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As someone else mentioned in a previous post, it's important to keep context in mind. I'm no biblical scholar, but I wouldn't find it far-fetched if people at that time were not really comfortable with large numbers or arithmetic in general. So saying something like "seventy times seven", might be akin to saying "a million". A number that by its magnitude alone lets us know that there is no limit or that the limit is so high we should not concern ourselves with it.
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True, and that pretty much proves my point. Many people use the argument: "if the Bible is the inspired word of God, then every word is true, thus you can't interpret it since that would subject it to human fallibility." Cases like the quote you responded to are pretty solid evidence in support of my point of view, I think. The validity of the interpretation rests on the reliability of the Church the interpretation belongs to, and that's where Protestantism / Catholicism / Orthodoxy have a few disagreements (though they are in agreement on the vast majority of topics, especially the 'important' ones).