In the last several months, I have heard the fundies taking the Bible out of context and literally. Both of these things are misinterpretations of the Bible. The Jewish writers always had many layers to their writings and so if you just take what they wrote literally, you miss the real meaning of their message. Below the mysterious orange symbol I will illustrate what taking the Bible, especially the poetry literally means.
While I was in Seminary, one of my professors gave us the above illustration the show what the woman described in the Song of Solomon would look like if you took the poetry literally.
Below is the text of the scripture that is in the picture:
The Song of Solomon chapters 4 and 7
How beautiful you are my darling. How beautiful you are.
Your eyes are like doves behind your veil.
Your hair is like a flock of goats.
Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn ewes.
Your lips are like scarlet thread.
Your temples are like a slice of pomegranate.
Your neck is like the tower of David…built with rows of stone on which are hung a thousand shields.
Your breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle which feed among the lilies.
Your lips, my bride, drip honey…honey and milk are under your tongue.
And the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon…your naval is like a round goblet.
Your belly is like a heap of wheat.
Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon which faces toward Damascus.
Isn’t she lovely? Does she not fill your dreams with delight? This is just one example of reading only the literal text. If you want to be lazy when you are reading the Bible, you miss all the real meanings of scripture. I find using a Hebrew/English translation of the Old Testament and a Greek/English translation of the New Testament to be helpful when I am interpreting the meaning of scripture in the Bible helpful.
Things like the literal belief that every thing was created in six days when elsewhere in the Bible God says that his time is not like our time is another illustration of taking scripture too literally.
It is time to start putting in some real work if people want to interpret scripture for others.