Does the Bible Contradict Itself?

[spockrates]

I would, because that's not the way that narratives appear to work at all.

(and you are still appealing to "true meanings" without establishing one btw-)

Look, the simplest "true meaning" of a narrative is exactly what you find printed on the page. No assumptions or arguments need be made in that case. If you have reasons to believe the author is using metaphor or allegory (but no confirmation from the author) then an argument must be made. I have handled a few arguments that might be made about the specific narrative this all began over, and I would love to hear any other arguments that might be made in that regard. Nevertheless, the explanation that what is on the page is what is meant stands as the best explanation if only due to parsimony (and thankfully, parsimony is not all that we have in this instance).

You appear to be saying (please correct me if I'm wrong) that the meaning of a fictional story is whatever the reader wants it to be, and not what the author of the story intends it to be. But do you disagree that the true meaning (or the moral) the author Charles Perrault intended the story of Little Red Riding Hood to have is to be careful to not trust the advice of strangers? If someone said that true meaning of the fairy tale is to always trust strangers implicitly, would this be just as true as the the meaning the author actually intended?


Little Red Riding Hood



The version of this tale that most of us are familiar with ends with Riding Hood being saved by the woodsman who kills the wicked wolf. But in fact, the original French version (by Charles Perrault) of the tale was not quite so nice. In this version, the little girl is a well bred young lady who is given false instructions by the wolf when she asks the way to her grandmothers. Foolishly riding hood takes the advice of the wolf and ends up being eaten. And here the story ends. There is no woodsman – no grandmother – just a fat wolf and a dead Red Riding Hood. The moral to this story is to not take advice from strangers.

http://listverse.com/2009/01/06/9-grueso...e-origins/