Religion

The Bible Is Written in the Language of Dreams

A look at the difference between a literalist and metaphorical interpretation of some of the more well known parts of the bible

Leo Greenwood
6 min readApr 8, 2024

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the pages of a bible
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

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Introduction

Inspiration

I enjoyed reading this article by Religion and Politics at The Dinner Table about God’s overreactions in the Old Testament and, at the risk of sounding like an apologist, I wanted to offer a lens other than the literal, through which to see the same events of ‘God’s overreactions’.

Against the Literal

I spent a lot of my early twenties dismantling the literal interpretations of the bible. Arguing against them brought me to some of the most absurd and illogical conversations I’ve ever had. The amount of contradictions one runs into is astonishing and the cognitive dissonance it requires to maintain such a worldview is jarring if not outright frightening at times.

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Leo Greenwood

The Universe thinks about itself in interesting ways from here. Philosopher, author, in love with the miracle of existence. leogreenwood.com