Literal interpretation of Bible

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When do we take the Bible literally and when figuratively?

Do we believe God created the world in 6 days vs evolution?
Did the Exodus happen at all?
Was the Red Sea parted?

Sorry I feel like I should know the answer but I’m still not 100% sure.
 
A good place to start is to accept the entire Bible as true, the inspired Word of God, and worry less about what is literal, what is poetic, what is personal perspective.

What truth does each passage say? It doesn’t really matter how the Bible says it, as long as you learn that truth. When Jesus told the parables, was there literally a householder who went out and hired laborers for his vineyard throughout the day and then paid them all the same? Does it really matter? Does it even matter if Jesus literally told that story exactly as it was later written down by Matthew? The truth is that God is fair, and gives us what He promises us, but He is also generous and we should not be jealous.

Many of the truths of the Bible are told repeatedly, in different ways. When you read the Gospels you will find some of the same events told from the different perspectives of those who wrote them, and some of the details the writers found most important or significant change between the tellings. Since you mentioned it, the story of Genesis is basically told twice, back-to-back, in very different ways, yet both are true. You may decide that some ways the truths are told are more literal or less literal in their tellings, but you shouldn’t stress about it. Focus instead on the truths being told.

It may be of scholarly interest to know which stories from the Old and New Testaments are independently confirmed by historical documents or anthropological research or whatever else, but that’s really a whole different kind of study. Some stories may defy literal belief if you think of them logically or try to apply some kind of science to them, but you will still find truth in them. Other stories may describe supernatural events with many witnesses that you may conclude must have literally occurred to explain the reactions of others written about, and the urgency in the telling of the story to future generations and the formation of the faith. Some parts of the Bible, like the genealogies and accounts of military campaigns, may be very difficult for you to derive any higher moral or doctrinal truth from, but they are still of historical importance in putting more important events into context and help understand the meaning the Jews placed in other passages, as well as the understanding of prophesies fulfilled.

While I would not say that you can read the entire Bible and take none of literally, I think as long as you are accepting the truths throughout and profess the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed faithfully, you’re pretty much going to be set. Those truths throughout the Bible, both literal and figurative, of course are authoritatively interpreted by the Catholic Church, although many (perhaps most) are readily apparent in the Scripture to anyone who can read and think. Some are more challenging without outside knowledge, the Bible has a lot of unusual language at times, but that is when we turn to tradition.
 
Like what was said above.

You don’t read a letter in the same way that you read law, and a poem is read yet differently. You don’t read history in the same way you read an allegory. So it’s important to know what kind of document you’re reading at what point in time.

So, for example, the six days of creation— it doesn’t bother us that God created the first day before he created a sun for us to revolve around, or can a formless earth spin, or where’s the light coming from if there’s no sun, or whatever. Because the point is, everything came from God, and without God, there is nothing, and how it came about is just details.
 
Sorry I feel like I should know the answer but I’m still not 100% sure.
It is an excellent question, and there is no reason you should “know”.
The Bible isn’t a book, it’s really a library. So you have, say a “history” “news” “poetry” as and even “music” sections. How they are interpreted depends on what section you’re in.
Yes, there are a lot of principles of interpretation, called hermeneutics, that can be applied to have better understanding. The main one is that you understand it in the light of what the Church teaches. For that reason, it might be beneficial to read it along with the catechism (look up the references in the Catechism as you study your faith) because that will give you the proper context. Here are some good resources:


But if you are not ready to assemble an entire library, you can start with some basic principles:

https://stpeterslist.com/bible-study-7-essential-principles-for-catholic-biblical-interpretation
 
One has to be careful to not apply modern ideas to the text too.

Like say if a day is seen a measure of time and not the earth spinning into night, that can change your view on things.
 
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Dacinom:
How they are interpreted depends on what section you’re in.
That’s the bit I find difficult. How do I determine that?
Do we believe God created the world in 6 days vs evolution?

Did the Exodus happen at all?

Was the Red Sea parted?
One approach to looking at this question is to recognize that the earlier chapters of Genesis are a sort of “pre-history”, while later chapters are seen as historically true (not necessarily ‘accurate’ in the way we view ‘accuracy’ these days, but still true).

So, we would look at the creation narrative and realize that there’s room to interpret it in an allegorical sense, but we would look at the narrative of Moses and see that as historical.
 
Like say if a day is seen a measure of time and not the earth spinning into night, that can change your view on things.
Yes…context is the difference between talking scripture literally, and the"literal sense". See CCC 115-117.
 
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Dacinom:
How they are interpreted depends on what section you’re in.
That’s the bit I find difficult. How do I determine that?
You don’t. The Scriptures are broken open in the context of a community. They were written by Christ’s community, handed down by a community, preserved by a community, translated by a community, and they come alive only in the context of a community.
Scripture interpretation should resonate with the mind and heart of the Church
 
In the most technical sense of the word as the Catholic Church uses it, we interpret every part of the Bible literally. The “literal sense” of Scripture is the foundational one upon which the three “spiritual senses” are based (see CCC 115–119).

But what the Catholic Church means by “literal sense” does not mean that we take every phrase literalistically. The literal sense is simply that meaning the original author intended to convey. I use the comparison of the phrase “It’s raining cats and dogs.” The literal sense of that phrase is that it is raining heavily. The literalistic sense would be that canines and felines are falling from the sky.

So when we look at the creation account in Genesis (for example), what meaning was the original author trying to convey? Was he trying to tell us with scientific precision exactly how the universe was created. No, of course not. The sun and moon aren’t even created until the fourth day while the earth and plants are created on the third day. The point of the story isn’t to give us a scientific account but rather to tell us about our origins in relation to the Creator.
 
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ratio1:
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Dacinom:
How they are interpreted depends on what section you’re in.
That’s the bit I find difficult. How do I determine that?
You don’t.
I think that the OP isn’t asking “how can I personally interpret Scripture?” so much as “how can I learn how these sections are interpreted?”… 😉
And that’s why I responded that you interpret them in the context of a community. The discussion was pretty much focused on individual interpretation.
We do read the bible with our own eyes, and try to incorporate that with the body.
 
In the most technical sense of the word as the Catholic Church uses it, we interpret every part of the Bible literally. The “literal sense” of Scripture is the foundational one upon which the three “spiritual senses” are based (see CCC 115–119).

But what the Catholic Church means by “literal sense” does not mean that we take every phrase literalistically. The literal sense is simply that meaning the original author intended to convey. I use the comparison of the phrase “It’s raining cats and dogs.” The literal sense of that phrase is that it is raining heavily. The literalistic sense would be that canines and felines are falling from the sky.
If every Catholic understood this the world would be a much happier place and more non-Christians would find the bible approachable.

It’s an abject failure that our catechesis has not been able to make this widely understood among Catholics.
 
Some instances of Scripture are historical events. Are you saying that we shouldn’t interpret them as such?
 
Some instances of Scripture are historical events. Are you saying that we shouldn’t interpret them as such?
Are you addressing this to me?
If so, my answer is
How do I know which instances are historical and which are not?
I think the others have answered this question.
 
The Ignatius Study Bible would be very helpful to you- hopefully they finish the Old Testament soon (you can buy a complete New Testament with wonderful commentary, and some individual books from the OT).
 
Good Bible study guides will help you determine how to interpret various chapters and verses.
 
What I do is to treat all the scriptures as if they’re allegory, instead dealing with what morals and values are being taught and which seem to make sense and are useful. I really don’t much get into “Did this really happen?”.
 
I second Thom18’s recommendation. Just bought the Ignatius Study Bible for the NT. I can’t afford to buy all of the individual OT guides they’re releasing, so I hope there will be a complete OT version released sometime soon.
 
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