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Hosea
12:10 “And I have spoken unto the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and by the hand of the prophets I use metaphor.”
Although, certainly, the Bible is to be taken seriously and not to be considered
just a giant metaphor without any plain literal meaning, one should not think that it is totally devoid of metaphors and symbolism.
There are certain terms that when used in particular ways, are not intended to be taken literally. For example:
The Almighty is called 'Rock' (Isaiah 44:8), and is mentioned to possess a 'Shadow' (Psalm 91:1), 'Wings'
(Psalm 57:1), and even 'Feathers' (Psalm 91:4). Hopefully anyone reading this automatically
knows that G-d is NOT a literal rock, heaven forbid. To worship a rock would be idolatry - the very thing which the
Bible is against. And if one wants to take this literally, then tell me - since when do rocks have feathers?
The same is true when the Bible refers to the Creator as having an 'Eye' (Deuteronomy 32:10) and a 'Mouth' (Deuteronomy
8:3) etc... Sometimes it says 'eye' (Zechariah 2:8) in the singular and sometimes it says 'eyes'
(Deuteronomy 11:12, 12:28) in the plural. So does He have one eye, or many? Far be it that the Creator
of time and space has need of an eye or a mouth or a body of any type. The Jewish people, historically, consider
all such terms, when used in these ways, to be non-literal and to have deeper metaphorical meanings; After
all, the Bible also plainly expresses that there is no place that contains Him. If He were to literally to be housed
in the container of a body, with 1 eye, a mouth, and however many fingers, then certainly he could also be contained
in the heavens, but it is written:
"But really, will G-d dwell on the earth with men?
Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this House [the Temple] which I have
built!" - 2 Chronicles 6:18
...the Almighty ask es:
"What place could be My resting place?" - Isaiah 66:1
"To whom will you compare Me or consider Me equal? To what will you
consider Me similar that we may be compared?" - Isaiah 46:5
Therefore a list is being complied of words and phrases from the Bible that
are often misunderstood. The main body of the explanations will be taken from the writings of Moses ben Maimon, also
known as both Rambam or Maimonides. Around 1,000 years ago he complied by topic many explanations from the complex
writings of the Sages of ancient Israel that are preserved in the Talmudic writings.
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