ln63fac@sdcc7.UUCP (Rick Frey) (10/27/85)
In article <739@whuxl.UUCP>, orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) writes: > All this proves is yet another contradiction in the Bible > if it is *taken literally*. My "New Oxford Annotated Bible" points > out that the discrepecancy between the Genesis 1 and the Genesis 2 > accounts of creation are evidence that the two accounts come from > different traditions and authors. This is merely another way in which > those two accounts *taken literally* blatantly contradict each other. > I'm trying to understand what you think constitutes a contradiction. Any time someone uses 'literal words' whose 'literal meaning' (does such a creature really exist the way you think it does?) goes against other 'literal words', that's a contradiction. Some examples. (Christ speaking) "I am the bread of life." "I am the ressurrection and the life." Obviously a contradiction, a person can't be two things at once. Or at least not the bread of life and THE life. "But I say to you that Elijah already came ..." "Then the disciples understood thay He had spoken to them about John the Baptist." Jesus said the literal name Elijah, yet He was talking about someone else. You can't have one thing refer to or mean another. All analogies, symbols and parables are contradictions. "A sower went out to sow." Did a literal sower go literally out to sow? Did seed actually fall by the wayside and get snatched up? Did thorns grow amidst some of the seed and strangle it? It most likely didn't literally happen, so not only is the Bible full of contradictions, it's also full of lies. One last one just so you get the point of what I'm literally saying and a good example of the error you made. "Everyone who drinks of this water (speaking to the woman at the well) shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." What a lie. He's saying I'll never be thirsty again because words can only have their literal meanings and that's what He literally said. And please don't try to say that you'll only see this kind of language (and these blatant contradictions and lies) in the Bible. You used two interesting words in your article. 'Taken'. Do you mean literally removed from the place where something used to be or do I have to look at the context and figure out the meaning of the word that way. What about the two 'accounts'? Savings or checking? Or can a literal word actually have two literal meanings? How do I know which one you mean if I have to take it literally? Rick Frey