How to Respond When People Say the Bible Is Metaphorical - Topical Studies (2023)

FAQs

What is a topical study of the Bible? ›

What is a topical Bible Study? A Topical Bible Study approaches the Bible by looking at a specific topic or theme. You can do a topical study to discover what the Bible holistically teaches about a particular idea. For example, you may want to understand how the Bible views healing.

The Bible uses images and metaphors to describe not only the logic of how Christ accomplishes salvation, but also to describe the transformative implications of that salvation.

These include The Scientific Argument: the Bible contradicts modern science; The Historical Argument: the Bible is historically inaccurate; and The Moral Argument: the Bible violates contemporary moral standards.

For example when Jesus told his disciples that he was a vine and that they were branches, he was making more than one simple point. A vine and its branches implies an organic relationship, one that changes and grows. Such a metaphor tells us that the disciples' life is not static.

The four types include biblical theology, historical theology, systematic (or dogmatic) theology, and practical theology.

Expository preaching differs from topical preaching in that the former concentrates on a specific text and discusses topics covered therein; whereas, the latter concentrates on a specific topic and references texts covering the topic.

adjective. involving, invoking, or intended to be taken as a metaphor, something used symbolically to represent something else, suggesting a comparison or resemblance: Our foreign policy blunder has given the insurgents a metaphorical green light to engage in violent tactics in pursuit of their imperial ambitions.

People use numerous metaphors to describe God. God is seen as a bearded man, light, and love. Based on metaphor theories, the metaphors people use to refer to God reflect how people think about God and could, in turn, reflect their worldview.

The vast majority of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians regard the Biblical text as clear, and believe that the average person may understand the basic meaning and teachings of the Bible. Such Christians often refer to the teachings of the Bible rather than to the process of interpretation itself.

Is the Bible metaphorical or literal? ›

Remember, the Bible is entirely literal, and the Bible is also “literal plus.” The “plus” never contradicts the literal. With that said, let's open to Genesis 1:10–13: And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.

Literal readings of nonliteral texts can also lead to fraudulent readings, dogmatic tenacity to ahistorical or unscientific claims, and the loss of credibility for those who insist on nonsensical interpretations.

The poverty and lack in our world began in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. The fruit, which grew on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, was the catalyst for the fall of man — when original sin entered creation and led to the reality we face every day.

Metonymy is the technical name for a figure of speech in which one word (or group of words) is sustituted for another. (A metonym is the term for a word or expression that is substituted for another in this figure of speech.)

Symbolism of the Vineyard and the Vine

In the book of John, the Savior used the grapevine as a metaphor to explain the nature of His relationship with those who would be His disciples. Prior to leaving for Gethsemane, the Savior taught the Apostles how they must live if they were to continue to be His disciples.

The 5 W's of Every Old Testament Book: Who, What, When, Where, and Why of Every Book in the Old Testament (Old Testament Resource Books)

stands for Scripture, Observation, Application and Prayer. It is a way of getting more out of your time in God's Word. The S.O.A.P method of Bible Study (for individuals or small groups) does not require a theology degree or special leadership skills.

Topical preaching comes with two particular dangers. The first danger in preaching topical sermons is preacher-centric message crafting. This pitfall happens when the preacher's bottom line question in sermon prep is, “What do I want to say?” Our calling is not to preach our word but to preach the Word (2 Timothy 4:2).

Topical preaching has more dangers than you think. The most obvious being that you only preach on what you want to preach on or what's easy. You're not likely to hear a clip on Instagram from an influencer-type pastor condemn same-sex marriage.

A topical sermon only gets its topic from a text. Until you do it, it will not make quite so much sense. The topic is developed according to its nature rather than the text's nature. Let us say I want to do a topical sermon on gambling.

What is the difference between metaphorical and allegorical? ›

So what's the difference? In general, metaphor is a short phrase or paragraph that compares two seemingly unrelated things to make a point, while an allegory is a long narrative that uses a seemingly unrelated story to teach a lesson or prove a point.

Medieval scholars believed the Old Testament to serve as an allegory of New Testament events, such as the story of Jonah and the whale, which represents Jesus' death and resurrection. According to the Old Testament Book of Jonah, a prophet spent three days in the belly of a fish.

More commonly, however, playing God has served as a metaphor for criticizing the human exercise of excessive scientific and technological powers.

The passage is Ephesians 2:19-22. The metaphors include church as a community of citizens, church as household, church as building, and church as temple. But notice that all these metaphors utilize words that have the οικ root which means “house” or “home.”

Here are a few examples of bad and funny metaphors and similes to get you going: The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't. The toddlers looked at each other as if they had just been told their mutual funds had taken a complete nosedive.

Illogical, but we understand the meaning. Other examples of common metaphors are “night owl”, “cold feet”, “beat a dead horse”, “early bird”, “couch potato”, “eyes were fireflies”, “apple of my eye”, “heart of stone”, “heart of a lion”, “roller coaster of emotions”, and “heart of gold.”

Negative Metaphors

Conflict is also framed as a struggle:[8] we are "on a sinking ship with no lifeboat," "traveling a rocky road," or "working with a checkbook that won't balance."[9] These metaphors all suggest struggle, frustration, even hopelessness.

Belief in God as described in the Bible is most pronounced among U.S. Christians. Overall, eight-in-ten self-identified Christians say they believe in the God of the Bible, while one-in-five do not believe in the biblical description of God but do believe in a higher power of some kind.

Since the Word is God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16), it cannot be subjected to lesser authorities, but must be authenticated by God himself. It carries within itself the character and marks of being the Word of God. The Bible remains authoritative, even if there were none to hear or believe it.

These Biblical records can be and are used as are other ancient documents in archaeological work.” In other words, not only does archaeology confirm that the Bible is historically accurate, but professional archaeologists actually use the Bible as a guide in their work.

Is sin a metaphor? ›

In the identified examples, sin is metaphorically perceived as A HUMAN BEING, AN ANIMAL, including such specific animals as SNAKES or LIONS. It is also described as A PLANT, as well as AN OBJECT, and sometimes it is pictured as a specific thing: A WALL, A STING, FOOD, and ICE.

Religious interpretations

The Book of Genesis is regarded as a religious text by several faiths, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Many adherents of those faiths interpret Genesis literally, while others interpret it as a metaphor or symbolism.

The Literal Standard Version (LSV) is a Modern English translation of the protocanonical books of the Bible with a number of distinctive features. It describes itself as the most literal translation of the Bible into the modern English language.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the researchers found that women were more likely than men to take the Bible literally. But more so than gender, researchers found that Biblical literalism is tied to a person's attachment to God.

Liberal Christians regard the Bible as words that have been written about God. Although these are a good guide for Christians in understanding their faith, they might interpret passages differently to fit modern society.

Scripture increases all our holy capacities for the glory of Jesus. Without the nourishment of Scripture, we easily lose steam. We become spiritually winded and require more rest, more time away from the active pursuit of Jesus' earthly work. We will be slow and plodding, lacking energy and will.

The doctrine was based on Pauline Scripture but has not been accepted by a number of Christian sects and interpreters, especially among those Christians who consider the story of Adam and Eve less a fact and more a metaphor of the relation of God and man.

Literal belief in the Adam and Eve story fell out of favor in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Greenblatt credits Voltaire and Charles Darwin, along with the discovery of ancient fossils, with the now-popular belief that the story is an allegory.

'Regardless of what it does, every business, like every fruit tree, is unique. ' An interactive analogy.

Snow and wool are: Pure, bright white. White represents purity. When Isaiah says that the Lord can change our sins from scarlet or crimson to snow or wool, he is saying that the Lord can do something that is impossible for us to do on our own.

What is an example of an onomatopoeia in the Bible? ›

The modern Hebrew word for 'bottle' occurs in the Bible, but the word's origin is probably onomatopoeic. One of Hebrew's best onomatopoeic words is bakbuk (bak-BUK) - bottle. It's a word that is supposed to sound like liquid being poured out of a bottle, or perhaps being gulped down one's throat.

When Jesus made these statements about himself, he tapped into the particular power of metaphors. He compared himself to bread, to a shepherd, to light, to a vine because such likeness allowed him to say complex things in a fairly simple manner.

John 15:1-2 presents the metaphor (Kellum 2004:170) and contains two separate statements: that Jesus is the vine and that the Father is the vinedresser. This frames the whole metaphor from verse 2 to verse 8.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you.

Topical Preaching: Topical preaching is preaching in which the preacher picks a topic he wants to address and then finds biblical material to fit that topic. Topical preaching is driven by the preacher's agenda—what he wants to talk about. Expositional preaching, on the other hand, begins with the Bible.

Whereas concordances list all the verses that contain the word “money,” which is helpful, topical bibles list passages that discuss money, even those where the exact word isn't used.

Topical studies are a great way to get deeper into the Word of God. Topically studying different topics can help you apply what has been read and taught throughout scripture and open your mind up for new understanding! It involves meditating on scripture specific to a word, phrase, problem, or thought.

Per Leviticus 19:28, “You shall not make gashes in your flesh for the dead, or incise any marks on yourselves.” Historically, scholars have often understood this as a warning against pagan practices of mourning.

How do you read the Bible in context? ›

Reading the Bible in its context means looking at every verse or passage in relation to the verses, chapters, and broader narratives that surround it. It means knowing what other ideas, themes, or stories the author was thinking about when writing.

The four most common are: verse-by-verse, thematic, narrative, and topical. There are many different kinds of expositional preaching. The four most common are: verse-by-verse, thematic, narrative, and topical.

The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, generally known as Strong's Concordance, is a Bible concordance, an index of every word in the King James Version (KJV), constructed under the direction of James Strong.

Where other study Bibles offer insight about the text, the Life Application Study Bible goes one step further and asks readers to consider how it applies to the rhythm of their daily lives.

Lexicons are dictionaries of foreign languages. For biblical studies it is essential to have access to lexicons of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. The cultural background of the Bible and its interpreters also makes it important to have lexicons of languages related to the Bible, e.g. Ugaritic and Latin.