Hi, Mike-

I wouldn't say that Genesis is allegorical. It's written in the language of legend that is common in the stories people tell of their origins. What moral is to be drawn from the story of Lot's daughters? - that even the patriarchs had dysfunctional families, and yet they survived and prospered. Certainly that's a good lesson - that you can be totally screwed up and still do something good.

Job is interesting, because it's so obviously written in two different styles. Chapters 1, 2, and 42 are written in the colorful language of a folktale, and they're a great story. The language in chapters 3-41 is theological and VERY boring, but it has value as an inquiry into the reasons why "bad things happen to good people." But again, it's boring. I'd recommend 1, 2, and 42.

Leviticus is an interesting phenomenon, because it has lists of moral codes that sometimes contradict each other. Scripture scholars will tell you that such-and-such a passage was the moral code effective at such-and-such a time and place, and then next one was effective at another time and place.

If I understand him correctly, Jesus says that all Scripture is to be interpreted with two basic laws in mind:

• Love God above all things
• Love your neighbor as yourself

If you keep these two principles in mind and remember that they may not be violated under any circumstances, the rest of Scripture starts to make sense - and it's impossible to honestly move to the extremes of interpretation.

-Joe-