the Literal versus the Figurative in Genesis

We either take God as straightforward in His Word to His saints or conclude He is engaging in subterfuge to confound us with symbolism. Many will point to certain books and passages of their choosing, or by consensus, and declare these as “apocalyptic” language. In the words of Inigo Montoya in the Princess Bride, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

“Apocalyptic” from the Greek means, “an unveiling” or “a disclosure” or “uncovering.” This is exactly the opposite of how some wish to apply it, as though God chose to shroud some passages in symbolism.

• • Was there a literal creation or was there not? (1-2)

• • Was creation accomplished in six literal days? (1-2)

• • Were Adam and Eve literally the first two people created? (1-2)

• • …In a literal Garden Paradise called Eden? (1-2)

• • Was a creature called Satan literally there to tempt Eve? (3)

• • Was Cain’s murder of Abel literally the first murder if we evolved? (4)

• • Was Methuselah really, literally, alive for nearly a thousand years? (5)

• • Did Enoch get Raptured? (5:21-24; Heb 11:5)

• • Did fallen angels find the daughters of men beautiful and then take them as wives who bore children unto them (6)

• • Were the cross-breed offspring really giants? (6)

• • Was Noah’s Ark literal or symbolic? (6)

• • Did the flood waters literally cover the whole earth? (6-8)

• • Was the Tower of Babel literal or figurative? (11)

• • Did God really confound their language and scatter all mankind across the face of the earth?

• • Did fire literally fall on Sodom? (19)

• • Did Lot’s wife turn to a literal pillar of salt? (19:26)

• • Was Esau literally covered in red hair when he was born?

• • Did Joseph literally run Egypt (41)

• • Did Jacob really see a ladder from Heaven and wrestle with God? (32)

The Bible uses symbolism and where it does, it is typically clear. We look for words such as “like” and “as” to tip us off in the context. Revelation even tells us the red dragon is symbolic and then tells us the meaning. The writers did engage in hyperbole, just as we do today (as I have said a million times). Whether one wishes to call symbolism, simile, metaphor, etc. all subsets of the category “Figurative” is fine by me. The dictionary likes that as the real term. Many use “symbolic” however. But the point is the point.

If you are one who refuses to read “thousand” six times in Revelation 20 and yet refuse to take it for what it says, then don’t you dare criticize the one who refuses to believe in the literal Six Days of Creation!