No, you are not taking the Bible literally. You are taking an English translation literally. You have no idea that to take any translation literally means to renounce the original meaning the text had in its own place and time. Read without reason, scripture is reduced to the memorized cliches of one’s own culture. Read without love, scripture is but another weapon to assault your culture’s scapegoats. There is a reason that, when the devil wanted to lure Jesus from the path of love, he brought along a Bible.
It’s refreshing to see this point being raised so clearly – thank you. I would phrase it a little differently: when people take an English translation “literally,” they ignore a whole range of meanings that could be found, some of which were the ones originally intended when the words were first used in their original language – yes, the original text would have had more than one meaning “in its own place and time.” That’s just the way human language works.
Well said.