The Bible - To Be Taken Verbatim or as Prose?
Regarding the Bible, I take parts of it verbatim and other parts of
it as parable.
That's because I think the Bible itself states which parts are to be
taken verbatim, and which parts as parable.
But I'm careful not to randomly assign my own willy-nilly determination
of which passages are to be taken verbatim and which as
parable.
Instead, I approach it with the premise that where a certain
passage is meant to be taken as parable, the text itself will state
so.
I apply the same literary rule to the Bible that I would to any work
of literature: that the reader must first of all ascertain how a text
was intended to be taken, as stated by its
author within the text itself.
Therefore I take the Bible's historical books, which are written in
prose, literally. Which means I take verbatim the creation story;
the temptation and
fall of man; the subsequent development of history (especially the
histories surrounding Israel); the
virgin birth of Jesus; Christ's miraculous ministry; His crucifixion,
burial and resurrection; the accounts of the witnesses of His
resurrection; His ascencion into heaven; and the Acts of the
Apostles, etc.
I also take the Prophetic books literally, except where the text
itslef states that symbolism is being employed. Wherever symbolism
is used, an explanation of the symbols usually follows - leaving no
room for some private interpretation of the prophecy.
Wherever Jesus told a parables, the text states that it is a parable.
Most of the time an interpretation of the parable follows. Or
atleast, the framework is provided to give the reader enough points
of reference to be able to interpret and apply the parable.
Other books of the Bible are self-pronouncedly poetic, rather than
prose - so these passages may be
approached with an understanding of the poetic methods employed -
"poetic license".
Importantly, however, the two interpretive methods (of taking it
verbatim, or as parable) shouldn't be
mixed, at one's own whim.
I always try to take note of any statements within the passages
themselves which dictate to us how the passage was meant to be
taken.
Its really not rocket-science - I think the Lord is so interested
that we learn the way to obtain eternal salvation, that He made the
Scriptures as understandable as possible.
Even so, there are still some things I don't understand. But I'm
looking into it!