Perhaps the difference is the same as with race car driving. "Pretending to be ... Antarctica" is like when children build pillow forts and play pretend. In contrast, "pretending that" requires something physical like a ticket to Antarctica or a letter from a university to join their research team. Even if the letter or ticket isn't genuine it would be different from kids pretending to be adventurers in their living room.

In the same way an undercover officer presents themselves as a criminal rather than merely pretending to be a criminal.

This clarified the distinction between pretending to be driving and pretending to drive. I saw no difference between the two until it was highlighted that one can pretend to be driving without a car, but pretending to drive seems to imply a physical car rather than a mental one.

Does this imply that your intentions must be factored in when determining what it is your are doing? This seems to miss the point that intentions for the most part are entirely unknown to others. It seems more appropriate to say that he is cleaning the windows insincerely than to say he isn't cleaning the windows.

I disagree here. It would just need to be said that he is simultaneously cleaning the windows while also noting the valuables. Unless the windows are left entirely untouched after the future robber is done noting the valuables.

It would seem necessary to have read Mr. Bedford's work before reading this essay with how frequently it is referenced. This is obviously a response to his work and it is a handicap to be unaware of his argument.

This would mean that a parable is a seed that grows into a tree with the process of interpretation. Each new view and discourse about that view is a new branch on the tree.

It feels a bit like the works of Nostradamus in the sense that anyone after the fact can, given enough time, construct any meaning they want from the literature. This is problematic if the aim is to share the message with a largely illiterate population. Without the ability to verify the meaning they are taught as truth they are left just swallowing whatever is fed to them.

Sorry for the highlighting error. I couldn't figure out how to undo it.

This then addresses the previous concern I had. It would seem that the entire meaning of some scripture hinges on a correct translation. That matches with what I have heard from some other religions which claim one can only understand scripture in the original language.