Taking the Bible "too" literally

by Coded Logic 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  PSacramento

  Its funny because "taking something literal" doesn't always mean what we think it does.

  To most ( and they way bible literalists view it) to take something literal means to take it for what it means ( of course they don't do that all the time, ex: time stood). It means to them that the parts THEY think are to be taken as true meaning of true words ( typically Genesis creation account) MUST be just that.

  Of course taking something literal also means taking it for its literary genre.

  When we read the poems in the bible we don't take them as literal AND concret comments but as poetic languages.

  When Jesus spoke in parables were we to believe that those people actualy existed and did those things? No, of course not.

  Those that state that all the bible is to be taken as literal and concrete are just not doing themselves or the bible any service.

  The various books and letters of the bible were written FOR many BUT they were written TOO a specific people at specific times with specific agendas.

  So, the natural question comes, how do we decide what is to be taken as literal and what isn't?

  A good question and of course study is the answer BUT I go a bit further and state this:

  IF the bible is important for Us and for our salvation ( it isn't but some believe it to be so) then with WHOM would YOU leave that up to?

  What I mean is this, if the bible is that important to you, why on earth would you leave anything about it to someone else?

  Why would you let ANYONE ELSE'S view on the bible dictate YOURS?

  Learn for yourself, decide for yourself.
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  Apognophos

  Yes, well said, PSacramento. If someone is trying to reconcile scientific knowledge with the Genesis account, they are not reading the account literally at all. When people study the Bible in an academic setting and learn the original languages, they read the Bible literally. People who only read the Bible with a filter over their eyes that was installed by their upbringing are not actually reading the Bible literally, even if they say they are.
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  Phizzy

  Reading the Bible as very literal truth, very literal history, literal information about god and other issues like Salvation etc etc , is a fairly new phenomenon.

  This idea gained ground in the late 19th Century as a perceived answer to the supposed challenge to the Bible offered by the new (ish) science of Geology and the very new (then) concept of Evolution by Natural Selection, and perhaps more importantly the rise, particularly in Germany of Biblical Higher Criticism, fed by Textual Criticism.

  Probably a good starting point on how Christians should regard Scripture, and how they should read it, is given by the Apostle Paul himself. He read "Scripture", which would be whatever he viewed as Holy Writings, as even the Hebrew Canon was not fixed in his day, to be something to be used as what was later termed Midrash.

  Midrash does not take the Writings as though they are literal truth, far from it, it used them as a tool for instruction, to learn lessons for the time the reader finds himself in, hence the stories can be changed and adapted for the present.

  To take Genesis, for example, as literal is very silly, and falls at every hurdle.

  For a Christian today it is probably important too to adopt the Jewish attitude, namely, that the book sprang from the Faith, not the other way round. Hence the Jewish people did not, and do not, worry overmuch about what was contained in their Scriptures as to whether it was absolute truth in any sense, it was there as a Tutor.