Consider
Origen (c.185-c.254AD) of
Alexandria, Egypt. People who think they take
the Bible more literally than others condemn
Origen for saying that there is much in the
Bible which can only be understood
on a spiritual level.
1 Co 2:14 (KJV1611 Edition):
But the naturall man receiueth not the things
of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishnesse
vnto him: neither can he know them,
because they are
spiritually discerned.
Back in his day, a person prosessing faith
in Messiah Yeshua were trained in The Faith
for two years before they were Baptized
(some were martyred prior to Baptism, blowing
the concept you have to do the Work of Baptistm
to get saved.) Origen was a Training Mentor for
new Convertas.
When Origen came of age, he literally took
the verses in the OP (opening post).
He had his sexual members surgically removed
so he would be more interested in Serving
Messiah Yeshua than chasing women.
I really think Origen is condemned for being
way to literal but the words used to condemn
him say things like this passage from the
Dictionary
of Premillennial Theology (Kregel, 1996):
Origen's method of exegesis was so subjective that
it allowed for an almost infinite number
of symbolic meanings and interpretations of
the biblical text, most of which bore little resemblance
to the plain meaning of the words.
Others condemn him for the Alexandrian bad copies of
the New Testament (which today are two of the oldest
of the 5,000+ partial & full copies of original
/or near original/ Bible manuscripts available).
Apparently though, Origen had nothing to do with
these copies of the Bible.
