Andrew,

I think you might be creating division where is there is none.  I don’t intend to get worked up when people like yourself need to see every detail of these stories as historical facts.  I would only find that to be a big problem if you took it another step further and insisted that believing those events to be literal history was a requirement for "salvation". 

I am making your same point about defining the context of these stories within their proper setting in the history of Israel and it’s quest for fulfillment of promise. I’m not suggesting that the historical Jesus is ONLY metaphor.  I’m suggesting that the metaphor is the explanation for the unbelievable claims. The historical cry for a messiah is the framework that helped the metaphors of Jesus’ death and resurrection become a part of the story.  I believe that the historical facts and the metaphorical elements are both essential.  This explanation would also apply to the incredible hell languange of the NT. This is no different than the way you explain the events in Revelation with the demise of the roman empire.  The entire Bible is filled with real historical events explained with the grand language of mythology.