I was asked how I defend not taking the Bible literally. Frankly, I take the Bible too seriously and love it too dearly to take it literally\u2026No one really ever takes the Bible literally\u2026<\/p>\n
The real problem with literalism, however (its great heresy, if you will), is that it treats the Bible as a book. It\u2019s not a book. It\u2019s a doorway disguised as a book. For example, the purpose of the Gospel of Mark is not to provide information about Jesus or to find out his moral guidelines. The purpose is to meet Jesus. The purpose is to have a spiritual encounter with him through the text. If the Bible is just another book\u2014even a holy book, it\u2019s worthless. The authority is not in the text or the words or in it being sanctioned by the church. The authority is that we when we read it, we encounter the Divine.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
That's from the Mesa Verde United Methodist Church Facebook page. I wonder whether they thought they were quoting Karl Barth. I wonder whether, if someone attributed their words to Barth, they would go viral.<\/p>\n
And if they went viral, I wonder whether anyone would notice it wasn't an authentic Barth quote. And if they did, would they be able to get that point across, or would the quote continue to circulate with the false attribution regardless?\n<\/p>\n
There are a lot of spurious quotations that circulate, and countless other forms of spurious information, whether about the Bible, science, politics, or anything else.\n
Take truth seriously. Trace information back to its source. Fact check. Please. <\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because as Karl Barth famously said, \u201cI take the Bible too seriously to believe everything that's said about it on the internet. And I take myself too seriously to believe every quotation attributed to me on Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This quotation, often attributed to Karl Barth, came across my feed on Facebook this morning: \u201cI take the Bible too seriously to read it literally.\u201d Whenever I try to trace a quotation to its source, especially if the source is famous, and what I find are pages and pages of just the quote with no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1140,3309,3312,3332,3532,5188,5299,6075,7250,7252,9849,9852,9854,9859,11623,11757],"class_list":["post-14090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information-literacy","tag-bible","tag-facebook","tag-fact-checking","tag-fake","tag-forgeries","tag-information-literacy","tag-internet","tag-karl-barth","tag-meme","tag-memes","tag-quotation","tag-quotations","tag-quote","tag-quotes","tag-sources","tag-spurious"],"yoast_head":"\n
I Take the Bible too Seriously to Not Fact-Check Internet Quotations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This quotation, often attributed to Karl Barth, came across my feed on Facebook this morning: "I take the Bible too seriously to read it literally."\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I Take the Bible too Seriously to Not Fact-Check Internet Quotations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This quotation, often attributed to Karl Barth, came across my feed on Facebook this morning: "I take the Bible too seriously to read it literally."\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-18T11:52:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2013\/04\/wpid-Photo-Apr-18-2013-732-AM.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionProf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James F. McGrath\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html\",\"name\":\"I Take the Bible too Seriously to Not Fact-Check Internet Quotations\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-04-18T11:52:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-18T11:52:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\"},\"description\":\"This quotation, often attributed to Karl Barth, came across my feed on Facebook this morning: \\\"I take the Bible too seriously to read it literally.\\\"\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"I Take the Bible too Seriously to Not Fact-Check Internet Quotations\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/\",\"name\":\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath\",\"description\":\"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf\",\"name\":\"James F. McGrath\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"James F. McGrath\"},\"description\":\"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I Take the Bible too Seriously to Not Fact-Check Internet Quotations","description":"This quotation, often attributed to Karl Barth, came across my feed on Facebook this morning: \"I take the Bible too seriously to read it literally.\"","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I Take the Bible too Seriously to Not Fact-Check Internet Quotations","og_description":"This quotation, often attributed to Karl Barth, came across my feed on Facebook this morning: \"I take the Bible too seriously to read it literally.\"","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html","og_site_name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","article_published_time":"2013-04-18T11:52:38+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2013\/04\/wpid-Photo-Apr-18-2013-732-AM.jpg"}],"author":"James F. McGrath","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ReligionProf","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"James F. McGrath","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html","name":"I Take the Bible too Seriously to Not Fact-Check Internet Quotations","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-04-18T11:52:38+00:00","dateModified":"2013-04-18T11:52:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf"},"description":"This quotation, often attributed to Karl Barth, came across my feed on Facebook this morning: \"I take the Bible too seriously to read it literally.\"","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2013\/04\/i-take-the-bible-too-seriously-to-not-fact-check-internet-quotations.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"I Take the Bible too Seriously to Not Fact-Check Internet Quotations"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/","name":"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. McGrath","description":"The Blog of Dr. James F. McGrath, Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University, Indianapolis","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/78342576667b872e3d259c153ce4c5bf","name":"James F. McGrath","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/88ca096942acd474313f7ef4227a49da?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"James F. McGrath"},"description":"Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. BD University of London, PhD Durham University. Author of John's Apologetic Christology, The Only True God, Theology and Science Fiction, and The Burial of Jesus, as well as (with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) the two-volume Mandaean Book of John critical edition, translation, and commentary. Also author of numerous articles (and a few science fiction short stories) and the editor or co-editor of several volumes.","sameAs":["https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Ge8ul5","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/religionprof\/","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jamesfmcgrath\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/jfmcgrat\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/ReligionProf","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/religionprof","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_F._McGrath"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/author\/james-f-mcgrath"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2013\/04\/wpid-Photo-Apr-18-2013-732-AM.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n