Strands

Should we take everything in the Bible literally? There are many who think that it should be taken literally. The First of all, the Bible contains many different literary forms. Poetry, law, history, riddles, hymns, narratives, myths, proverbs, laments, songs, dreams, prophecies, stories, and parables—what variety of literary genres!

Each one requires a different sort of interpretation.

Just think about the concept of God in the Old Testament.

Creator of the universe, Lawgiver, King, Lord of hosts, Warrior, Deliverer, Liberator, the Merciful One, Father, Good Shepherd. Not only are we given different names for God, but we can also see very contrasting and even contradictory perspectives and images of God.

Now look at the concepts of the Messiah / Savior. The king who restores Israel, the Son of David, the restorer of the temple, the One who gathers scattered children of Israel, the Second Moses, the one who will put his enemies under his feet, the suffering Servant of Yahweh, the Son of Man, the one who remains unknown and in disguise, and so on!

Even if all the above concepts about God can be argued to be correct, it is unlikely that anyone would say that they should all be accepted as such - literally.

Look at Jesus. Of all the above, Jesus uses only a few of qualifications about his Father. And he uses them repeatedly. Some of them we can see that he denies.

How many laws and stipulations of the Old Testament did he correct! How many did he interpret differently!

Look at his own self awareness. Of the above concepts about the Messiah, he accepted and adopted very few. He questioned some. Some he disliked to use. Some he said were unacceptable in the intended sense.

In short, although there are different streams and strands of thought in the Bible, isn't it clear that not all of them are equally acceptable?