Dan, this piece is one of your best. What relief to read this insightful essay on Bible reading. You call it archetype, I call it metaphor. Additionally, with our hearts hoping for salvation, we look for clues in life that we will be saved and some seek those clues in Bible reading. But as you suggest, it is meant to be a guide in living. And the clues? Well, they abide within us, at least that's my viewpoint. Raised Catholic, I learn from a wide swath of teaching.

I'm an Near Death survivor, I drowned as a child in the ocean and crossed over. I still do not take my salvation for granted, yet I know where I am headed. Home. I tell the story here: https://medium.com/@mkduffy/why-it-took-me-decades-to-thank-the-man-who-saved-my-life-375df87941c

(hope it's okay I post it here, and thank you for that)

Thanks for a great start to my day.