Thanks, very well put.When I first began an in depth study of the Old Testament, I was advised to keep in mind two things: First, Knowledge we have gained. If we know that natural disasters and illnesses are not caused by God today, then we know they were not caused by Him in Biblical times. Second, if there are not talking donkeys and snakes today or trees where one plucked and ate a fruit to know what was good and what was evil, then we can be relatively certain that is not what took place then, either. We are being alerted that we are entering the Lands of Allegory and Symbolism.I'm curious how those 75% view the story of David and the census. I'm also wondering what in the Bible should be taken literally and what is allegory, metaphor, etc. How does one know which is which?
The Book of Samuel (and Chronicles) were not written in diary form, but story form. In those days they believed disasters did not come about naturally, but were sent by God because the people were misbehaving (and like today, we always were). So, when the plague struck, people naturally wanted to know what they did wrong. Looking back they noted that King David had taken a improper census (bad enough to begin with) improperly (doubling the offense). The story was written to explain the plague that killed 70,000.
There are beautiful reasons why Jews took censuses the way Moses commanded. They were one people, they were not divided. (The way we understand Team and Teamwork today.) This was not an outlook only the Jews kept, but is often found in tribal communities. One tribe, not many individuals living together. This is most likely why we don't see Old Testament authors addressing why babies were not spared in floods and plagues. They were tribe. The tribe was being punished. Today, when we cut down a tree or prune a bush, we don't spare the innocent leaves. People then thought of their tribe in the same way--as a whole. When a tribe was being punished, it meant that whole, and it was taken for granted the young "leaves" could not be spared. Today, we are very individualistically minded, but not so then.
Anyway, to keep that sense of unity first and foremost in everyone's mind, Moses did not count individuals. He counted the shekels that each individual gave. He counted shekels, not individuals, because he would not divide his tribe. They were one together.
Jesus is credited with all sorts of miracles, including walking on water, loaves and fishes, rising from the dead, etc. Are these also in the Lands of Allegory and Symbolism?