User talk:SouthWriter/sandbox/An atheist's objections/@comment-1777104-20100706173227

Fegaxeyl asks: "Do you take any parts of the Bible to be metaphorical?

First, the definition:

met·a·phor n. 1. A figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison, as in “a sea of troubles” or. 2. One thing conceived as representing another; a symbol.

The Hebrew language is full of "picture language" so it is hard sometimes to separate the use of a word as a "figure of speech," however, often in is quite clear. However, poetic sections abound in metaphor. The best loved psalm of them all begins: "The LORD is my shepherd ..." going on to paint word pictures of a shepherd with his sheep."

In the New Testament, the word for "shepherd" in the Greek becomes a title for a leader in the church -- the Pastor. However, the metaphor is carried over in the words of Jesus: "I am the great shepherd ..."

Though Jesus uses metaphor occasionally, saying "the kingdom IS ..." He usually uses simile, making comparisons with conjunctives "like" and "as" -- which is the definition of a simile:

sim·i·le n. A figure of speech in which two essentially unlike things are compared, often in a phrase introduced by like or as, as in “How like the winter hath my absence been” or “So are you to my thoughts as food to life” (Shakespeare).

I suspect, though, you want to know if I think any "historical" passages are actually symbolic and not meant to be taken "literally." In that case, I would have to emphatically answer "NO." History is history, and though the Old Testament is full of "types" -- actual historical things that show aspects of future events, and especially of Jesus -- these things actually happened. The apostle Paul calls the events around the births of Isaac and Esau a "metaphor" (one English translation), in the sense that it was a type with a lesson for the church.