If the bible can't be taken literal , then what alternatives do we have ?
Most Christians accept the scientific study of the Bible as legitimate. Christianity is a religion built on truth . Restricting ourselves to a narrow ideological view, such as strict literalism especially when God is shown in an unfavourable light, interferes with our ability to trust in God's goodness and principal revelation through the Bible. In the majority view, many of the Bible's stories are historically accurate and should be interpreted literally. But some spiritual truths are revealed through the common literary mechanisms of allegory, parable, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, and irony that were never intended to be taken literally. Such mechanisms serve to "paint a mental picture" of ideas not easily expressed in words.
Hermeneutics
The modern understanding of the Bible came about partly as a result of discoveries in the fields of astronomy, geology and biology, but also as a result of developments in hermeneutics, the science and art of Bible interpretation consisting of observation, interpretation, evaluation, and application are the heart of all approaches to finding out what the Bible means. Interpreting the Bible correctly is a two-step process. We must first discover what the passage meant in the day and age of the author. Then we must discover its message for us in today's culture. Observation and interpretation apply to the first step; evaluation and application apply to the second . The stories in Genesis Chapters 1-11 serve primarily to establish the spiritual foundation of all that follows. The stories of Creation, the Great Flood and the Tower of Babel reveal the essential nature of God, His power and glory, and His relation to us.
literal/historical, tropological, allegorical, and anagogical.
4 principal methods of interpreting scriptures: literal/historical, tropological, allegorical, and anagogical.
A 2011 Gallup survey reports, "Three in 10 Americans interpret the Bible literally, saying it is the actual word of God in the strict meaning of the word, not figurative or metaphorical.
Allegorical interpretation of the Bible - Wikipedia This is an interpretive method (exegesis) that assumes that the Bible has various levels of meaning and tends to focus on the spiritual sense, which includes the allegorical sense, the moral (or tropological) sense, and the anagogical sense) as opposed to the literal sense. Example: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The anagogical interpretation is a method of mystical or spiritual interpretation of statements or events, especially scriptural exegesis, that detects allusions to the afterlife.
Allegorical interpretation of the Bible - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics
Key words: Metaphysical Allegorical Metaphorical Figurative Mythical .... ?
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http://www.christianbiblereference.org/faq_BibleTrue.htm (extracted)
Further, most Christians accept scientific and scholarly study of the Bible as legitimate. Christianity is a religion built on truth (John 8:32, Romans 1:18, James 1:17-18) and whatever we can learn about the Bible adds to our ability to understand the truth of the Bible as it was originally intended. Restricting ourselves to a narrow ideological view, such as strict literalism, interferes with our ability to fully understand God's revelation through the Bible.
In the majority view, many of the Bible's stories are historically accurate and should be interpreted literally. But some spiritual truths are revealed through the common literary mechanisms of allegory, parable, simile, metaphor, hyperbole, and irony that were never intended to be taken literally. Such mechanisms serve to "paint a mental picture" of ideas not easily expressed in words. The Bible reveals timeless spiritual truths about God, love, salvation, faith, morals and ethics that transcend the realms of science and history. We can appreciate the beauty of a sunrise whether or not the sun literally "rises" above the earth. In the same way, we can understand and appreciate the lessons of the Bible whether or not all its stories are true in a literal sense.
HermeneuticsThe modern understanding of the Bible came about partly as a result of discoveries in the fields of astronomy, geology and biology, but also as a result of developments in hermeneutics, the science and art of Bible interpretation, which can be summed up as follows:
These four key words-- observation, interpretation, evaluation, and application-- are the heart of all approaches to finding out what the Bible means. They provide the structure of what questions you ask of the text, and when.
- Observation: What are the basic facts of the passage such as the meaning of all the words?
- Interpretation: What did the author mean in his own historical setting?
- Evaluation: What does this passage mean in today's culture?
- Application: How can I apply what I have learned to how I live my life?
Many Christians believe the stories in Genesis Chapters 1-11 serve primarily to establish the spiritual foundation of all that follows. The stories of Creation, the Great Flood and the Tower of Babel reveal the essential nature of God, His power and glory, and His relation to us.