When the Bible is taken to literally

The Bible comes through a series of very faithful copying and translating throughout the centuries, we also have discovered older manuscripts that we thought were lost and earlier versions of certain texts, like the Greek Bible. Conventionally, what we have is a series of devoted transmissions. Translations are just copies of the existing Bible. The words are translated, they’re copied over, they’re reworked, they’re checked and they’re re-checked against the originals. You end up with a copy of the Bible. With that, there comes the “literalist” interpretation of scripture, contrasted to the “figurative” or allegorical interpretation.

 One could say that the bible is a mixture of mythology and the views and beliefs of people who were naive, superstitious and ignorant by our modern standards, over a time span of many centuries. Contrasted to the idea that Christians have said that God’s Bible is his. It’s his Word and therefore we should not question it. When we do question it, we find many holes along with it contradicting itself. No matter what one believes, there must be different perspectives, I believe it is safe to state that the power of scripture is broad and with it being translated and picked apart for thousands of centuries it has made a way for people to believe it, allegorically and literally.

           
We must look at the bible from different perspectives, there are a lot of scriptures in the bible, some scripture sounds like it came directly out of a JK Rowling book, where as others, it provides a sense of stability. If we open the scriptures to any random page, we will easily find an example to disprove this myth. Ecclesiastes 10:2: “The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left.” “Besides the interesting political connotations for the contemporary Americans reading this text, are we to take literally that the heart, this four-chambered, muscular organ beating in our chest, physically inclines to the left part of my body because we are fools?” (TCG) If taken a literal view of scripture it does. But if I take these words seriously and truthfully, they mean our internal self’s. Who we really are is inclined in a direction exactly opposite of the one who is wise. 

All mythology, scripture and literature provide some meaning. That does not mean it literally happened. Distinguishing “literal” is hard because we as human’s have individualistic reasoning within our conscious, individually. There are some who have transcribed the scripture to transcendental methodologies indeed, but do we consider dragons to be something that truly existed? Without any empirical evidence to show us proof? Yes some do unfortunately.

            
Truly taken at a literal sense, the Bible/scripture has made its everlasting mark on all the world. This is the problem. To name off some of the well-known Christian and Orthodox events, The Crusades, 8 in total, “were a series of religious wars sanctioned by the Latin Church”. (History) That is what they tell you, it is failed to mention that the Crusade’s took a turn into more of the darker side of the Christian coin with blood shed of innocents, thievery, bribery and bullying. The ST Bartholomew’s day massacre, “The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations and a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion.” (wiki) The capture of Constantinople by the Ottomans because it represented a major defeat for the forces of Christianity and a major triumph for those of Islam. These are only a few, the bible taken at a literal point of view has done more harm than good and the proof is in history, something that cannot be changed, something that has molded and formed all society’s.

          
We must understand that scripture was formed and correlated over thousands of decades, language was very different from modern terminologies. For example, "The fire is hot." “Symbolically, that same fire represents the power, warmth, and enthusiastic fervor poured into Christians by the Holy Spirit. You can approach the flame literally or figuratively, but either way, the fire is "true." (CE) The Who, what, when, where, and why of the Bible will coheres the Christian history and beliefs (except for the really bad stuff), whereas the how has more to do with the means by which scripture presents a spiritual truth. For example: “Unlike modern libraries that separate fiction from nonfiction and both genres from poetry, a single book or scripture of the Bible may contain an eclectic mix of Godly commands, historical events, poetic lines, and allegorical tales.” (CE) Think of it as the ultimate book. When Jesus explained his ministry they were in figurative language rather than in plain words. His parables, for example, often puzzled people. Even his disciples had to ask him to explain what he meant (Mark 4:10, 13). Many of his teachings are still the subject of debate. “In the Bible, if we always prefer a literal meaning, we may miss the point. The disciples made this mistake when Jesus told them to beware of the “yeast” of the Jewish leaders (Matthew 16:6). The disciples thought about their failure to bring any bread.” (GCI) This was not the case “Jesus Christ reminded them that he could create bread for thousands if necessary. He wasn’t worried about physical bread. The disciples then understood that Jesus meant doctrine or teaching when he had said “yeast” (verse 12). It was a figure of speech.” (GCI)

            

The crusades were a series of religious wars sanctioned by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known crusades are the campaigns in the eastern Mediterranean aimed at recovering the Holy Land from Muslim rule. Wikipedia

In all, what we have with scripture is a series of devoted transmissions, translations that are just copies of the existing Bible. Scripture was formed and corelated over thousands of decades, language was very different from modern terminologies. Looking at the bible from different perspectives proves to shed some light on the figurative and literal meanings of what has been written. The bible being taken literally has made its everlasting mark on all the world in a devastating way. Not all men and women are capable of reading and adhering to figure of speech and for that, the ill minds have fallen. It took great minds to understand and find the truth out of scripture and with time it will continue to be picked apart, separated, studied etc., we can conclude that understanding scripture must come from a sense of open mindedness.

Cited

Stanton, Glenn. (2012, OCTOBER 16). Fact Checker: Do Faithful Christians Take the Bible Literally? Retrieved https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/fact-checker-do-faithful-christians-take-the-bible-literally/

SAYLER, MARY. H (2007, APRIL 18). Should We Take the Bible Literally or Figuratively? https://catholicexchange.com/should-we-take-the-bible-literally-or-figuratively

History.com Editors (2019, March 11). Crusades https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/crusades

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2019, March 11) St. Bartholomew's Day massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Bartholomew%27s_Day_massacre