I want to say this, before I forget, while I’m on the subject of metaphor. The Bible consists of many different books, and genres of writing. The Torah, for example, which is the Jewish holy scripture, and which is sacred to Christians too (although Christians place it in what they call the Old Testament), sometimes requires a different mode of reading, or comprehension, than do the gospels and epistles that are found in the New Testament. All these writings express what a Christian would call truth. But they do so in different ways. Across different moments in time, as part of different heritages, and out of different necessities. Some in the form of song, some in figurative language, some as code of law, some as prophecy, and others as reportage. So that if a reader tries to comprehend all the books by way of a single rubric, or interpretive mode, instead of bringing to each book the mode that each one calls for (and that can be discovered within the writing itself, if one has patience, wisdom and guidance) then that reader will find obstacle after obstacle.