Some read the scriptures this way. Well not every word of scripture, only some, and then base whole fields of doctrines upon their literal meaning of certain verses of scriptures. In doing this we can tend to apply our own ideas to the writings of scriptures.
To take a writing literally means that we understand the record of literal historic facts to be such, poetic language to be such, and symbolic language to be such literally, or as written in the literature.
One of the best biblical hermeneutic is the Historical Contextual Hermeneutic, in which we try to understand the writings that comprise the bible from the view of those to whom they were written. None of the bible was written to us in our day, not one word. The bible as a whole was agreed upon as valid and set into a canon to be passed down for future generations to learn from, which includes us. For us to understand it fully requires some study in the contemporary history of the time of the writings.
Consider the term "new heavens and new earth". Some take an extreme literal meaning of this phrase thinking it to mean that at the end of human history there will be a total recreation of the earth after the complete destruction of it. But is this term about an actual recreation of the planet earth or does it have another meaning?
This term was written in first century documents, using a historical contextual hermeneutic, we need to consider what the original audience would have understood it to mean.
Quote from: Literal New Heaven and New Earth
Jesus mentions heaven and earth in Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth will
pass away, but My words will not pass away.”
As you know, Matthew 24 is about
the destruction of the temple in the first century. Yet Jesus throws
this comment in there. Why? Because the first century people referred to
the temple system as “heaven and earth.”
Sources as early as Josephus extrapolate that the very design was after the design of heaven and earth:
...for
if any one do but consider the fabric of the tabernacle, and take a
view of the garments of the high priest, and of those vessels which we
make use of in our sacred ministration, he will find that our legislator
was a divine man, and that we are unjustly reproached by others; for if
any one do without prejudice, and with judgment, look upon these
things, he will find they were everyone made in way of imitation and
representation of the universe. When Moses distinguished the tabernacle
into three parts, and allowed two of them to the priests, as a place
accessible and common, he denoted the land and the seas, these being of
general access to all; but he set apart the third division for God,
because heaven is inaccessible to men. And when he ordered twelve loaves
to be set on the table, he denoted the year, as distinguished into so
many months. By branching out the candlestick into seventy parts, he
secretly intimated the Decani, or seventy divisions of the planets; and
as to the seven lamps upon the candlesticks, they referred to the course
of the planets, of which that is the number. The veils, too, which were
composed of four things, they declared the four elements; for the fine
linen was proper to signify the earth, because the flax grows out of the
earth; the purple signified the seas, because that color is dyed by the
blood of a seas shell-fish; the blue is fit to signify the air; and the
scarlet will naturally be an indication of fire. Now the vestment of
the high priest being made of linen, signified the earth; the blue
denoted the sky, being like lightning in its pomegranates, and in the
noise of the bells resembling thunder. And for the ephod, it showed that
God had made the universe of four elements; and as for the gold
interwoven, I suppose it related to the splendor by which all things are
enlightened. He also appointed the breastplate to be placed in the
middle of the ephod, to resemble the earth, for that has the very middle
place of the world. And the girdle which encompassed the high priest
round, signified the ocean, for that goes round about and includes the
universe. Each of the sardonyxes declares to us the sun and moon; those,
I mean, that were in the nature of buttons on the high priest’s
shoulders. And for the twelve stones, whether we understand by them the
months, or whether we understand the like number of the signs of that
circle which the Greeks call the Zodiac, we shall not be mistaken in
their meaning. And for the mitre, which was of a blue color, it seems to
me to mean heaven; for how otherwise could the name of God be inscribed
upon it? That it was also illustrated with a crown, and that of gold
also, is because of that splendor with which God is pleased. Let this
explication suffice at present, since the course of my narration will
often, and on many occasions, afford me the opportunity of enlarging
upon the virtue of our legislator.
– Josephus
John Lightfoot (1602-1675), the highly respected author of the four volume series, A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica, observed
how heaven and earth is used in the New Testament: the “passing away of
heaven and earth” is the “destruction of Jerusalem and the whole Jewish
state...as if the whole frame of this world were to be dissolved.”
As we see the idea of heaven and earth in first century Judaism is about the temple and institution of the priesthood. So for there to be a change in heaven and earth, with a new heaven and earth has to do with the end of the existing and start of a new order.
So yes, it is literally a figurative new heaven and new earth that is mentioned and was understood by the original readers.
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