Please Explain how an Allegorical Interpretation would work

[Paul_Allen1 (Paul Allen)]

@Christy

Most fundamentalists, with adherence to plenary verbal inspiration and inerrancy, see the Bible as dictated to people by God, or something close to it, and envision Moses sitting at a desk and recording whatever God told him.

A little disengenious.

@Christy

we attribute authority to biblical history, but again, some of these things presented by some people as logical entailments depend on presuppositions about inspiration and inerrancy.

Really, we attribute ‘authority’ to biblical history?

@Christy

separating out objective historical “facts” from the embellishments, didactic lessons, identity-forming bias, and cultural presuppositions that are inherent in it.

Would you kindly give an example of "identity -forming bias’ please?

[Christy (Christy Hemphill)]

@Paul_Allen1

Really, we attribute ‘authority’ to biblical history?

What I meant is that because we believe the Bible is authoritatively true, we treat the history in it differently than the history in Robin Hood and King Arthur legends. Do you disagree?

@Paul_Allen1

Would you kindly give an example of "identity -forming bias’ please?

The characterization of Canaanites throughout the OT as a particularly evil people.

[bluebird1 (Robin)]

Hello Clovis…Thanks for the query. You have a LOT of ideas in here. I too have read Heiser’s book and do not know what to think of some things, but also mostly enjoyed exploring some of the ideas and passages of Scripture he explored. I am around a fair amount of fundamentalists and am reasonably conservative myself. I am not young earth though — and everything else is somewhat “up for debate” or “in transition” with me. But I do think the early chapters of Genesis discuss things that happened, although they are not offering lectures on plate tectonics or anything remotely like that…I understand that cuneiform inscriptions in the British Museum confirm the validity of Gen 10:11—and the biblical insistence (Genesis 1:1) that there WAS a beginning is/was an unknown concept among Western scientists for a very long time—all the rest is up for grabs but, of course, the behavior described in the Garden of Eden pericope is pretty typical human behavior, IMO …There is an incredible amount of literature on all the issues raised in Genesis 1–11. And a lot of debates among scholars and nonscholars…Just enjoy the journey of learning!!