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Do You Interpret the Bible Literally? Take the Quiz…
Orginally published on Monday, May 18, 2009 at 6:56 AM
by Todd Rhoades
According to Miguel De La Torre, No one reads or interprets the Bible literally -- regardless as to what they profess. To do so is simplistic, if not dangerous. All of us read our bias, our theology, and our social location into the text. There is no such thing as an objective reading; all readings are subjective.
There is, however, the power for some to make their subjective reading objective. Those with the power to shape reality can impose their reading of Scripture -- a reading that justifies their privilege and lifestyle -- upon everyone else. For the marginalized to accept the predominant Eurocentric reading of Scripture, whether slaves of old or the disenfranchised of today, is to participate in their own self-policing.
Although the mythology of taking the Bible literally must be sustained so as to maintain a privileged social location, I will wager that those who insist on objective literalism have never bothered to live their lives according to such a literal, exhaustive reading. If they did, they would live illegal -- if not immoral lives...
Here are a few of his questions… you’ll need to pop over here to find the answers. (You’ll also get some Bible references to back up the answers)
1. The biblical definition of a traditional marriage is one between a man and: a) many wives or concubines, b) sex slaves, c) prostitutes, d) his harem, e) all of the above.
2. Homosexuals are to be: a) tolerated, b) encouraged, c) killed, d) banned.
3. Women are saved: a) through baptism, b) by reciting a sinner’s prayer, c) through child-bearing, d) accepting Jesus, who died for their sins, as Lord as Savior.
4. God tries to kill Moses, but does not because God is appeased by Moses’ wife Zipporah, who: a) cuts off the foreskin of her son’s penis and rubs it on Moses’ penis, b) offers up a bull as sacrifice, c) takes a vow of silence, d) prays for forgiveness.
5. Evil and evil spirits come from: a) God, b) Satan, c) neither a nor b, d) both a and b.
Take the test and have fun… how did you do.
Do you consider yourself a ‘biblical literist”?
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There are 11 Comments:
Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.
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Post Your Comments:Can of worms officially opened…
Question one is inaccurate or at least loaded. The biblical definition was given by Jesus, quoting from Gen 2 and reiterated by Paul in Eph. 5. Let me say it again--every fellow with multiple wives/partners in the Bible got into trouble for it.
Very subject to the test makers interpretation.
The common way that the phrase, “Literal understanding of the Bible,” is understood is when a person objects to something in the text and says, “Hey, you don’t take the Bible literally, do you?”
The Bible is a complicated Book with much metaphor, imagery, and types and shadows. And it does require understanding things better that a casual glance or a letter-by-letter read.
However, when it comes to things like sin, redemption, law, grace, Heaven, Hell, and Jesus Christ, you bet that I am a strict literalist. =)
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CS
WOW!!! Where do I start? The Bible is to be taken literally in the context in which it was written. For instance, the Book of Proverbs are writings of general truth. Example: Prov 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.” We all know stories of the children of pastors who went the way of the world. But generally speaking, it is true because most of what you teach your children are remembered by them and affect their actions and attitudes as they grow. How many of us rejected some of the things our parents told us as foolishness only to realize later in life that they were right on.
Most of the Old Testament laws were to sanctify the Jewish people as the elect of God. Those who were in the Abrahamic covenant were to follow these laws so that the known world would see them as a peculiar people. The marriage practices of many of the Biblical standouts were not the design of God and resulted in sin and/or judgment. The judgment of God against sins like homosexuality were administered by the people of God because He set it up that way.
I am a literalist when Scripture is to be taken literally. The historical writings are to be taken literally as are the epistles and the Gospels. The Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ has lots of symbolism and John saw in the visions things he had a hard time describing since he had no reference to describe certain things. But I take the truths of that book very literally. I believe in a literal 6-day creation event; I believe that Elijah and Enoch never died; I believe the ax head floated; I believe the donkey talked; I believe the Red Sea parted; I believe the sun stood still and it backed up; I believe that Jesus died and then rose from the dead; I believe He ascended into heaven in His glorified body. Literally!
Well, call me a Relativist, but I LOVED that.
And like watching a train wreck, I “enjoyed” the comments over at that site.
You know, in my 30 years of being a Christian, I haven’t lost sight of God/Jesus, but over time I’ve come up with a truckload of questions--some of them concerning this very topic. And I have no answers, but I can definitely say I’m not the literalist I was 15 years ago.
Jan said “Very subject to the test makers interpretation.”
On some parts (questions 1 and 5-8) I might agree with you, but some of the verses he cites are not really open to interpretation:
On question 1 I think he’s just reaching to make his point because Jesus was pretty clear on marriage in Matthew 19.
But on question 2 I don’t think you can really say Leviticus 20:13 is open to interpretation.
And as regards question 3 the verse does say women will be saved thru child-bearing. Now there are many verses that talk about how men, or mankind, or the world are saved, but 1 Timothy speaks specifically of women.
Question 4 pretty much says what he says it does. Does anyone know of some different interpretation?
So while some of his points are open to interpretation, I think he makes his point well.
Does anyone really interpret and follow everything in the Bible literally?
Q: Which is the strongest creature in the world?
A: The snail. It carries its house on its back.
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I think you made good points there about how we should be appropriately literal in our interpretation of the Bible 70-453 dumps.
However, it is also important to question if the Bible has any inherent biases / inaccuracies that are the result of limited knowledge of the world at that point of time HP0-J15 dumps.
I think its important also to note that the Bible was written in an era before the advent of modern science and empiricism. Lastly, we also need to consider the limits of the Bible as a Holy Text, by virtue of the limits of written language that is inherent HP0-J24 dumps.
Putting all these together, we should serious reconsider if the Bible is as infallible as it claimed
The Bible is a complicated Book with much metaphor, imagery, and types and shadows. And it does require understanding things better that a casual glance or a letter-by-letter read.
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