As most of you know, I've been involved in a lot of debates here about scripture. I think my criticism of this group's ideas can be summed up with a challenge:
Can you apply this teaching to a concrete situation?
From Divino Afflante Spiritu of Pius XII:
...
Can you point to any scriptural passages that fit what the Pope is describing?
Can you explain why he says that Catholic exegetes of the 20th century have much to add to our understanding of the Bible?
Can you explain why he says exegetes need to know the other literature of the East in order to properly interpret scripture?
Can you point to any scripture that use what the Pope calls hyperbole?
For me, dozens of passages spring immediately to mind. This is the continuation of the teaching, 50 years before, in Providentissimus Deus, about scripture using figurative language in the Old Testament.
#39 lays it out so clearly. To find an idiom in scripture that comes from common language is NOT to find an error, any more than it would be to find it in everyday common speech today.
'The Sun goes down' is just such an expression.
So, can you do it? Can you give an example of what the Pope is here describing? Can you point out a scripture which uses a popular idiom, or hyperbole?
Malachi 1:2-3
"Was not Esau brother to Jacob, saith the Lord, and I have loved Jacob, But have hated Esau?"
God cannot hate. Hyperbole.
John 4:39
The Samaritan woman spoke of Jesus and said:
“He told me all that I ever did”
Had Jesus really told that woman everything that she had ever done in her life? No, she was using hyperbole to make her point.
Mark 1:4-5:
“John was in the desert baptizing, and preaching the baptism of penance, unto remission of sins. And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all they of Jerusalem, and were baptized by him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.”
Taken literally, these verses would mean that John baptized every single person (man, woman, and child) in all of Judea and Jerusalem. He did not.
Matthew 11:23
“And thou Capharnaum, shalt thou be exalted up to heaven? thou shalt go down even unto hell."
Did the entire city go to Hell? No. Hyperbole again.
There are many many more, but not enough time to list them all. I am not sure why "The Sun goes down" needs to be one of these phrases, unless you have already made that particular phrase part of your conclusion and are trying to argue backwards, perhaps?
I hope you are happy with the above hyperbolic phrases, but if not, why not? Sorry, I forgot the one about Jesus telling us if our eye offends, then pluck it out.