The bible.....Why do people think that what they are reading is the word of god ?

Question

It has been through (god knows-apols..) how many translations by a number of people giving their own take on it, by believing it all word for word you are followers not of the word of God but of a translator possibly a 1000 years after Jesus had left this earth...

Answer 1

Their answer is, "Because the Bible says so."

The Bible IS the word of GOD, but their understanding of the Bible is so weak, they don't really understand what that actually means.

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Answer 2

The trouble is that people don't seem to mean the same thing when they talk about the bible. The old testament (only testament according to the Jews) is claimed to be the direct word of God, dictated to Moses. the "new" testament, is a collection of writings written by a number of people all claiming that their version is correct - apart from Revelations which appears to be written by somebody enjoying a collection of highly interesting mushrooms - all that tosh about beasts riding upon whores. Pure sci-fi.
However, if you believe that God did indeed dictate the Torah (books of moses, the first five books of the Bible), then that's an end of it - no "scientific" or "historical" or "archaeological" research needs to be done because the final definitive word is already there and if it's correct, then why do any research as it can only prove the point. If it "disproves" it, then it's wrong - period!

So, it comes down to the highly irrational - if you're a believer, you're a believer. End of story. If not, then it's meaningless anyway but might be historically interesting.


BtW: lalapetal talks about the accuracy of the Bible (Old Testament) for it's descriptions of places in Israel. I can think of several Sci-Fi books that give accurate descriptions of places on Earth - they're correct to the last detail. However, they also tell us about the cities on Venus, and on Pluto. By his/her reasoning, they must be true as well.

Answer 3

I understand the point you are making - that whatever the origin of the Bible, it has been through the human editing process and therefore is almost certainly corrupted from its original form. However, do not underestimate the devotion of the translators- if they believe that what they are translating is the word of god, they are unlikely to mess around with it. Very early manuscripts of the New Testament are remarkably like the modern translations (and the Greek texts of the Pauline era are frequently used to teach students Ancient Greek). The editorial process really is no worse than on any set of ancient stories - The Iliad springs to mind as do the Babylonian myths. Treating the Bible as an unimpreachable historical source to corroberate events - or using accepted historical fact that agrees with minor geographical points of the Bible to justify the whole thing as one of your respondants does above - is simply not good rigorous historical method. Belief is fine in its own context, but should not present itself as legitimate historical theory.

Answer 4

DOGMA!!! The scourge of the earth. The Bible has been rewritten countless times. The Dead Sea Scrolls have some of the books from the Old Testament, not the New Testament. All the stuff in Revalation has been going on forever. St. Augustine made changes, the Romans made changes, and the Vatican dropped the Gnostic Gospels. They, the Gnostics were the original Christians.

Answer 5

So..You ask a question which is covertly designed to destroy the credibility of Christianity, and this is what you write..

Firstly, you don't know how many translations it has been through

Secondly, you say these translators have "given their own take on it" Where's your evidence? Can you quote from some reputable Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew scholars?

Thirdly, you say we are not followers of the word of God but of translators. Have you ever made any attempt to study the Bible and find out if it makes sense?

Sorry, your question is full of myths (unlike the Bible), assumptions and un-scholarly comments. This is typical of the person who attacks anothers beliefs, you are immersed in your own ignorance and un-educated bigotry.

Answer 6

The bible has many translations so that people better understand it. The original had to be put into "now a days" language as we wouldnt understand there language and words then, as they were used differently and had different meanings. Also, society today is not exactly the smartest people. as even newspapers are at a 3rd grade reading level. The "thee's and thou's" are taken out to update the language used today. Basically it is the same though.

Answer 7

People want to believe in something, some believe in Elvis and some believe that works written by men (and translate many times by men) are the words of God. Some people take placebo and find themselves cured from disease because they believed in sugar pills, believing isn't always bad, forcing your believes up on others are on the other hand always bad.

Answer 8

It is the writings of the teachings basically. Any catholic school girl worth her salt knows that the bible was mostly written from excerpts of scriptures found and the verbal teachings that were prolific at the time of its inception. We are also taught that the bible is a guide for Christians not an absolute word for word direction. Nuns taught me this, if nothing else. They also taught me that free will is a marvellous thing, which is why I do NOT believe now. These people to whom you are referring obviously didn't have progressive nuns for teachers. Shame for them.

Answer 9

Nearly original manuscripts still exist, written within 30 years of the original written books of the bible. By camparing how each translation differs from these extremely accurate scrolls, we can determine how accurate the current translations are.

Answer 10

Because desperate people with a void in their lives will cling to anything that brings them some sense of faith and contentment. A true believer in spiritual matters, one would hope, can discern with care and enlightenment. Those that take the Bible literaly, like troubled and wounded children, should be seen with compassion. They lack the spiritual maturity to evaluate life independantly.