[Serious] Literal and Not Literal

[Acrobat]

Actually quite the opposite. Start with character of Jesus himself who was literalist believed in the Flood, Jonah, six day creation. Or let's say we take the story of Adam and Eve as only as a metaphor. So, in order to impress himself, Jesus had himself tortured and executed, in vicarious punishment for a symbolic sin committed by a non-existent individual? Seems barking mad, as well as viciously unpleasant.

Why do you believe Jesus took these things literally? He took these stories very seriously that's for sure, but what basis do you assume he took them literally? He never explicitly stated they were historical, so what's the basis for this assumption? When Jesus refers to Jonah, he condemns those looking for a sign, saying no sign will be given, but the sign of Jonah. Clearly he didn't mean they were going to be literally swallowed by a whale, so he seems to be using Jonah to illustrate something metaphorical, so why assume his understanding was historical?

Also, Jesus, nor any of the Gospel writers connected his death to Adam. So whatever reason they saw as the basis for his death, it wasn't to correct something committed by a historical Adam in a literal garden, who ate a fruit.