That would be helpful because I just don't see it.I mean, the...

That would be helpful because I just don't see it.

I mean, the Bible says something and when you look at it from as many angles as possible you can be reasonably certain that you are starting to get an insight into the intended meaning. That can be considered as the Bible interpreting itself via the effort one takes to be open hearted in one's appraisal of meaning intended.

I would say that the first principle of the Bible is that it must be placed into reality, it can not contravene proven science and any scripture that seems to do this must be considered as a symbolic / metaphoric work.

The second principle must be that the days in which the Bible stories, Parables, Proverbs and Scriptures take place are exactly the same kind of days as we live in, in as much as people have always sinned and always will, people always died as they do today, snakes have never talked, people have never lived beyond the standard age, today we live longer than at any other time, etc.

Thirdly, the OT is not a Christian scripture. It contains the religious beliefs of religions founded by a Teacher in the age of Adam, then Abraham, Noah, Moses. There have been many religions before the age of Adam but they are lost to history. This does not mean that the OT is not filled with wonderful insights and Teachings and offers great insight to the Christian. It does lay a foundation for Christianity because all true religions are organically linked.

So if we can use this as a starting point 90% of the errors of interpretation and understanding fall away.