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NASB | Revelation 11:3 "And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Revelation 11:3 "And I will grant authority to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days (forty-two months; three and one-half years), dressed in sackcloth." [Deut 18:18; Mal 4:5; Mark 9:4] |
Subject: "Two witnesses." When? Who? |
Bible Note: Mommapbs: You ask: "Is our dogmatic adherence to a literal interpretation of Scripture limiting? Jesus used metaphor and symbolism in His teaching..." This is an excellent question, one that many people may be wondering about. Your'e right! An overly wooden literal interpretation of Scripture would be limiting and would often result in a misinterpretation of Scripture. While I adhere to the literal (I prefer "plain sense" or "face value") interpretation of the Bible, I also know that not everything in Scripture is meant to be taken literally. No one can deny that often Scripture uses figurative language. However, care must be taken to discern between the figurative and the literal. I quote the Ryrie Study Bible: "The basic principle of interpretation is to interpret plainly. The word *literal* is avoided here because it creates connotations which have to be corrected. Plain, straight-foward interpretation includes at least the following concepts: (...) "(2) Plain interpretation does not exclude the use of figures of speech. Indeed, a figure of speech may communicate more clearly, but what it communicates is plain. In other words, behind every figure of speech is a plain meaning, and that is what the interpreter seeks.' ... (From "A Survey of Bible Doctrine, by Charles C. Ryrie." Quoted in the Ryrie Study Bible, pp. 1959-1960, Moody, 1976, 1978) (For more on principles of interpretation, do a search for "hermeneutics" or "principles of interpretation".) I plan to post more on this and other questions in your first post, ID# 136408. Mommapbs, it is a pleasure to dialogue with you. Grace to you, Kalos |