Has anyone actually read the Bible?

Post Reply New Topic

Why would a loving god not give us his word in a manner that didn't need translation OR interpretation by "scholars"??

I'm Catholic and I don't read The Book.
Not because I don't want to, it will get in the way of my studies.

He did. But nobody listened.

Besides, don't you think a loving God has more things to do than retransmit his word in each of the 7000 or so languages there happen to be on this planet? Thats what he has followers for. "Here's my word, you translate it for the other people. I'm rather busy..."

It wouldn't make any difference though. Even if God had some way of hand-delivering his message to every person individually, most people would still choose not to believe it.

...well if you believe in predestination, that would read 'most people would be predestined not to believe it'.

More than this, an understanding of
the omitted texts, as well as WHY they
were expunged, is of value.

got to Genesis
put on Invisible Touch (by the band Genesis)
thats as far as I got

Yeah, even if you could speak the original language, I believe it would be very hard or almost impossible to really understand what it's been said, so translations change in a way people can understand it better, I believe some things are lost during the process, even though some people claim it isn't.

Ommited text, you are talking about the apochryphal writings, right? well, I haven't seen all of them but by judging and comparing, they are quite different, apart from the things that contradict canon, they are made in a different tone, take the gnostic gospels for example, their nature is very different from the canon ones. Yes, it wasn't accepted because of "heresy" but also because it was made from another new sect which didn't have to do with them. well, that's my understanding on this.

Up to 40 books, not all apocrypha, some old testament (the story of Adam which should have been after Genesis was a large book in itself); some new testament such as The book of Mary, Timothy's account of Jesus in his younger day, the book of James the Just, the Acts of Phillip, etc. Peter's apocalyse was ditched in favour of John's because John's weighed more heavily politically, even though it was an account after the event.
Constantine ordered the currenet 66 books to be used because the code they contained had a particular meaning, and scholars of the day were taught this code and to pass it on through generations; which is why lay-men don't have the understanding that theological teachers, priests and minister do. If we could read the bible from cover to cover like Harry Potter, we'd probably say at the end 'yeah, so THAT'S what it's all about. Not what I'd call factual, but I'd probably file it alongside War & Peace and a great fictional read.'

What does this mean:

Be kind to your enemies, for it will heap hot burning coals upon his head.

If you know about the culture in which this was first said, then later written, you would know that fire is precious. In a nomadic society, losing ones fire in camp would be a terrible thing to have happen, as there was little to rekindle the flame in the desert. If a fire went out, one of the family would walk to the next camp with a metal pan on the head to get coals from the neighbor's fire. To give coals to an enemy was to give the enemy a necessity. Most of ancient religious works (The "Bible" of Jews and Christians is just one example) require great cultural, anthropological, and linguistic training to correctly interpret.

Would you mind posting a link to a version of god's word that is clear, concise, and unabiguous?



And yet this god claims to be omnipotent. Why leave your most important work to incompetent people with personal axes to grind?



If god came and hand delivered me his message, even as skeptical as I am, I'd believe it if I saw it.

Indeed. The most exciting one that I've seen
was where Jesus kills his teacher.

Sure.



"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Psalm 19:1
"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse." - Romans 1:20


I don't. At least not in that manner. I'm more of an Arminian than a Calvinist.


Actually, that verse never bothered me one bit. Seemed pretty simple to me. If you're kind to someone who is mean to you... it's likely going to infuriate (from the Latin īn furiāre, to cause to burn, to inflame) them.


Wow, what a broad brush you paint with! You're assuming all the people who ever worked on the Bible were (a) incompetent (I dare say, most had and have degrees up the wazoo) and (b) have personal axes to grind, i.e. can't be objective or impartial. And if you've ever studied how any of the translations came to be, you'd know that wasn't the case at all. Most of the time, anyway.

Last edited by JonnyBGoode on 19 Aug 2007, 10:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

yes, apparently Lazarus was almost at Nirvana, and Jesus brought him back to life; Lazarus then turned back to him and said 'Wtf did you do THAT for? I nearly had it, then.'

If you're referring to the one that describes his childhood, yeah that's my favorite too, he also kills another child because he pushed him by accident.

It's also damning that The Gospel of Thomas,
the only one which never really proclaims
Jesus as God, may well have been the
earliest written part of the NT.

Any sabbath observers here? I have a bit of trouble with the concept so don't really observe it, generally I like a quiet life anyway and have that aspie thing of being oblivious to ceremonies or dates. A lot of the time I don't even know what day it is.

Do you think it's reasonable to say that since Jesus is the sabbath, in that Jesus is 'rest', to be with Jesus IS to be at rest.