Is the Bible the infallible word of God or a text doctored by....?

Question

calligraphers, priests and politicians to satisfy their own earthly motivations?

What do you believe and why?

I believe doctored. Especially because of the Codex Sinaiticus.

I'm sorry I hate to be rude but unless you tell me WHY you believe I will have you reported. And it better not be a bible verse either

Answer 1

Modern day Christian doctrine rests upon the premise that God preserved the Bible in an absolute infallible and pure state, in order that all men should know the (historical) truth and believe in the Son of God. Their doctrinal position is that if God permitted the Bible to have been altered, then the present day church could not be genuine.

Based upon this dogmatic presumption that the Christian Church must be maintained in order for man to be saved, they reason that God would not allow the written word of the scriptures to be corrupted. Thus, modern Christians cling to this doctrine -- ignoring overwhelming evidence to the contrary -- evidence that demonstrates conclusively that our Bible has been severely altered and edited -- because they fail to grasp the very foundational principles of the New Covenant itself -- principles that are not historical, but spiritual.

It is not until we understand that the Bible is a road-map that leads us to the Gate of the Kingdom, and the Word that is written in our hearts -- rather than a final revelation from God to man -- that we are able to even begin to come to terms with the Spiritual Gospel of Christ that can never be corrupted.

When directly confronted with the overwhelming evidence and facts with respect to the wholesale corruption of the scriptures, the fundamentalist defensively responds with the rather absurd assertion that "God wrote the King James Version of the Bible". Thus, no amount of rationale will convince them that because we are the prodigal sons of our Heavenly Father, and the Kingdom is within us (Luke 17:21), that all those who truly live a consecrated life will be shown the undefiled Word of God that can be accessed by journeying along the narrow path that opens the "strait gate" that leads to the indwelling Temple (1 Cor 3:16).

The great truth which the modern Christian fails to comprehend is that, even in its corrupted form, the Bible as it has been passed down to us is sufficient to manifest the Living Word of God in the life of the individual believer.

One only has to open the New Testament to almost any page to find the message: If the believer consecrates their lives -- becomes teachable by releasing their minds from an adherence to the doctrines of men -- forgive all and judge no one -- live a simple life that is unencumbered -- do no harm to any of God’s creatures -- and seek in solitude the companionship of the Lord in the inner Temple -- that the Holy Spirit will Anoint and Teach you all the Mysteries of God as the believer begins the journey home to the Kingdom.

If the believer begins to live the consecrated Christian life -- free of the thinking and entanglements of this world -- then the indwelling Word will reveal all things to those who are sincere in their search for the Truth.

Answer 2

George Carlin had some decision words about this. you do not recognize for certain what God's regulations will be and also you would get eternal damn u . s . a . and hell hearth - yet he loves you! for sure the bible is fallible. It develop into first an oral custom and later issues were written down. you've seen the attempt the position a narrative is surpassed around the room and with the help of the time a dozen human beings retell it, it type of appears like a diverse tale. I examine that once Jesus walked the earth, the conventional man or woman had a vocabulary of 500 to seven hundred words. as a effect the will for tale telling. the first Gospel wasn't written till 40 0r 50 years after Jesus demise. countless the writers did not recognize Him. at the same time as the emperor Constantine took over the church about 350, he burned many books that were part of the bible. some survived now in many circumstances going on because the useless sea scrolls. distinctly infallible stuff.

Answer 3

I have read many of the early Christian manuscripts. There are about 2,300 manuscripts and fragments which predate the Codex Sinaiticus and its sister volume the Codex Vaticus.

When you compare the manuscripts, you will find that agreement between those early text runs about 99.7%. The 0.3% of disagreement if mostly spelling differences for the same word, or word order (it says Jesus Christ instead of Christ Jesus). There are less then 40 lines of the New Testament in which there is any serious question about the reading. All but three involve in single word (is it "Blessed by our God" or "Blessed by your God" type issues) None of them affect a single church doctrine.

The Codex Sinaiticus is a later work, a codex (book) form. The way in which the pages are sewn, and the type of caligraphy used indicate that the book was probably made in the 5th century (late 4th at the early because the type of script uses did not evolve until the very late 4th century). When compared with the earlier manuscripts, it falls within the 99.7% agreement range with one major exception. The Codex Sinaiticus (and a second book that appears to be but the same scribe, the Codex Vaticus) are both missing several of the verse at the end of Mark chapter 16.

As they are later manuscripts, and the ending is found in all known earlier version, it becomes difficult to support the idea that the ending of Mark was late addition. If that was true, it would be gone in the early manuscripts, and there in the later. Instead it is there in the early manuscripts and gone in these two later ones. (And back again in the other 5000+ manuscripts that follow it).

If you examine that actual text, you will find that in the Codex, Mark ends at the very bottom of a page, with no room for an additional lines. Both Codex end at the exact same spot, not only at the end of line and the end of a page, but in the middle of sentence. A more logical reason for missing section of Mark would appear to be that the codex from which this scribe was copying was missing a page. Since he did not have the page, he could not copy it.

The Codex Sinaiticus, with it 99.7% agreement with the 2300 early manuscripts and the 5000 later manuscripts should be reason to accept that reliability of the scriptures, rather than to reject them.

Answer 4

I find particularly amusing the response from a (presumably well-meaning) Christian who doesn't even know what Codex Sinaiticus is or where their Bible comes from. But I do think that it is important to emphasize that there are other options besides the two you list. For example, the Bible could be a collection of books that have for the most part been copied well and which reflect the faith perspective and faith committments of their various human authors. Although clearly there has been tampering with the text (see Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus for a wonderful treatment of textual criticism), it is also clear that we have a very good sense of what most of it would have looked like in the original manuscripts. Even that, however, lest I be misunderstood, tells us only that these texts were copied reasonably well - it proves nothing one way or the other about the factuality or otherwise of the details of those stories. For answers to those questions, one needs to look to history, archaeology, and other disciplines - Biblical studies on its own cannot answer them.

Answer 5

And what earthly motivations might those be? Power? Money? Control? They had those already. The Catholic Church, politicians, and military powers already were sitting pretty. The Catholic Church is no longer the most powerful in the world. Military power has limited influence in today's world. Politicians are now vilified if they are religious. It's clear you believe the texts were doctored. But that's just a belief. What you have to determine, with careful and honest research, is if your belief is correct. Don't stop at the first thing that confirms your pre-conceived ideas. Keep digging for the truth. Truth will always illuminate. Opinions will cloud the issue. By the way, threats will get you nowhere. Report all you want. The reason why we quote Scripture is to let you know that we aren't spouting our personal opinions. We are citing what is written in an ancient text that existed long before you and I.

Answer 6

I believe it is the infallible word of God because I believe in God and nothing in the Bible is at odds with the teachings of Christ or the relationship I have with God.

But my question is always...why would anyone doctor it? Or make it up? What would be the motivation? The conspiracy theory just doesn't hold up. Even if there were a few that were crazy enough to find some power trip in it...how would it continue for thousands of years...it would require many many people to be in on the conspiracy and doctoring. It just doesn't work in reality.

Answer 7

Not only doctored, but many of the books are fakes from start to finish.

Deuteronomy was discovered by the priests under King Josiah (see Kings I & II) and declared to be a 'lost' book of Moses. Strangely it contained the same contemporary Hebrew that Josiah spoke and not the much older Hebrew that someone from 600-800 years ago would have used. Also, it contained exactly the changes to Mosaic Law that Hezekiah and Josiah had been enforcing during their reigns.

God works in mysterious ways.

lol.

Answer 8

Christ is the word of God. Is a computer manual the computer; no but it reveals how you might use it. It will not tell you how to do your taxes or write your memories. As you read the bible and apply it to your life, you start to hear God's word. In this sense we can say the bible contains the word of God and if you open your self to it you will find the God you seek.

I actually worry about your use of the word infallible? Either you hear God's message - his word - or you don't. Or do you think the words themselves can be understood to contain God's authority. Really that is like me thinking a spreadsheet programme acutally thinks about 1+1 before giveing an answer, or takes joy in the colour of its graphics. The words of scripture are symbols of meaning. Even if you go back to the first evangelist who put pen to paper, he had to find a way of communicating on paper what God had revealed to him. Of course what you have in scripture, is not only one writer but a community of believers asking one of their number to write what they believe. There would have been a community editorial process and finally an general assent. This is why the stories were pass on, they were what the community believed.
Remember also these stories were written in the context of a particular culture. If you read them in the context of your own culture, blind to the authors' culture, you can not hope to understand the nuance. Various translations try to overcome this culture gap.

Finally I postulate that if God's Word could be carried in human words, it would be too much for us to take in. God will always be a mystery to be experienced or sensed, rather that defined.

So my answer is yes, that the bible can be understood to contain the Word (or message) of God and yes it has been (lovingly) doctored by the cascading communities of faith throughout human history.

Answer 9

That idea, that the Bible is infallible, is not even in the Bible. Nowhere in the Old or New Testaments can you find such a statement. The idea was concocted by the early Popes -- who of course added that they were infallible too.

Answer 10

If you've spent ANY time at all watching the discussions of the Bible on Discovery or History channel, you know that the Bible is not even translated properly, reflecting a lot of political motivations. Even the supposed 10 commandments are doctored and taken out of context.