungry. Learn to study life and youself. God is out there, but find him your own way. Dont let the "bible"...a story and nothing more run your life.

Answer 10

Scripture explains itself. In the historical books, things are recorded as fact and we must accept them as literal fact. Other places, like when Jesus is teaching, he tells parables (clearly defined as parables in the text) which are metaphors or stories. We have to do our best to understand the text, and always understand it literally unless a metaphor is clearly explained.