re: Don't take the Bible literally says scholar who brought earliest Latin analysis of Gospels

Just FYI, There are more copies of the New Testament than any other ancient document, including the classics whose authenticity we don’t give a second thought. We have but a handful of copies of most ancient documents, compared with almost 6,000 copies of the New Testament. A notable exception is Homer’s “Iliad,” but the number of copies pales in comparison with those we possess of the New Testament.

And to quote C.S. Lewis a former atheist converted Christian, "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, is of the most importance."