You’re kidding right. That has only taken hold in the last 70 years or so and there are still lots of Evangelical that take the bible as literal. There are still a lot of believers in geocentrisms.
In fact, the majority of people back in the 70s did not take the Bible literally, so some people tried to convince everyone the Bible should be taken literally (Evangelical movement). Catholics, Jews, Orthodox, and others pretty much ignored them. In other words, the majority does not take everything in the Bible literally and never has.
It does little good to argue against everything in the Bible being taken literally with people who never have taken everything in the Bible literally.
I would suggest going back centuries, even thousands of years, and studying various interpretations, particularly rabbinical ones. The idea of taking everything in the Bible literally came with people believing they could interpret scripture on their own–no help or study needed.
Ironically, the things you choose to take literally are always the things that validate your NT beliefs. While, all the contradictions require “interpretation”
Again, dig deeper, check some Rabbinical interpretations. The problem with translating Hebrew into English is that the Hebrew language uses pictures, thus a more object-oriented approach. English is a subjective language, and often the translations can be tricky.
Isn’t it better to discuss how scholars view the Bible today, given the knowledge we have gained over the years?