Disclaimer: I'm an agnostic
Wouldn't you want to learn about the REAL Jesus, not some book that was translated and mistakes were made. Wouldn't it be about learning about what he might have really said, and not what some st jerome translated in 400AD in rome because he was thought to be the "smart" one, or cause some king in 1611 said sure go with it?
Wouldn't your love of him who changed your life not be dependent on words on one page in one verse, but the history behind how that verse got to be in front of you in English?
One of the reasons I am an agnostic, is in my own spiritual journey, I learned of the translation errors.
The message of love humanity is clear, but wouldn't you want to try and learn and become familiar with why what it is is in the modern English Bible? Even if it wasn't in the oldest copies of the original?
2006-08-31 05:47:36 · 16 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I would love to meet my savior and believe that I will meet Him in heaven when I am gone from this earth :)
2006-08-31 06:31:20 · answer #1 · answered by ♥ Luveniar♫ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
What a super-de-dooper question! I'm not being sarcastic, that's really the first exclamation of delight that came to mind.
Aaaargh. If you have trouble falling asleep at night, check out certain ones of the KJV-Onlyism debate sites. It'll either bore you to tears, or make you despair that ANYONE who claims the name of Jesus really knows him at all. An exception might be
http://www.deanburgonsociety.org/
And I'm saying this as one, in her quest for knowing Jesus, keeps coming back to the KJV, because it's the version where I seem to be getting most of those spine-tingling, teardrop in the eye, "coinky-dink" confirmations that God is really wrapped up in the writing of that mystical Holy Book. I like reading the Message (Peterson's modern day paraphrase of the Bible, very well done), but it is the KJV, which, for reasons based on personal experience and academic investigation, I go to when I'm looking for "what God says" about this matter or that, when I'm digging for the mystical relationships between various words as translated into English by a diverse committee of men devoted to capturing the essence of the most reliable Greek and Hebrew manuscripts.
HOWEVER, my Christian brothers and sisters in China, and other countries where Christianity is suppressed, know Jesus with only a precious scrap or two of the Bible hidden where the authorities can't find it. Reading the Bible is a huge path toward getting to know Jesus intimately, but the Bible itself explains how such believers can be so firm in their passion for Jesus, even with access to so very little scripture:
Philippians 3:8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung*, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
* Why would I want to read a version that prettied up THAT word? ;)
P.S. "Oldest" copies does not mean "best" copies. "Best" and "earliest" copies were widely known to be reliable by the early church, and so got read and read and read until they disintegrated, before which more copies of these best copies were sent into the world. Corrupt copies got tossed into the junk storage room, where they outlived all the earlist versions of the truly best copies, and were discovered centuries later, to be erroneously declared the "earliest" and "best" manuscripts.
2006-08-31 06:13:08 · answer #2 · answered by miraclewhip 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The translations are reliable bc we have some older manuscripts we can check back to. Some changes are inevitable, bc of the way our language use changes, and some words may be translated in different ways, but the overall message is the same. The Bible is trustworthy.
2006-08-31 05:54:15 · answer #3 · answered by STEPHEN J 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Lucky me, I majored in Greek and Latin in college. I was an agnostic at the time and not even interested reading the New Testament. My cousin gave me a copy of the original NT in Greek, and it just sat on my shelf for years, since I preferred Xenophon, Homer, Ovid, Vergil....
Of course, now that I have found my faith, I have found it very valuable to be able to read the New Testament in Greek. I love the way that God was looking out for me even when I didn't know him.
2006-08-31 05:58:17 · answer #4 · answered by anabasisx 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I am so sorry that you feel the "Bible" is just some book with mistakes. You seem to be a very intelligent man. I can't believe you have the views that you do, when we have so much available to us, concerning the Father, and The Son and The Holy Spirit. Maybe, if it's not to late, you will realize your error in judgment and turn to God for help and guidance.
2006-08-31 06:00:42 · answer #5 · answered by BlueAngel 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's a process:
1. The higher-ups discourage it because then people would leave their "church".
2. They make up things saying "you must do this or you're going to hell."
3. People listen for fear of hell.
4. When new information comes out, they call the person that believed it a "sinner" for not possessing their own blind faith.
It's a vicious circle.
2006-08-31 06:02:45 · answer #6 · answered by Allison L 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The Bible is the Word of God! That same word can bring a person into a real relationship with God. A relationship that correctly divides the word of God. It is the indwelling of the Holy Ghost which is the goal for the quest for God. The Bible is good enough to bring us the knowledge of how to receive and keep God's Salvation. God said it, that settles it!
2006-08-31 05:59:47 · answer #7 · answered by Apostle Jeff 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I agree that the Bible is a cherry-picked assortment of poorly translated documents, and like you began to doubt its veracity.
A little deeper investigation made me realize that the Bible was concocted my mortal men, and has very little of divine inspiration in it.
I honestly don't understand why other Christians just blindly accept what is written. Who knows? They probably wonder how we can question the wisdom of what they believe to be an absolute source of truth...
2006-08-31 05:58:30 · answer #8 · answered by th3_0n3_r1ng 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
U see....thats difference between a real christian and an agnostic.
For Jesus himself says....Blessed is he who believes in me even though he has not seen me.
2006-08-31 05:54:06 · answer #9 · answered by Marcos 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I didn't become a Christian because of what i read or what people told me.I am one because i experienced his love and forgiveness.But the choice is yours.
2006-08-31 05:53:10 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋