(November 21, 2022 at 8:25 pm)Belacqua Wrote: In Galatians 4, Paul interprets the Genesis account of Abraham's sons as allegory.
Irenaeus of Lyons, in the 2nd century, interpreted the Adam and Eve story as allegory.
In the 3rd century, Origen said that the meaning could only be discerned by reading allegorically.
Where I said elsewhere that I took the Bible literally - both when I was a Christian, 20, 30 years ago, and now as a critic - I meant with the exception of where it is explicit or obvious that it was not intended to be taken literally, such as Psalms or parables for instance. But where Genesis is concerned, I'm not convinced; to me, if something includes lots of specifics... names, places, details... that usually implies that it is intended to be taken as a literal, historic account of something. Genesis is full of such details. Why for instance would there be the need to describe the names and locations of specific rivers in the Garden of Eden? ...when such details are completely superfluous to any obvious allegorical reading?
