When is the bible literal? And when is the bible a metaphor?

Answer 1

The Bible is plagiarism from older lore.

Answer 2

The Bible is a book with a lot of different genre from poetry, history, parables, stories, prophesies, apocalypses, etc. Not to mention different language types like metaphors, hyperboles, etc. etc.

The only way anyone can understand what is what is through the teaching of the Holy Spirit and an open mind willing to learn.

If someone comes to the Bible with a I'm gonna prove it wrong attitude, a closed-minded attitude, or not willing to learn from the Holy Spirit, or someone who is spiritually dead cannot and will not be able to understand until such things are fixed.

Answer 3

The is Bible is always literal unless it is not! The Bible has to be taken literally unless otherwise specified. Example: God created the earth in six days...how do we know this? The Bible says "in six days the LORD God created the heaven adnd the earth and all that in them is..." According to the context of the verse their is no indication of being a figure of speech. Christ often spoke in parables (metapors), and we know this because He said that the Kingdom of Heaven is LIKE 10 virgins with 10 oils of lamps...the Kindgom of Heaven IS NOT 10 virgins....it is LIKE 10 virgins! Also who is to say when the Bible is or is not to be taken literally! The Bible says that "it is good for a man not to touch a woman." What does that mean? That means keep yours hand of ladies...period! It said do not TOUCH them! Touch does not mean "fornicate" it means touch! That is why it says touch! If GOD wanted to say fornicate He would have said fornicate! But HE wanted to say touch! God does not need help explaining himself, He wrote the BIBLE God is not dumb, we have to believe by faith that HE was able to preserve it! If God was able to create the earth in six days couldn't he write a book and keep it the same for a couple of years? I mean...think about it! We are not talking about some idiot...we are talking about an Almight GOD! The Bible is a metaphor when it says it is a metaphor!

Answer 4

When it says this I gave to John in signs or Jesus said I never spoke to them except in parables. You know why that is?
If you tell a story to a child he most likely never will forget it.
But you start in saying, don't lie, steal or murder it goes in one ear and out the other. Tell him a story about someone who did those things, what happened to him, what was the outcome? Most of what Jesus was saying was stories.
To help us to get the point. The prodical son, the good sumaritan. Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham in heaven.
Jesus was the first man to be resurrected to heaven so Abraham wasn't in heaven. colossians 1:read the chapter.


Chances are most of his stories were just that.
But when elijah said "he called down fire and 50 soldiers were burned up" That was hardly a story. That was more an eye witness account.
Or when the transfiguration happened before the eyes of the apostles that was an eye witness account. You have to read the bible with an open mind and think. What is the message he wants to get across in this story?

Answer 5

I merely wrote this as an answer.. to a minimum of a few thing else.. yet you get the jist.... METAPHOR. the three kings are easily 3 stars talked approximately as, merely that! On December the twenty fourth of each year, the northern hemisphere's East celeb (or Sirius) lines up with the three kings. The constellation is termed Virgo (virgin in latin) and a few have faith that it extremely is the place the bible derives that is memories. in case you think of Jesus because of the fact the Suns "delivery" in seasonal fortune or salvation. because of the fact the astrological diagram of this flow is without doubt certainly one of the oldest customary calculated photos customary to guy, you will presume that religions like those of Christianity and historic Egytian Mythology tranferred those cases into 'riddled' memories. BTW.. Horus the egyptian god which preceded the biblical cases by utilising centuries, replaced into additionally born on the twenty 5th Dec. His on an time-honored basis conflict fought with Set the god of darkness. consequently the term we nevertheless use immediately.. sundown. Set is concept to be transferred into devil in biblical progression. Incidently Darkness (or devil) is likewise made attainable by utilising easy..(god or... the sunlight). Jesus' would desire to be classed because of the fact the beginning up of light as Gods sunlight.

Answer 6

This is called "rightly dividing the word of truth".

It's easy for me because I have been studying it for years. In most cases, God makes it clear when He is being allegorical. When specific proclamations are being made, it is literal.

Example:
God told Elijah to do some pretty bizarre things. He told Elijah that it was representational of what was going to happen to Israel.
http://www.schneblin.com/studies/pdfs/the_lying_prophet.pdf

On another occasion, God made proclamations that were spot on literal that you can set a watch by.
http://www.schneblin.com/studies/pdfs/seventieth_week_of_daniel.pdf

Revelation has a perfect balance of both. It can be sorted out by using the Tonach or Old Testament as "a reference key".
http://www.schneblin.com/studies/pdfs/introduction_to_revelation.pdf

You can see the same kind of devise used in a good movie. Often the movie does not tell you as much as represent ideas or thoughts. For example, in Forrest Gump, the question was raised, "do we have a destiny, or are we floating around random?" This is a literal question, but figuratively amplified by the wandering feather that stops right at the feet of Forrest at the beginning of the movie. Did it just happen to fall there by random, or was it destiny?

Morganie - Good and simple example. Well said.

Answer 7

Well when it talks about things like virgin conceptions and stuffing a bunch of animals into one giant arc, or getting swallowed by a whale, creation in 6 days, etc etc you can be pretty certain it is not literal. I would say most of it is a mythological metaphor.

Answer 8

The Bible Is to be taken just like It's written Literally !
God wasn't taking up space on pages with thoughts.Ideas or suggestions.
Blessings

Answer 9

The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation is filled with metaphors. It's all about the body, soul and spirit of man becoming to perfection. The seven churches: These represent the seven spiritual centers within the body. Theses centers are called chakras which means wheels. Spinning wheels of energy located in specific areas of the human body.
The seven lamps of fire: These represent the helpful influences that destroy hindrances to the spiritual awakening. They are inner messengers, aids, who stand between the forces of good and evil and become as powers within the nature of man to overcome.

The four beast:These are our four fundamental physical natures (desires), which must be overcome. They are also the four destructive influences that "make for the greater desire for the carnal forces. These also represent urges and forces in the four lower, more earthly glands in our bodies.

The great red dragon: This symbolizes the powerful urge within ourselves that originally so separated us from the Source of Life that we fought with those very influences that would bring the spiritual awakening. Serpent from the garden who first aided in our souls separation from God's presence. Reasoning within ourselves.

Mark of the beast: The strange mark, 666, represents vows and obligations we have made to the work of the beast and how we condemn rather than help any effort to overcome the beast's influence. The beast is our lower nature at our most selfish, self-centered, self-gratifying, self-glorifying point of existence.

New heaven and new earth: These represent a new mind and a new heart.

Revelation 17: The whore of Babylon represents self: self-gratification, anything pertaining to the ego.

Revelation 19: The twenty-four elders, representing the twelve paired cranial nerves with our brains, reverse their attention from earthly things to begin to give homage and attention to heavenly things. The sea of glass provides the calm necessary for this to happen.

The lamb: Reflect the gentleness and peace that are to come from this new consciousness.

Revelation 21: The New Jerusalem coming down from heaven represents the new state of consciousness that is gained from the purification and elevations of body and mind to heavenly ways, subduing earthly influences.

144,000: Who are sealed as being spiritualized cellular structure of the 12 major divisions of the body.

Answer 10

I determine this depending on the context -- using the same rules I use to distinguish between literal and metaphorical usage in other literature.

Cordially,
John
http://www.GodSci.org

Answer 11

You have to know what type of literature the particular book of the Bible is. The Bible is not one book but many. The historical books are literal, for example. The apocalyptic books are deeply symbolic. Then there is poetry, letters, writings, etc.