How do you know which parts of the bible are literal and which must be interpreted?

Question

I don't understand how you can tell which part of the bible is literal and which parts are meant to be 'interpreted'. If all of the supernatural things like turning water to wine, walking on water, rising from the dead were all interpreted to mean something else, then I could understand. It seems as though people believe that those things ACTUALLY happened. But other things that seem to be straight forward have to be interpreted. How do you know WHEN to interpret? What if school books were that way? How do you interpret 2+2? I interpret it to mean 4. Can it be interpreted to mean 2,344,235?

Thank you for your answers thus far. It would seem that even among believers there is some disagreement with when to and when not to interpret. I cannot buy for a moment that it is a literal story(I'm sorry Ellie, but to me, fossils are not explained by the flood. Unless there is a part in the bible about dinosaurs which I am not aware of. I'm no bible scholar, so if I am mistaken, by all means let me know). There are many fantastic things which no rational person would accept as fact today, so why are they accepted after 2,000 years from a time when people belived sickness was caused by demons living in your stomach and not considered parables?

Tuberoot says I need to have the Holy Spirit to understand the bible. How do acquire this?

Answer 1

it's called "picking and choosing."

so many "righteous" causes would be dead without it, especially the so-called "pro life" faction.

Answer 2

If a nation was called a "bear" today, what nation would that be? Russia

If a nation was called a "lion" and its "young lions" what nations would you think of? Britain and the USA.

Are you familiar with the world powers beginning with
Mesopotamia
Assyria
Babylonia lion
Medes/Persians bear
Greece leopard
Rome
revived Roman Empire - EU

How do you know when to interpret? The Holy Spirit brings to your remembrance what you have read.

One hundred years ago we were still riding horses like man has done since the beginning of time. But now we run to and fro and knowledge has increased as the Bible said would happen. Daniel 12:4

Israel flying home on wings of eagles - what would you call an airplane if you'd never seen one?

God wrote this Bible in such a unique way that even periods of history or time had to pass before the wording could be understood.

Can you imagine what we would learn if we would make our children study it?

We are here in history today - Daniel 12:7 "......and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished."

This verse means when Satan has accomplished the shattering of the power of the Christians, all will be finished. Because when Jesus returns it will happen fast.

If you read on YA forum you will see how many are against the Christians and want everything called religion done away with. Whether the people who are saying this realize it or not, it is the spirit of the antichrist and Satan is behind it. Satan has made sure that sin has increased in the latter days so his plan will work.

Answer 3

all of the bible is literal and describes events that actually happened and of people who actually lived. Jesus taught the disciples by telling stories or parables which were hypothetical and it was meant to be interpreted. The Bible is a history book. It describes historical events, but for some people it becomes blurry and they think that it couldn't have happened as it's recorded in the Bible because they choose to believe fallable man instead of infallable God.
You shouldn't interpret anything. Take it as it is and if you do your studies you'll find that things described in the Bible can be backed up by science. Where does all the fossils come from? look at Noah's flood. Fossils form when layers of mud compacts an item or animal, very suddenly. How could that have happened? Well, a flood, global one, would be a very clear answer. But people choose to not believe it. Fossil evidence clearly shows that things died suddenly. Do some searches and you'll find some interesting findings...fossil of an animal in the process of giving birth and a fossil of a fish just about to snack on another fish....did that happened over millions of years as evolutionists claim? I think not...
The Bible doesn't NEED to be interpreted. It was written clearly enough so that even a child can understand it. You know, that's one thing I despised of having to study poetry in school...the teachers always ask these stupid questions of...but what does the poet want to say by saying this or that...by golly, the poet said what he wanted to say by writing what he did. Same with God. He never sins, you can believe Him. He was there, He Created it all, He knows all about it. No man needs to interpret anything. What you see is what you get. End of story.

Most people gets thrown out of line and off the road and down the pit by listening and believing what some other fool interpreted (WRONGLY) from the Bible and that's why there are so many sects in this world today.

Answer 4

Mark Twain said it well, when he wrote "Its not the parts of the Bible I don't understand that bother me, its the parts I do."

The Bible is a collection of 66 books that run nearly as long as all the Harry Potter books put together. With that much material, it is very easy to take one line here or one sentence there and try to make it mean whatever you want.

The entire Bible is to be taken "literally" in that it means what it says. But when Jesus is using a figure a speech ("The kingdom of heaven is LIKE a seed...") then you know from the context ("LIKE") this is a comparison, not a literal fact (Heaven is not a seed). But the principal that the story teaches (heaven is something that grows within you) is to be taken literally.

So when Christians talk about "interpreting" the Bible, they mean that you have to pay attention to where, when and why something is said. Take it out of context, and no one will not be able to understand it. (Like the old "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", where they learned the answer to everything was "42", but nobody knew the question.)

Any person reading the Bible was an open mind, and an honest attitude, will have no difficulty telling which parts are intented to be "historical fact" (literal) and which are teachings that need to be studies and understood (interpreted).

Answer 5

It is a rather simple principle.

Consider the Bible to be literal in every case except when the Bible says that it is not literal, such as a story or a parable.

Most of the parables fall under the heading of 'The kingdom of heaven is like.....'

Ahmed Ahdoody; If prophecies can not be taken literally, it is amazing that so many prophecies in the Old Testament were exactly like the fulfillment in the New Testament.

Prophecy is probably the provable part of the Bible.

grace2u

Answer 6

The Bible states when it is to be interpreted. Like when Jesus tells stories. Not, though, when He gives a prophecy.
You have to be careful of interpretation. The Bible talks of that too. All the miricles God did while here on earth are real. Lazarus did indeed rise from the dead, and God did turn water into wine. Miracles should never be interpreted as lessons to learn, but really did happen. When people start to interpret the Bible too much, they tend to "tone down" the more important parts.

Answer 7

The Bible is a book of history, law and revelation from
God (prophecy). It is also a book of Liturgy. The same passage can be read many different ways.

The individual who interprets the Bible for him(her)self is unlikely to correctly understand all of the parts and will tend to emphasize some parts over others.

That is why the Catholic Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, interprets the Bible in light of Sacred Tradition and based upon the teachings of the apostles.

Answer 8

Personaly I hold it all as literal, the 6 day creation ect...
So I don't think certain areas need to be interpereted.
Anyways, I don't even hold Revelation as being non literal.
There is always those books that are poetry like psalms, that talk about true things but in a poetic way, and people try to use those against the literalness of the bible.
But you have to understand, poetry, not poetry, thats how we understand the rest of everything else.

So if we use basic logic, we can understand easily.

Think about it,

I hope it helps, and good luck,

Jessica - feel free to email

Answer 9

As a Christian, i've got in lots of situations questioned the comparable ingredient. although, as an English instructor, I see that analyzing potential varies interior of and between many styles of folk. to respond to the question, some people do, and use them, some do yet do no longer use them, and a few don't have them (yet fake they do). as far as maximum is going, i don't be conscious of maximum Christians, so i'm afraid my answer could be a generalization. I do think of that some Christians, rather than enticing in a communicate with a skeptic/doubter, get too protective too quickly and throw out some "that is all literal!" or "that is all allegory!" attempt to end the argument w/o being incorrect. Christians must be solid adequate to admit while they don't be conscious of something rather than feigning information to disguise their no longer understanding.

Answer 10

I have a question for you and any one else.

Why interpret the Bible at all.

Does salvation really depend on someone else deciding what the Bible means for you?

Or does salvation mean you believe the word of God and accept what it says for the truth?

Does God really want to save you through faith, or does he value the Organized religion so much that they are the only people who can tell you what he wants.
If that is so, then why would the largest religion still have you pray to the Virgen Mary for forgivness? I am pretty sure God gets upset with people who pray to graven images or bow to others.

If he loves us and wants to save us, why would he obscure his message?

Answer 11

Context reveals which is which, particularly when the characters in the story have a direct response to what has just taken place.

Pay attention to pronouns and verbs used in the story.
"A certain man had two sons..." is a real story.
"Like a man who goes into a far country..." is an example, and therefore open to interpretation.
Multiple lessons can be drawn from both.