emphasizing the historical factuality of the stories can distract from their meaning. When their factuality is emphasized, the miraculous elements are emphasized so that “believing” these stories means believing that all these spectacular events happened. This emphasis often produces a sterile debate between those who think they are factual and those who think they aren’t, an endless back-and-forth: “It happened this way,” “No, it didn’t,” “Yes, it did.” When this happens, the rich, more-than-literal meanings are most often lost.
