When people debate the truth of the Bible, some think that the phrase "being true" can only mean one thing and that is literal truth. However truth is more complex. We can talk about literal truth and symbolic truth. The Bible contains many different types of literature and both types of truth are found. Literal truth and symbolic truth are equally important, but very different. John Dominic Crossan sums up the difference this distinction makes when interpreting the Bible brilliantly in the following quotation.
"My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally."
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