lengths of life of the patriarchs.
genesis.
length of life.
Re. EasyPrompt’s post on the previous page summarizing his conversation with me…
Whoops, he got me. Turns out I did facetiously suggest taking the whole Bible as allegorical.
Doesn’t make me a liar, though, just a hopelessly incurable smartass. The rest of my arguments were sincere.
I actually have no issues with the Bible; in fact I’m a big fan of fantasy, horror, and graphic violence (being a smartass again, can’t help it, sorry). 😁
so my mother passed on 20 aug 23 from the big c. i was there when she went.
that was indeed very traumatic.
i won't go to describe it.. dad went 17 years ago so there's just me now.
lengths of life of the patriarchs.
genesis.
length of life.
EasyPrompt - “…I can smell your ‘mother tongue’ a mile away. You got your ‘degree’ in ‘archaeology’ the same way you ‘became a Jew’ - in your imagination.”
And you just flushed the last bit of goodwill you had from anyone else here down the fucking toilet.
Well done; Jesus would be proud.
lengths of life of the patriarchs.
genesis.
length of life.
EasyPrompt - “By the same token, anyone that insists the Bible be viewed as completely allegorical with no room for anything else also does it and everyone who contributed to its existence a disservice.”
Good thing I haven’t actually done that, then.
lengths of life of the patriarchs.
genesis.
length of life.
EasyPrompt - “Yeah, right, that whole thing about showing love to your neighbor must have been a parable…”
Pretty sure he used the parable of the “Good Samaritan” to teach that very lesson.
lengths of life of the patriarchs.
genesis.
length of life.
Really, by that logic, insisting that the Bible be viewed as set-in-stone literal with no room for anything else does a disservice to it and everyone who contributed to its existence.
lengths of life of the patriarchs.
genesis.
length of life.
Pretty sure Jesus taught almost exclusively using parables.
Also known as allegories. Or metaphors.
I think that’s the point that all-or-nothing Biblical literalists fail to grasp (accidentally or otherwise)…
…that a symbolic narrative can have just as much value as theological “Truth” as a set-in-stone fact. More so, even, in some cases.
Take Aesop’s fables for example… no one in their right mind insists those stories are literal, but no one dismisses them as worthless, either.
Why?
Because they have profound value and insight into the human condition.
lengths of life of the patriarchs.
genesis.
length of life.
Re. my last post on the previous page…
In fact, I’ve long suspected this was the primary factor in the Medieval Church’s historic antisemitism.
They wanted to present all the books of the Bible as a single throughline historical narrative for authoritative and cosmological reasons…
…but if the common folk learned that the actual individuals who wrote the books didn’t necessarily view them as set-in-stone fact, that authority and cosmology would be too deeply called into question.
Thus, the demonization of the descendants of the actual individuals who wrote the books…
…after all, no one is gonna ask scholarly questions or discuss history and theology with people they’re persecuting and ostracizing.
lengths of life of the patriarchs.
genesis.
length of life.
KalebOutWest - “…Jews have never believed this information was ever literal…”
Super important, and, IMO, can never be repeated enough…
…that the people originally responsible for the Bible’s very existence viewed it as metaphor.
lengths of life of the patriarchs.
genesis.
length of life.
Considering everything modern science and history has learned in the past century or so, I think the safest bet is to view pretty much everything in the Bible as “allegory”.
