A Question for Biblical Literalists

[ej]

Good evening all :)

I'm not here to debate, but with a genuine question / postulation for you... especially the biblical literalists amongst you.

I was writing my study/prayer diary earlier this week, and came across one of my favourite verses:

Matt 11:28 'Jesus said - come unto me, all ye who labour, and I will give you rest'

I've written underneath 'I hope and pray that biblical literalists share the true beauty of this verse's message!'

Now, unless I'm being dense, those who interpret scripture literally (and hence deny an old earth, true presence, etc...) will assume this verse refers to manual workers, and miss the significance which I see in it.

I doubt this is the case, and my postulation is therefore that none of us are true Biblical literalists - there are merely some who interpret more literally than others. We all extrapolate the Bible's message to some extent.

[II Paradox II]

I doubt this is the case, and my postulation is therefore that none of us are true Biblical literalists - there are merely some who interpret more literally than others. We all extrapolate the Bible's message to some extent.
IMO - most of us, whether catholic or protestant are actually in the vast middle-ground of interpretation. I have rarely met anyone who would be a strong literalist or a strong "spiritualist" with regards to biblical interpretation. For the most part, we tend to interpret by what seems most appropriate to the words we are reading at the moment.

That being said, there are some cases of strong spiritualist interpretation I have been reading lately. The last few months I've been reading through the OT sermons of St. Ceasarius of Arles and he is no slouch whenit comes to allegory. He allegorizes every detail you could think of. For example, in the last sermon I read about about Abraham sacrificing Isaac he spiritualized everything from the number of servants going with abraham to where characters stood in relation to each other. I'm not sure any of us would be quite as creative in allegory as he was virtually every time he preached.

ken

[FreeinChrist]

I don't exactly know what you, yourself, mean by 'literalists'.

But when I look at scripture, I like to look at the Greek or Hebrew it was written in. The Greek word for 'labor' in Matthew 11:28 is 'kopiao' and means: to be worn out, weary, faint, to weary oneself with labor, to toil, of a teacher who labors in the gospel.

Perhaps that is why Matthew 11:28 is also translated asMat 11:28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. NASB