Literal Versus Non Literal Rules of Engagement Chapter 7 Special Literary Forms, Virkler's Hermeneutics pg 172

• Six indicators when a literal interpretation is NOT intended

• 1. An explicit statement is made to that end.
• 2. A literal interpretation is impossible. (Careful: Catholics thought Israel back in the promised land impossible)
• 3. A low degree of correspondence exists.
• 4. Imagery is highly developed
• 5. Piled up multiple images
• 6. The use of 'original imagery'
• A 'Literal Approach' must be differentiated from each 'literal interpretation' here.
• Again the DANGER here is to use these rules to abandon the “Literal Approach' and wander into the unbelievers 'Allegorical/ Spiritualizing Approach' with no return.
• Basic common sense renderings of Scripture always trumps the scholarly highly developed hermeneutical approaches that invented the allegorical methods of the Bible rejecting Catholics.