Reply To: "Not to be taken literally"

The fact is people do learn on their own and without someone to explain things, they will either take it literally or refuse to believe it literally. My question is that given that reality, I imagine even back in the time of the gemara there were people who would learn certain passages in wonderment. I am the type that likes things put out simply and clearly and just don’t know what to make of some passages. For example in Sanhedrin 59 there is a maaseh of two tanaim confront by a pride of hungry lions and two slabs of meat fell from heaven. WHere did prides of lions run among humans in either Bavel or Eretz Yisroel?