"'''You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet.'''" <small>
:Luke 7:45
:A literal reading of the "clear, plain and simple" meaning of the words of this verse absolutely contradicts the "clear, plain and simple" reading of the meaning of the preceding passage of Luke 7:37 "'''a woman in the city who was a sinner, '''when she knew''' that he was reclining in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment.'''". Jesus says quite clearly, plainly and simply that the woman started kissing his feet the moment he entered the room. But according to verse 37, Luke says that he was already seated at table in the Pharisee's house and eating with him when the woman first learned that he was sitting at table in the Pharisee's house! By this literal method of reading the Bible, scripture is made to contradict scripture. Luke contradicts the words of Jesus, and Jesus contradicts the words of Luke. This is not a legitimate way to read and understand the Bible.
:In contrast to the literalist approach to reading the Bible, an understanding reading of the true ''literal sense of scripture'' in accordance with an informed understanding of the ordinary first century [[Semitic languages#Differences between Semitic and Indo-European language structure|semitic]] mode of speaking by [[hyperbole]] within the ''mileau'' of the culture of the time resolves the difficulty. To their credit, most literalist readers of the Bible using their innate [[common sense]] do not take the literalistic reading of the words of this passage as the actual meaning of these Bible verses, and normally do not see a contradiction. In accepting the actual meaning of Luke and Jesus according to the narrative of what the woman did to Jesus as he sat at table in the Pharisee's house and when she did it, they dismiss the principle of reading the Bible according to the "clear, plain and simple" meaning of the words of the Bible, because of its evident absurdity, and they adopt instead the accommodated understanding of the ''literal sense of scripture'' according to its true meaning.
:Another clear example is the statement by Jesus himself in [http://biblehub.com/commentaries/matthew/13-32.htm Matthew 13:32] that the mustard seed is the "least" or "smallest" of seeds. [[Liberal]] critics of Christianity eagerly cite this statement to prove that Jesus is in error, since there are numerous other kinds of seeds that are much smaller than the mustard seed, some of them nearly microscopic in size. See [http://biblehub.com/multi/matthew/13-32.htm multiple versions of Matthew 13:32].
:Another illustration of the inadequate and erroneous method of taking only the literalistic reading of the words of the Bible as the plainly evident meaning of scripture is found in the phrase, "three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:40). The physical heart of the earth is literally located at the center of the planet. ''Earth radius'' is the distance from the Earth's center to its surface, 3,959 miles (about 6,371 kilometers). This length is also used as a unit of distance, especially in astronomy and geology, where it is usually denoted by R⊕. To this day, no one has drilled a shaft into the heart of the earth, to the very center of its core. There is no evidence that anyone in the first century achieved this feat. Some Fundamentalist Christians who believe, and teach, that the hot, molten core of the earth is the literal location of the lake of fire and hell, where the resurrected wicked sinners condemned for their unrepented evil deeds (Revelation 20:10-15) will physically spend everlasting eternity (Daniel 12:2-3), understand the core of the earth itself to be the literal meaning of the heart of the earth, where Jesus went when he lay in the tomb, and "he went and preached to the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:19-20), and where "Tartarus" or "Hell" is located (2 Peter 2:4). Jesus did not say that the Son of Man will only "spiritually" be in the heart of the earth, and Peter does not say that Jesus went "spiritually" or "in the spirit" to preach to the spirits in prison, but that he would "'''''be''''' three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." In the most literal reading of the Greek text of [http://biblehub.com/interlinear/luke/16-22.htm Luke 16:22] and [http://biblehub.com/interlinear/luke/16-23.htm 23], '''ἐτάφη καὶ ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ''' the rich man is "buried in hell"—this is the reading of the [[Douay-Rheims|Catholic Douay-Rheims Bible 1899]], "''the rich man also died: and he was buried in hell''" [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+16%3A22&version=DRA Luke 16:22]from [[Jerome]]'s Latin Vulgate translation "et sepultus est in inferno". Biblical [[Exegesis|exegetes]] tell us that "''sheol, gehenna, hell''" is the grave. Thus "ashes to ashes and dust to dust" (see Genesis 3:19; 18:27) is the meaning of "the heart of the earth", as being the speaker's intended reference to the grave, the ''literal sense of scripture'', [[death]]—not the molten core of the planet. Moreover, the core of the earth will also be destroyed when
::"the elements shall melt with fervent heat and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. ''Seeing'' then ''that'' all these things shall be dissolved..." (2 Peter 3:10-11).
:It should be evident that the core of the planet, the "heart of the earth" according to this literalist doctrine, cannot be hell; likewise the alternate interpretation instead that the center of the Sun is hell is dismissed by the Bible, because neither of them will last forever. <br>See article [https://www.gotquestions.org/where-is-hell.html Where is Hell? What is the location of Hell? (gotquestions.org)].