What is the bible really?

Question

I have read the bible at least 4 times, I have my own beliefs. But this is my problem with the bible. There are so many versions of the bible and so many decades and centuries that people have changed or conformed the bible. The bible is man's story. And how do we know that most of it isn't made up or even distorted. I mean if I say "the dog ran" and 20 other people pass that along then by the end it would probably end up like " the dog ran and then it jumped and this is why you don't have a lab" I am just saying I realize faith plays a part, and I have faith in god but not the bible. To many hypicritical and corrupted people have been involved in the transformations of it. Give me your opinon on this please?

Answer 1

Is it inappropriate to say I love you? Because I've made this point near to 100 times and am always shot down. It is very refreshing to see a faithful person that realizes that human err can distort a religion even in it's most fundamental text. Nothing comes of following anything without thought. I'm sure it states it is the perfect word of God or something but like you mentioned some shady a$$ people were involved in it's modern configuration, so why wouldn't they say that? I'd say you were reading my mind if I didn't know better, plus I'm completely and very atheist so obviously we do differ in opinion somewhere. Thank you for being independent though, it almost restores my hope for intellect.

And does it strike you too as odd that people are using quotes from the very text in question to try to change your mind, even though you clearly stated you've read it more than once?

Answer 2

The Bible is the story of God's patient love, redemption, and restoration ... warts and all!

I'm always amazed when people claim the Bible has been radically changed from the original source.

Someone said the Dead Sea Scrolls prove it. This is absolutely wrong.

Every time we find old manuscripts or papayrus, and we have a bunch of them, we consistently find a very close correlation to the scriptures we read today, with no significant excursions.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are no exception.

We know that the Old Testament writings were completed about 300 to 500 years before Jesus Christ walked the earth, yet well over 200 prophecies and hundreds more "types" in the Old Testament point only to one man ... Jesus.

This wasn't a late night rewrite job, either. It is exactly what it appears to be ... a book that accurately foretold future events, hundreds and even housands of years before they actually occurred.

Crazy men can't do things like this, but God certainly can ... and he certainly did.

Moving to the New Testament, we have an extremely close correlation with the Old.

We also have additional future prophecies that we can track, as well.

Some of them, like the destruction of the Jewish Temple by the Romans, in 70 AD have already come to pass. Some are yet to come.

People point out supposed "inconsistencies" with some of the accounts, but in the end, this type of criticism is based on nothing more than skepticism and ignorance.

Some of the greatest religious scholars and saints who ever lived, have already explained and disposed of these biblical "inconsistencies" quite handily, over a thousand years ago.

You can read it yourself in the writings of Augustine, Acquinas, and many others.

Even the wide variation of modern translations, many of which have been slightly "customized" for a particular religious group or persuasion, maintain a reasonably close correlation to the original sources.

I speak about this from experience.

I own a half dozen different versions of the Bible, plus a couple of good electronic and on-line searchable Bibles and concordances, and I've studied the Bible for nearly 50 years ... even longer, if you count only looking at the pictures.

I've also studied the original Greek and Hebrew
as well as St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate, and I've taken the time to personally investigate and correlate all the Old Testament prophecies.

I challenge anyone to do the studies and chart their work. If they do a good, complete, and thorough job of it, they'll have no doubt that the Bible is truly the Word of God, as set down by the sacred writers who were, in fact, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

This is not to say that the Bible is properly suited for all the various uses to which it is put, but that's a whole different issue!

Answer 3

"Didn’t men write the Bible?"

Absolutely. When you write a letter, do you write the letter, or does the pen? Obviously you do; the pen is merely the instrument you use. God used men as instruments to write His "letter" to humanity. They ranged from kings to common fishermen, but the 66 books of the Bible were all given by inspiration of God. Proof that this Book is supernatural can been seen with a quick study of its prophecies. See Psalm 119:105 footnote.

"The Bible has changed down through the ages."

No, it hasn’t. God has preserved His Word. In the spring of 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. These manuscripts were copies of large portions of the Old Testament, a thousand years older than any other existing copies. Study of the scrolls has revealed that the Bible hasn’t changed in content down through the ages as many skeptics had surmised. (See 1 Peter 1:25 footnote.)

Anyone can now obtain access to computer programs that give the original Hebrew and Greek words, and the only "changes" have been made for clarity. For example, the old English translation of 2 Corinthians 12:8 is "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice ...," while a contemporary translation is "Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times..."

"The fact that there are so many versions proves that the Bible has mistakes. Which one is right?"

True, there are many different versions of the Bible. There are versions in Chinese for the Chinese. There are versions in Russian for the Russian people. There are actually thousands of versions of the Bible—some are in modern languages, some in foreign languages, and some are in old English. Few, in the printing age, can claim that they don’t have access to the Scriptures in their own language. However, each translation is based on the original biblical texts. See Psalm 119:105 footnote.

Answer 4

The Bible is a worship tool. But nothing more- it is not worship in itself. You can know the Bible inside out and back to front in every translation and language, but that means little if you are not walking in the path God set for your life. I think prayer brings a lot more sense to the Bible. I admire you for reading the whole thing, esp 4 times. Ask for guidance in understanding. Like Jesus says, it is those who have not seen me but have believed that are truely blessed. Therefore, regardless of the contribution of different translations man has created, if your faith is in the right place then there are no worries. The difficulty is in placing all your trust in God and being willing for what he His going to reveal to you at a time. Remember, God will only let you see as much as you are able to deal with. God Bless :)

Answer 5

And they ended up being pretty smart and they were so stupid as to know they were doing good and did'nt even realize they were wishing us to stumble,suffocate.They did'nt even realize or did they?
I've read much of the Bible and now believe in the meaning but not the literal words because I've read some terrible things yet THE WORDS CAME BACK AROUND from horrifying me to embracing me with more exceptance in love than I would have had if it was all Lovey-Dovey words.If you think about it,like if nightmares were nonexistant then the good dreams would not have as deep of enjoyment.
So who wrote the Bible? Someone who knew what they were doing so we could get the feeling we love to feel ALL THE WAY IN?
TRUST in our Creator.The great author of all things.

Answer 6

Youre almost there. Keep thinking logically, and one day you'll lose the beleif in God too....

Youre absolutely corrrect. The Bible has been translated into 500 different languages. Language changes. Thus, the Bible has changed. Many of the details get left out. Did you know that in the original Greek versions, after the cruxciFICTION, Joseph goes to Pilate and asks for Jesus' SOMA back. SOMA was greek for LIVING BODY. Ptoma was a dead body. Why would Joe ask for a living body if he was supposedly dead??? Maybe because he wasnt?? Keep reading the Bible and you will see that Joseph goes into Jesus' tomb after sundown on Passover - something no Jew would EVER DO, as a dead body is unclean. Yet, Joe visits the tomb on Friday evening, after dark, and is carrying herbs associated with healing, not with embalming.....HHhhhmmmmmm.......
Iraneus, the "Father" of the mordern chruch chose which four Gospels would make it into the Bible - and based the decision on the erroneous thinking that there was only four elements on earth and four cardinal directions that the wind blows in. If his thinking was that F*&ked up, what else is wrong inside the Bible?????

Answer 7

The Bible is the Word of God. Yes, there have been many translations of this Word, but at the heart of it it is still the same word. For example, I just picked up a copy of "The Message: Remix" last night, which is a translation in contemporary language. The key is that you must PRAY through the bible. not just read through it.

Read, Think about what you've read, Pray for guidance and understanding of the Word that God is conveying to you, then live out what God has taught you.

It's an ancient practice called 'lectio divina' (Spiritual Reading). There are many many details of this, which you can heavily research online (google it, or do a yahoo search)

But it is briefly covered in this contemporary translation of the Bible I just picked up which I VERY briefly paraphrased about (the four steps, read, think, pray, live)

Answer 8

There is an acronym 4 the Bible . It is : B- basic I- instructions B- b4 L- leaving E- earth. God gave us humans the Bible as an instruction book and piece of the Armor of the Spirit 4 living 4 Him .

Answer 9

The Bible is a huge compilation of myth, history, wisdom literature, apocalyptic, and so on, written, compiled, edited, and re-edited by hundreds of hands over a period of many centuries. When its earliest parts were being composed, the Israelites were still polytheists, and when its last parts were being composed, they were under the influence of Hellenistic philosophy. It is indeed a collection of human words about the divine, and not divine words to human beings. It is the record of a stream of religious culture, not a single monolithic "revelation." To come to these conclusions, all you have to do is study the text deeply, without any preconceptions.

With all that said, there's much wheat with the chaff. But if you're going to separate it out, you can't check your mind at the door.

Answer 10

The Bible is the Word of God written by those who experienced Him from the beginning. It is as much faith-based as a belief in the Lord. The Lord guided the thoughts of those who wrote the Bible.