In the same way the Revelations of St. John are not to be taken literally, but spiritually.
There are terms and expressions of usage in every language which cannot be taken literally.
This has an inner meaning and significance; it is not to be taken literally.
But enough of such extravagant assertions, which to Catholics stand self-condemned, but were intended by their author to be taken literally.
All sacred utterances which contradict this are, so he says, in spite of his preference for the literal sense, not to be taken literally.
Did you really intend that they should be taken literally?
Granted that he is right in his contention that the Sermon on the Mount is to be taken literally, it means nothing short of a religious as well as a social revolution.
It is not for me to tell you to what extent those words must be taken literally.
Taken literally, the celebrated formula that /property is theft/ is absurd in the very highest degree.
The statement may be taken literally, for an oracle was sought at critical moments to determine the course that was to be pursued.
The number seven is probably not to be taken literally.
Many expressions in the prophets are hyperbolical or metaphorical, and must not be taken literally.
Since freedom is supported by reason, Scripture and tradition, the passages in the Bible which are in favor of it should be taken literally, and those against it should be interpreted figuratively.
This inconsistency is to be explained, however, by the circumstance that not all Biblical phrases are to be taken literally--their very contradiction is a proof of this.
Nevertheless Saadia is not satisfied until he has shown in detail that God cannot be compared to man in any sense, and that the anthropomorphic expressions in the Bible must not be taken literally.
It is only when anthropomorphic passages and expressions are similarly used as other clearly figurative passages and expressions are, that they are to be adjudged as figurative and not to be taken literally.
Maimonides, however, following his rationalistic method, declared them to be simply products of the imagination, the hypostases of figurative expressions which were not meant to be taken literally.
As a matter of fact, all the names which we apply to God in speech or in prayer, even the most sublime and holy ones, are derived from our own sensory experience and cannot be taken literally.
The rabbis are all the more emphatic in their assertions that the Torah merely intends to assist the simple-minded, and that unseemly expressions concerning Deity are due to the inadequacy of language, and must not be taken literally.
His self-accusations of gluttony and laziness not to be taken literally.
It is true that no act of society can make it our duty to violate any command of God: but is the above command to be taken literally, and as forbidding us to engage in just war?
Up to this point Plato is certainly to be taken literally.
And when he goes on to speak of God living in eternal blessedness, these words, if taken literally, can mean nothing except that God is a conscious person.
Even the simple words God said cannot be taken literally, for there was no one to speak to.
The terms hands, eyes, and ears, when applied to God, are thus human analogies, which must not be taken literally.
But it need not be taken literally, any more than that about the doors of the sea;[16] especially as in another place the heavens dropping water is explained as meaning that the clouds dropped it.
The above list will hopefully provide you with a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "taken literally" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this group of words.
