the bible

[ultraman]

when one reads the bible one must remeber that the bible only tells us what the people did and some of how they lived. it does not tell us what people did every second of every minute. for example after samson battled a huge phillestine army in which samson was victories thanks to his great strengh a judged and whatched over the israelites for 20 years. now getting to the point what did samson do in those 20 years? the bible skips that 20 years and jumps to when he met delilah. when king david went into exile what did he do the bible does not say but maybe we where only meant to know what we know?

[RATTER15]

Agreed! and your point is?

[beso]

Not only does the Buble leave out long periods of time it is inconsistent. Passages contradict each other in their sequences of events.

Women are said to be giving birth when other passages show they must have been aged over 100 years old. Men father children before they are even born.

The Bible is a stupid old book written by stoneage goat herders. The claim that it holds the key to guide our behaviour and morality is utterly ludicrous.

[askyourgran]

This was something that was never taught in Bible classes when I was young and susequently couldn't understand a lot of the teachings. The ages of Methuselah and other patriarchs makes me wonder what sort of system was in operation then. I find all this interesting, but this knowledge can only be achieved by in depth study and debate, which is something a lot of people don't have time for. Perhaps we need to have church classes to teach this 'other' knowledge alongside the Bible teachings to make it clearer. Do Muslims or Jews have this kind of schooling? The Christian faith seems to be lessening, many of our churches closing although our local Church runs the Alpha course which seems to attract quite a number of young mothers.

[jake-the-peg]

Do Muslims and Jews have this sort of teaching?

Like you wouldn't believe!

Christians did too in the middle ages - endless hours of debate on riddiculous trivialities - as parodied by "How many angels can sit on the head of a pin".
If it starts from the notion that everything in the bible is literally true it vanishes up itself.

A much more productive approach is exercises like reading the synoptic gospels (Mathew Mark and Luke) together and comparing what they have in common and where they differ and asking why.

If you do that you'll start to see which parts are more credible and which are not - the Christmas story comes immediately to mind.

Churches should encourage that more - they know about this stuff they just don't like "confusing" the faithfull with it

[naomi24]

^^ Or telling them the truth.

[brionon]

Thank you for telling me what I MUST do. I take it you are a christian ?

[Mr Veritas]

We must also remember that the bible we see today(in 21st C translation)
went through all these languages before it got to us:~
Originally in Aramaeic.
then
Ancient Greek
then
Ancient Latin
then
17th Century English
then
21st Century English.
No wonder the meaning may have changed,and many errors crpet it,AND all this allows priests of all Christian churches to interpret as they think fit!

[Mr Veritas]

No,thank you wyzard66,
What is the difference between Aramaic and Hebrew?
It looks(below) as if Aramaic was the basic language predecessor of Hebrew,and other languages.
This from Wkipedia explains a lot more:~

Eleventh century book in Syriac SertoThe earliest Aramaic alphabet was based on the Phoenician script. In time, Aramaic developed its distinctive 'square' style. The ancient Israelites and other peoples of Canaan adopted this alphabet for writing their own languages. Thus, it is better known as the Hebrew alphabet today. This is the writing system used in Biblical Aramaic and other Jewish writing in Aramaic. The other main writing system used for Aramaic was developed by Christian communities: a cursive form known as the Syriac alphabet (one of the varieties of the Syriac alphabet, Serto, is shown to the left). A highly modified form of the Aramaic alphabet, the Mandaic alphabet, is used by the Mandaeans.

[askyourgran]

I sounded very naive back there,// do Muslims,Jews and Bhuddists etc. have lessons on their faith\\. Of course they do but their faith seems to be attended to much more than ours and perhaps I meant; Is their knowledge of their holy books better than ours have they got more real information?. The religeous fanatics seem quite ridiculous to me, so how much of their bible is interpretation?. I can fully understand Beso and wyzard66 being sceptical of the Bible, the link is tenuous and it takes a huge leap of faith to believe that the stories of the birth and death of Christ written by scribes all those years ago actually happened as it was written.

[naomi24]

Hi Gran, I doubt the Buddhist holy book is extremely well known to the populace because it runs into many volumes. Islam’s holy book is quite small, and many Muslims learn it all by heart. In my opinion, no holy book contains more real information than the bible. People of other religions might know more about what’s in their books than Christians, but that doesn’t make the content any more ‘real’. As for religious fanatics, they all interpret their books in ways that suit their purpose.

[Seusse]

i cant understand why if people want to read the Bible do so without question, why has it alway got to crop up in here, if you believe thats good if you dont why dont you go ask a Minister, Priest, or whoever, someone who could answer the questions better than your everyday AB user, unless you think they will know more than anyone else, just my opinion :)

[naomi24]

^^ Amendment. All religious people, including the fanatics, interpret their books to suit their purpose.

[naomi24]

Oops. Sorry Wiz. You weren't there when I pressed submit.

[naomi24]

And neither was seusse. Sorry seusse.

[Seusse]

AB users know the bible better than any Ministers wyzard66 :D yeah of course they do lol