In a comment, discussing a verse in Matthew, Ed Farrell writes, “It’s revelation and therefore must be understood literally.” I am not sure that Ed wants to say that everything stated in the Bible is to be taken literally, but I hope not, for it seems clear to me that much of what we read in the Bible must be taken figuratively. Nothing I am about to say is original with me.
We read in Genesis that light was created before sources of light (sun, moon, stars) were created. The creation of light is reported at Genesis 1:3, but the creation of sources of light occurs later as reported at Genesis 1: 14-17. Obviously, light cannot exist before sources of light exist. So what the Bible reports on this head is false, if taken literally. Furthermore, if the sun does not come into existence until the fourth day, how can there be days before the fourth day? In one sense of ‘day,’ it is the period of time from the rising of the sun to its setting. In a second sense of ‘day,’ one that embraces the first, a day is the period of time from the rising of the sun to its next rising. In either of these senses there cannot be a day without a sun. So again, these passages cannot be taken literally.
But there is a deeper problem. The Genesis account implies that the creation of the heavens and the earth took time, six days to be exact. But the creation of the entire system of space-time-matter cannot be something that occurs in time. And so again Genesis cannot be taken literally, but figuratively as expressing the truth that, as St. Augustine puts it, “the world was made, not in time, but simultaneously with time.” (City of God, XI, 6)
And then there is the business about God resting on the seventh day. What? He got tired after all the heavy lifting and had to take a rest? As Augustine remarks, that would be a childish way of reading Genesis 2:3. The passage must be taken figuratively: “. . . the sacred narrative states that God rested, meaning thereby that those rest who are in Him, and whom He makes to rest.” (City of God, XI, 8) Whether you agree with Augustine’s figurative reading, you ought to agree that the passage cannot be taken literally.
What is to be taken literally and what figuratively? “. . . a method of determining whether a locution is literal or figurative must be established. And generally this method consists in this: that whatever appears in the divine Word that literally does not pertain to virtuous behavior or to the truth of faith you must take to be figurative.” (Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Book Three, Chapter 10)
This method consigns a lot to the figurative. So it is not literally true that God caused the Red Sea to part, letting the Israelites through, and then caused the waters to come together to drown the Pharaoh’s men?
I’m just asking.