Genesis Literal or Figurative

[Pard]

If the book of Genesis is figurative and not literal then what about the Exodus? Is the story of the Exodus literal or figurative? Did the Israelites literally leave the bondage of the Egyptians, cross the Red Sea, wander in the desert forty years, cross the Jordan river and take claim to the Promised Land? Or is the story of the Exodus a figurative picture of the life of the Believer? The story of how a person starts in bondage to sin(Egypt), is delivered by God(salvation), gets baptized(Red Sea), relies on God to supply all their needs(wandering in desert), dies a physical death(crossing Jordan), enters heaven (Promised Land)?

So which is it?

Personally I believe it is both but that is just me.

Both.

God is the writer of this grand play called life. He sprinkles metaphors and analogies and what-not here and there just to spruce the place up. Jesus used Moses as a way of explaining Himself (Moses and the bronze snake). Jesus knew full-well that Exodus was real and the way He talks about the event leads one to conclude He viewed it as real. Jesus being God... well need I say more?!

It's interesting how God set it all up. Once you begin to take one thing as figurative when it is meant as literal everything begins to come undone. If Genesis is figurative then there is no Adam to link to Jesus. There is no Abraham to start the Israeli people. If Exodus is figurative there is no Moses to come down with the Law. You see once you try to chip away something God throws up a giant warning sign saying "HEY! HELLO WAIT A SECOND!"

 

[Bazz1040]

This is an article written for Apologetics press. It is lenthy I know, but It gives a great insight as to why Genesis account of Creation is mythacal. We are already dealing with the Genesis account of the myth of the Ark in another thread.

Apologetics Press :: Scripturally Speaking

Genesis 1 thru 11—Mythical or Historical?
by Bert Thompson, Ph.D.



Apologetics Press - Genesis 1 thru 11—Mythical or Historical?


...In referring to the creation account in Genesis, A.M. Ramsey, one-time Archbishop of Canterbury and a former president of the World Council of Churches, concluded: “It is the story of disobedience of Adam. There is no necessity for a Christian to believe it to be history; indeed, there are reasons why it cannot be literal history†(as quoted in Hedegard, 1964, pp. 190-191, emp. added). The authors of the popular Westminster Dictionary of the Bible asserted: “The recital of the facts of creation is obviously not a literal, historical record†(1944, p. 119).
Bernard Ramm, in his influential book, The Christian View of Science and Scripture, suggested that Genesis “is a purified ancient world myth. But through it shines the truth that God as Lord is God as Creator†(1954, p. 222). Well-known, neo-orthodox theologian Rudolf Bultmann spoke of the Israelites as a nation that, “like other nations, had its creation myths. God was depicted as the workman, forming the earth and all that is therein out of pre-existent matter. Such myths lie behind the creation stories of Genesis 1 and 2†(1969, p. 16).
Albert Wells, in The Christian Message in a Scientific Age, attacked the literal nature of the Genesis record when he wrote: “It is hardly necessary to regard the Genesis account of creation as literal truth in order to obtain its true meaning and relevance†(n.d., p. 113). In fact, Wells even went so far as to question the inspiration of the account by suggesting: “The fact of creation is thus not to be considered a direct revelation from God, unconditional by historical contingencies. It was, rather, an essential component of both the prophetic and the priestly mind†(n.d., p. 121). In his text, Adam and the Ape: A Christian Approach to the Theory of Evolution, R.J. Berry stated:

The creation of woman from Adam’s side need not be interpreted literally; the teaching of Genesis 2:21-22 is obviously about the complementarity of the sexes and the meaning of marriage rather than the evolution of sex or mechanisms of sexual differentiation (1975).
​

J. Frank Cassel, a member of the American Scientific Affiliation, wrote in that society’s professional journal:

The sequence can be explained as spiritual. Whether this is true or a dodge is of course an academic question, for is it not the spiritual message which God seeks to impart to us? Then why worry about what passages are to be interpreted literally and which figuratively? Look, rather, to God to reveal himself more fully and more directly to you from each passage according to your need (1960, 12:2).
​

...
In speaking of Exodus 20:11, which records God’s creation of “the heavens, the earth, the seas, and all that in them is†in six days, John Clayton remarked that the acceptance of this verse by Christians as literal history is “a very shallow conclusion†that is “inconsistent with the Genesis record as well as other parts of the Bible†(1976, 3[10]:5). This is the case, he explained, because “Exodus 20:11 is a quote of Genesis 2 and Genesis 2 is not a historical account†(1979a, 7[4]:3, emp. added).
Two years before making that statement, in speaking of Genesis 2 Clayton had written: “This is, incidentally, why the order of life in Chapter II is different than in Chapter I—it has a different non-historical purpose†(1977, 49[6]:7, emp. added). When both the radical nature and the accuracy of that statement were challenged (see Jackson and Thompson, 1979), Clayton then went on the defensive in an attempt to “explain†what he “really†meant...

People will and have always believe whatever they want to believe......even those that claim to be of God. There is a group of people that called themselves "The Jesus seminar" that decides what part in the New Testament Jesus said and which is not. They are simply instrument of Satan sent by him to shake the faith of those that are faithful to God's word. Next, they are going to make the Bible an illegal book and require everyone to worship someone that declares himself to be god.

 

[theLords]

If the book of Genesis is figurative and not literal then what about the Exodus? Is the story of the Exodus literal or figurative? Did the Israelites literally leave the bondage of the Egyptians, cross the Red Sea, wander in the desert forty years, cross the Jordan river and take claim to the Promised Land? Or is the story of the Exodus a figurative picture of the life of the Believer? The story of how a person starts in bondage to sin(Egypt), is delivered by God(salvation), gets baptized(Red Sea), relies on God to supply all their needs(wandering in desert), dies a physical death(crossing Jordan), enters heaven (Promised Land)?

So which is it?

Personally I believe it is both but that is just me.

I have never heard this parable before. Wow, God is amazing. He is so detailed. Look at the gems He provides in the Word. Incredible!

 

[Bazz1040]

If the book of Genesis is figurative and not literal then what about the Exodus? Is the story of the Exodus literal or figurative? Did the Israelites literally leave the bondage of the Egyptians, cross the Red Sea, wander in the desert forty years, cross the Jordan river and take claim to the Promised Land? Or is the story of the Exodus a figurative picture of the life of the Believer? The story of how a person starts in bondage to sin(Egypt), is delivered by God(salvation), gets baptized(Red Sea), relies on God to supply all their needs(wandering in desert), dies a physical death(crossing Jordan), enters heaven (Promised Land)?

So which is it?

Personally I believe it is both but that is just me.

Would you mind explaining how it can be both literal and figurative at the same time? I mean was Adam and Eve both literal and figurative individuals? Was Noah a literal and figurative person? Were Moses and all the prophets literal and figurative?

 

[Oats]

Cause it is written as a fairy tale.

Proof.
Provide it.

 

[jasoncran]

oats, pard explained the counterargument to that earlier in the thread. and in other areas of this forum.

 

[Pard]

Would you mind explaining how it can be both literal and figurative at the same time? I mean was Adam and Eve both literal and figurative individuals? Was Noah a literal and figurative person? Were Moses and all the prophets literal and figurative?

Easy. We do it all the time with modern figures. We take figures we deem as "good" and elevate them. When they are elevated they eventually become not only real (literal) figures, but they are also symbolic (figurative).

George Washington is a good example. Did he exist (literal)? But isn't he also a figurative figure? Isn't he portrayed as honest? Brave? Courageous? Loyal? Patriotic?

How about Abe Lincoln. Did he exist (literal)? Isn't he held up as a figurative figure? Honest Abe, right? He is the great emancipator, right?

I am sure someone could make anyone into a figurative figure if they had the qualities and the situations that helped teach and show a certain jene se qua.

 

[Sinthesis]

In order for anyone to apply the lessons taught in the Bible to themselves, one must decipher the Biblical narrative into its figurative elements, then replace the scriptural details with those of their own situation. We do this naturally as a type of empathy, otherwise it's just dry history which doesn't apply anywhere else.

Does this mean Biblical specifics are not historically accurate? No, but the specific elements are not what is important, the relationships and ratios between elements are important. Thank God, for otherwise if our mind's eye idea of any Biblical figure was in any way incorrect we would not be able to receive the correct message from scripture his example provides.

Genesis in particular is meant to concisely communicate universal truths relating God>creation>man/woman>sin to everyone; from a stiff-necked people just delivered out of bondage in pagan Egypt, to an overprivileged American techno-geek. Literal or figurative, the first few chapters of Genesis is by necessity abstract.

 

[Dennyh]

Would you mind explaining how it can be both literal and figurative at the same time? I mean was Adam and Eve both literal and figurative individuals? Was Noah a literal and figurative person? Were Moses and all the prophets literal and figurative?

Sure, the exodus story is both a literal historical fact but also a figurative picture of the life of the Believer. I am not saying that EVERYTHING in Scripture is both literal and figurative. I am saying that it CAN have both literal and figurative meanings. There are the literal historical records in Scripture but if you take a step back and look then you can see the figurative pictures God has placed within His Word, sort of as little bits of encouragement for those who deeply study it.
I like to think if Scripture as having sort of like "layers" of meaning. The parable of the Prodical Son in Luke 15 is another example. The parable taken at face value teaches us about God's willingness to forgive us when we come to Him and ask.
However if you look a bit deeper you could see this as a picture of the relationship of God with the Jewish people and the Gentile Christians. The Jewish people being the older son and the Gentile Christians being the younger son; the one who left his father for a time but then returned and begged his fathers forgiveness.

I am sure there are other people who can explain these things better than I can but I think you get my point. Sorry for any confusion.

 

[Bazz1040]

Easy. We do it all the time with modern figures. We take figures we deem as "good" and elevate them. When they are elevated they eventually become not only real (literal) figures, but they are also symbolic (figurative).

George Washington is a good example. Did he exist (literal)? But isn't he also a figurative figure? Isn't he portrayed as honest? Brave? Courageous? Loyal? Patriotic?

How about Abe Lincoln. Did he exist (literal)? Isn't he held up as a figurative figure? Honest Abe, right? He is the great emancipator, right?

I am sure someone could make anyone into a figurative figure if they had the qualities and the situations that helped teach and show a certain jene se qua.

I don't see those descriptions that you gave as figurative......those descriptions are what those men were......that was their nature and character. A figurative description would be like the Church that is symbolized as a woman. The Church is not a woman but is like a woman…..this is what I would call figurative or symbolic.

 

[aspen]

Sure seems like a dream to me......why does truth have to be restricted to the literal? Maybe the creation story took 6 days to be revealed to Moses?

This is not a salvation issue.

Also, it reveals a great deal of insight into human nature and why we have the tendency to sin.

Peace