[fwdude]

Waiting for the King James crowd to come on the thread and say the KJV is the only divinely authorized version and that each word should be interpreted literally.

I've had such folks tell me that all of Jesus parables had to have been about real, historic people, or He would have been lying.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Capacity for deep insight into the bible has to be exercised carefully, or you may (as still a sinner) lapse into overly rigid judgmentalism.

Were these about historical folks or about illustrative fictional figures?

A perfectly valid answer may be: we don’t know now, but we can still use them in the manner that does make sense.