(June 16, 2015 at 2:30 am)Catholic_Lady Wrote: I am sorry that so many of you are having a hard time with understanding/accepting the notion that the OT is written allegorically, especially when what Jesus teaches is so contradicting to the God that is depicted in the OT.
I feel like I have gotten more flack here for saying the OT is allegorical than I have on the uber fundamentalist Christian forums lol. Which is interesting.
I'd rather you thought the OT was allegorical than accept it factually. But I can't imagine how you contrive to see it that way. It certainly was not intended to be read allegorically by the people writing it, though in the case of Genesis and Exodus you might make a colorable argument to that effect. Much of those two books might actually have been intended allegorically.
The law in Deuteronomy is not allegorical. It was meant to be the law and the Hebrews attempted to follow it as such warts and all. Joshua, Judges, Kings, and Chronicles were meant to be read as historical fact. They are of course propaganda as much as history, but they were intended to be read as fact. If you think otherwise, you are arguing against they way people those texts were meant for read them.
The Psalms are poetry and indeed much of them is metaphorical and allegorical. It's the nature of poetry.
Proverbs are advice not allegory.
The prophets were intended to be read as written, admonitions to the Hebrews to behave in certain ways. They don't really agree with each other about how to behave, but the general message is the same, do what god says or bad things happen. They were not written as allegory they were written to explain why bad things happened to the Hebrew nations. They were also written as hopeful propaganda for the promotion of a new Hebrew nation.
The NT on the other had is full of allegory. What else is Revelations? And Jesus spoke in parables.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
