Literal or Figurative?

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” John 1:1-4

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63


One of the questions that keeps coming up among Christians, is whether one should read the Bible literally, or figuratively. Loosely speaking, the ultra-conservatives preach the former – hell, the great flood, the resurrection, etc., are all real; whereas Christians of the more modern ilk take greater liberties with the scriptures, such that bits in the Bible that are hard to imagine, to reconcile to our conventional understanding, or to stomach with contemporary sensibilities, are understood figuratively.

It is beyond my ability to quote many references, so let me leave this to the reader; but i shall like to offer an answer/perspective by bringing your attention to the verses quoted above. The Word is Christ. How then do we understand the Bible? For a friend, say, the more we know him, the more we're clear when he's being serious, when he's kidding, or when he's being ironic. In the same sense, the more we know God, the closer we walk to Him, the more we know when He should be understood in the literal sense, when it whould be figurative, when God is approving of something, when something is merely being described as a ppoint of information, etc.

Thus it is futile to adopt or construct a 'rule' via which to interpret the Word of God, but that our understanding should be God-centred, that is, based on communion and relationship with God. So literal or figurative? My answer, if you must, is neither.