Thread on literary devices

If you are interested in the implications of fictionalizing literary devices in the gospels, I have put a lot of content on this question in the thread in my post on the flowchart. I am responding to a commentator who is at least somewhat more conservative than Licona, in that he is opposed to Licona's "midrashing" of the infancy narratives. But he implies that fictionalizing literary devices, at least as far as he would allow them, would not be that big of a deal. Here is his longest comment, which was interesting enough and important enough to respond to that I have written at length in response. Feel free to read the entire thread, but I'll just link my explicit responses to that comment. Here, here, here, here, here, here, here.

If you're inclined to think that the idea of fictionalizing literary devices might be harmless and limited in relevance, I encourage you to dig into this material.