I am rather tired and do not have any time.
I would like help in this endeavor.
Jesus clearly says I am the Temple and His some of His fellow Jews missed the literal meaning; they used word for word.
Jesus tells the Samaritan lady He was water do drink. She takes Him word for word. The literal meaning was–He is water everlasting.
I suspect that the Gospels are filled with kind of misunderstanding.
Can I just rearrange the terminology? It is the wrong way around.
Joh 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
Joh 2:20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
Joh 2:21 But he spake of the temple of his body.
His Jewish audience take him
literally: they understand him to mean what the words mean by themselves. He is speaking
figuratively: He is using the words to mean something other than what they mean by themselves.
He does this a lot, especially in using parables, and so His disciples ask Him about it:
Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
In essence, He says here that he speaks figuratively, but these people cannot understand him because they have become so mired in their ways that they are no longer able to listen. It thus constitutes a warning to us, still, to be open to what God wants to tell us.
I should also mention that the
Philokalia discusses at great length the failure of Christians who cling to the literal meaning of the Scriptures, and fail to perceive them any deeper.
