How about Dave in Wisconsin now? Hi, Dave.

Yes, I have a question about how we know when to interpret biblical miracles as literal versus an allegory or other literary device.

So to give it some context, and John chapter 6, been a favorite of mine, multiplication of the lobes and Jesus walking on water, the bread of life discourse.

And my question arises from recent discussion I had with a priest.

He said that Jesus didn't really multiply the lobes, but rather he inspired generosity

among those who had food to share.

He also said that walking on water was an allegory about faith because it talks about

Peter walking on water until he felt doubt. And he also brought into question the Israelites

crossing the Red Sea. He attributed to the water receding when the Israelites were there,

and then by the time the

Egyptians got there, the water had flowed back, so they got stuck or drowned or whatever the

case might be.

And then a different priest, because I like to know about these specific things.

What you're describing is a view of scripture that was very popular in seminaries, in the 1970s especially.

So men that were ordained in the, say, mid-1970s are now aging out.

So they're in the early 70s.

And this was a very popular mindset in biblical studies called historical

criticism. And one of the hallmarks of historical criticism, and there were some good things

that it brought to bear, some scientific tools that it brought to bear. This is the historical

critical method run amok in which a what's known as a hermeneutic of suspicion

is present at the core of this. Now, hermeneutic in this context means your interpretive principle.

What is the interpretive methodology that you bring to the text? And there were scholars in the Protestant world in the late

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