Secular history books quote from it frequently. Entire continents base their laws upon it. It details the lives of people from before the time of the Egyptians. It unites ancient legends from other nations. It gives deep insights into once-mighty cultures... Or does it?
I would like to hear your favorite historical arguments for and against the Bible. A great book to read regarding this question would be "The Exodus Case", by Dr. Lennart Moller.
http://www.amazon.com/Exodus-Case-Discoveries-Confirm-Historical/dp/8772472308/sr=1-1/qid=1158097533/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-5066511-4095007?ie=UTF8&s=books
Please feel free to get meaningless insults out of your system. Elsewhere.
P.S.
If it is a question about dates, remember that most historians can't even agree when particular Pharaohs ruled.
2006-09-12 10:55:32 · 22 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
devlsadvoct:
Thanks for the correction, as it gave everyone some good insight. I was referring to it in the "it is normally bought and sold as a single book" sense. It is also commonly referred to as a "textbook" in various education courses.
2006-09-12 11:02:44 · update #1
Oy vey, please quote your sources or give examples when you say that the Bible went through numerous revisions, modifications and such. You are trying to sound smart without giving us something of substance to research.
2006-09-12 11:04:28 · update #2
Historically it is the most accurate of all religious books bar none. Starting with the 2nd chapter of the Bible in Genesis it mentions 4 rivers that were tributaries from the river that was in the Garden of Eden two of which are the Tigress and Euphrates Rivers which are still around. All anyone has to do is look at magazines such as Biblical Archeology which document findings current and past and it has been published for many years with back issues often available. Ancient Tablets found reference the name of King David, the same Ramses (there were several) that ruled as Pharaoh when Moses was around, left his tomb which has been discovered with other tombs near the Valley of the Kings. The ruins of Sodom and the walls of Jericho have been found. Many ancient peoples as the Hittites have left there artifacts. In Israel to this day are ruins from the time of Jesus. there is so much to know that literally volumes have been written of all that has been found. The video "The Exodus Revealed" documents with clarity the site where the Egyptian army chased the Israelites through the Red Sea. The Bible states that God caused the wheels of the Egyptian chariots to fall off and there are numerous ancient chariot wheel in that sea now. Also the Bible said that the Egyptian army was destroyed from one side of the sea to another and chariot wheels and axles are found on both sides of the beaches there.
2006-09-15 13:34:22 · answer #1 · answered by Ernesto 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I tried to email you earlier but yahoo said your email hasn't been verified yet. I agree, It's hard to debate our points this way, since you and I tend to go back and forth. Please try to email me with a response to my last posting to your "Abiogenesis" question.
And now my answer to this question (sorry for the length but it is necesarry to prove my case):
I'll assume your agenda is the same here....To prove your god wins by default.
Being the most well preserved book Isn't proof that your God is real.
If you are going to use that as the standard to determine who's god wins then you open a can of worms:
You can't provide ANY EVIDENCE that the text in your ancient bible was written before the oldest egyptian scrolls. Just because your bible describes ancient people doesn't prove it was written during that time period) . Correct me if I'm wrong but weren't the scrolls found in very good condition?.... Thousands of years without being disturbed or translated. MANY historians believe they predate christianity and the bible (at least the historians interviewed on the discovery channel believe this). The scrolls refer to the sun god, RAH. Do you believe in RAH? If no, why?
As far as ancient legends go, your bible takes the cake. Here is a condensed version of genesis:
An old man in the sky created the first man from dust, the first woman from a rib-bone, a "talking" snake and a tree that produces "magic" apples. You see, these apples give you special knowledge when eaten....
.....now is the part when you tell me that it hasn't been interpreted correctly. Then I list the large number of christianity offshoots who have different interpretations and you claim yours is correct.....they all claim theirs is correct....we end up where we started......NO PROOF.
Your LAW argument: What about CHINA? While your biblical characters were rubbing dog spittal on their wounds and running from thunderstorms because they had "angered the gods", Ancient chinese were doing more important things like building clocks and forming governments (without the help of the 10 commandments or Hammurabi's laws).
Sorry my friend, your bible is just a book....just ideas written by mere mortals.
2006-09-12 15:27:55 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Biblical Archeology magazine, as well as the book The Bible Unearthed, both have stated that the numbers given in the Bible for the Exodus event is wrong... that there were not that many hebrew slaves... note I said Slaves... during that time. Archeology has shown that many hebrews were actually landowners in Egypt before, during and after the given time of the Exodus. With that in mind, I find it hard to believe that the Bible gives actual Details to lives. Also, there are double stories... King Az... (I forget how to spell the name!) is said to have been in his 20's when he gained the throne... then another says he was in his 40's. Solomons stables are given in number twice... each number different. There are many others that pop up in there... so I find it hard to believe that Details were given like that... not when they can't even be consistent and they are talking about the same thing.
I can agree, however, that is has been preserved... though I wouldn't say well-preserved as I believe a lot of meaning has been lost in translations... such as the fact that Unicorns are in the Bible... yet today we know, that is not what they are. (well, at least some of us know). Also the fact that so many people interchange Spirit with Soul... yet you don't see anyone calling the Holy Spirit... the Holy Soul, as these are different things. Yet the meanings of these things have changed over time... therefore are mainly lost to the common reader.
2006-09-12 15:35:50 · answer #3 · answered by Kithy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe it is the most well-preserved ancient historical text, and nothing short of a miracle, simply by the mear fact that it is a collection of books, written by different people over the course of hundreds of years. The messages in the books individually tell a story and when you put them together it reveals a more in depth view of the history of our world. It give us the reason and purpose that we are in existence and it foreshadows the end to come. Each book in the collection could stand alone as a great work, but put together, they testify to all the world, the truths written within each.
2006-09-12 11:15:33 · answer #4 · answered by carpediem 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think that you needn't be so hard on individuals that do not offer specific dates and references. I thought that it was fairly well known that the Bible has gone through some revisions, although I would be hard pressed to come up with dates and references that all well read people would agree on. Most well preserved text? Who knows, but it does make for some fascinating reading. If you are looking for some interesting thoughts on the subject I highly suggest reading Holy Blood Holy Grail - it is long and tedious at times, but does make one wonder...........
2006-09-12 11:30:31 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, I'd say its the most well preserved historical text. There are tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts of the Bible -- more so than for any other ancient text. The next is the Iliad which has about 600 ancient manuscripts, yet nobody doubts the authenticity of the Iliad.
2006-09-12 10:59:57 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
It is of course clearly not the "most well-preserved ancient historical text." There are many documents that come to us through far fewer redactions, revisions, and translations. That said, this is probably a very stacked argument in several respects. Ultimately, the value of the Judeo-Christian canon is as a spiritual document for adherents of those two religious traditions, not a historiographic text per se.
2006-09-12 10:58:15 · answer #7 · answered by snowbaal 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I disagree with you... The Bible is not a well preserved historical text, on the contrary it has many errors, miscalculations, contradictions and faults...
If you realiy want to invest some time in order to clear this misconception then you should read this doc file fully... if you have no time then off course I'll feel sorry for you... the link is
http://www.irf.net/is_the_bible_gods_word.doc
2006-09-12 11:24:03 · answer #8 · answered by Darkness_to_Light 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The bible is a book of mythology and there is much dispute about its value as a historical record.
People do not agree about the dates and events recorded in the bible, either, so your reference to Egyptians is unclear as to the point.
The only known bible to exist was invented in the 4th Century and known as the "Codex Sinaiticus." It bears little resemblance to anything we call a Bible today, so it is obvious the Bible is not a "well preserved historical text."
2006-09-12 11:01:13 · answer #9 · answered by Left the building 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Actually the Art of War is the most well preserved document to have survived the test of time. It was written in it's entirety by a single person in one life time, the Bible was written by many people hundreds and thousands of years apart; because of this it is incoherent and contradictory.
2006-09-12 11:01:15 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋