How do we know that we are following the "True" word of God and not of the Churches?
The Bible is thousands of years old. How do we know the scriptures weren't manipulated, modified, or altered by the Church throughout time? After all, we are just mere mortal sinners.
2007-01-24 12:24:59 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
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2007-01-24 12:32:26 · update #1
You need to take a course on Bible history and translations of the Bible to fully understand that question. The Jewish scribes were possibly the most pickiest people when it was coming to copying the books onto new scrolls. They knew exactly were each word was in a given line and they knew exactly where a given letter was, so when they checked for errors they numbered them and if the numbers did not add up the hunt was on for the error. If they found so many errors on a scroll they destroyed it.
2007-01-24 12:35:53 · answer #1 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is a way of finding out what God did not say.
If it doesn't follow(reality, good judgment), he didn't say it.
If it doesn't come to pass, it is not the word that The Lord hath spoken(old testament, Deuteronomy).
The admonition of the new testament is, Prove all things.
The new testament does not tell people to "believe without proof."
Which "bible" is thousands of years old? The bible is very old, but nothing absolutely proves it thousands of years old.
If the bible is true, it has to be proved by present day reality.
The church was never able to be the monopoly thought
police that traditional history makes it out to have been.
Possession is nine-tenths of the law. God is the sole owner
of the two testaments. The church is not.
The word "bible" isn't even in the bible.
There is no "original" manuscript, nor any "original" book copy.
Any atheist can tell you that.
The reason why the "real" scriptures still survive has to do with
power, and possession. God has absolute power, and no church does. God is the absolute possessor of the scriptures
and the church is not. God is the caretaker of it, and the
church doesn't have the power to be that.
The two testaments are old. Old words are going to be used
in it. The true word would bridge the gaps between ancient,
medieval, and modern times. This would have to be the case,
otherwise it can be proved that God is changeable.
Christians are not told to believe without proof.
Truth is never going to be far away. It's always right near by.
2007-01-24 21:10:31 · answer #2 · answered by Bubba 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There's a book called Misquoting Jesus that covers things like how scribes may have reworded things to fit a more unifying message, or also how they possibly made mistakes in the New Testament referring to the Old Testament. There's a large gap between the supposed events of the New Testament and when they were actually recorded, and not all the manuscripts or "codecs" have the same passages or wording. There are no originals, only copies of copies of copies. The book even covers mistakes in the King James translation into English. The "Word" of God is actually a collection of different letters and books, many were left out because they didn't fit a unifying message. Misquoting Jesus talks about how some of these books are still left out or some other books are added to Bibles in different parts of the world. If you include or exclude a book, are they still inherent or still God's word? The codices haven't changed in thousands of years, but the gap between the time of the supposed events and their copies could have had potential change. Even modern translations will change the message to fit their beliefs. The only way to filter that out is to learn the original languages and read the codices.
2007-01-24 21:09:10 · answer #3 · answered by Hiroshi 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We can tell by the way the modern Bible reflects older histories.
There are some things that just don't fly, and you'll know them when you see them. For example, if you were reading along in Exodus and you see where Moses says, "Wut up, G!" then you have good reason to suspect some funny business.
There are certain words and phrases that were in use only in certain periods, and in fact there are certain spellings of names that were popular at certain times, then they went out of use. These particular usages still appear in the Hebrew OT and Greek NT, and so we have some certainty that they've been translated correctly.
Examples:
Names beginning with J (Hebrew "y") were spelled with a "jehu" (or Hebrew "yehu") for a few hundred years before the exile to Babylon.
There is a phrase that appears in Egyptian texts only between 1400-1200 BC, "each man did what was right in his own eyes". The Egyptian version is worded only slightly differently, but the phrase appears in the book of judges in several places, indicating that the book was likely written between 1400-1200 BC and it retained the wording until today, showing little change.
On the other hand, there are certain words that were edited in throughout the OT, and we know this because the editors missed a few. I can't recall off hand what they were, but it's funny to see the word inserted into periods before it was invented and then to see that some places still retain the old term.
2007-01-24 20:39:23 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
>>The Bible is thousands of years old. How do we know the scriptures weren't manipulated, modified, or altered by the Church throughout time?<<
They were, by the Catholic Church. Read Bart Ehrman's books.
2007-01-24 20:34:49 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I just want to say that your question is great. People don't know. However, this only discounts some of their viewpoints, but not their belief in God. To follow a book that was written 2000 years ago seems mildly absurd to those of us who don't agree, yet, like a said in another answer, I think for believers its not what the Bible says, so much as what it stands for. The same people also believe that it was written by disciples and couldn't have been made up. We just can't know for sure. And as long as the people that follow the Bible are okay with it, it shouldn't matter to anyone else. I'm agnostic, but I don't discount people's choice to believe as they wish and live their lives by the Bible.
2007-01-24 20:34:58 · answer #6 · answered by eastchic2001 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Every once in a while I experience a Rayma from God, I think you can google the word for a better tranlation. Thats when God teaches you when you read the bible about him or something in his word. I don't think that could happen, if the word was amnipulated or changed ect.
2007-01-24 20:42:06 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The bible was altered. The Church removed several gospels that they did not agree with. Also, several passages were written hundreds of years after they happened.
And of course it was translated from Hebrew into Latin into German into English. I'd be really surprised if it was the same as it had been when first written.
2007-01-24 20:32:38 · answer #8 · answered by runner08 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
This was my reason for study of the bible.
When you study the bible and learn that religion uses it as a religious formula with a pick and choose what you want to represent your religion, then you realize that religions do not know the bible, they do not represent the bible, they represent their religion.
The bible is wide open for you or any one else to know, if you can learn it, if you have been reared in a religion, toss your belief, replace it with bible.
2007-01-24 20:59:39 · answer #9 · answered by jeni 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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2007-01-24 20:29:19 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋