Were the authors of the Bible fantasists or we're they just capitalizing on widespread superstition?

Answer 1

many of the time thought the same things about the prophets .. in fact they hunted them down and killed them many times ... there has been much misuse of religeon in the centuries past, but where it came from and those who wrote it were not involved in that ...

Answer 2

Those who wrote the Bible had many different reasons for writing the different books that they did. In fact, biblical literature represents 1,000 years worth of literature written by more than 60 authors, the majority of whom are actually unknown. Despite what many Christians may insist, the Bible did not descend to earth by the hand of God as it is today--in fact, the theology that teaches that the Bible is "the inerrant, literal Word of God" didn't arise until the last three or four centuries.

What is important is to know the history behind EACH AND EVERY book of the Bible and why they were written. The majority of the Old Testament was written during the exile period, when Israel found itself captive to the Babylonians who had destroyed their temple. They faced a major crisis at this time: how were God's people to remain faithful without a temple? What is the identity of our people, and how can we maintain that? As a result, literature arose to answer these questions, some of which comprises the Old Testament. Exodus is a sort of defining literature (fiction, of course) that tells Israel what its idenity and history is; I and II Kings tells the story of a fictional king (David) who embodies the greatest hopes of this people in exile.

Here the link between literature and tradition is important: the Jewish tradition of this time paved the way for the New Testament worldview. Add this to Hellenistic influences, particularly Plato, Anaximander, and Phylo of Alexandria, and Christianity is born. Most of the literature of the New Testament concerns how this new worldview is to survive and thrive--if you will note, Revelation is born of the same tradition as the Old Testament prophet literature with only two or three major developments (and I DO NOT believe that it is supposed to tell the future of the end of the world).

So, superstition is somewhat of a loaded term, although I'm sure you're aware of that. But the answer is that they were more like fantasists, but so were almost all literature writers of the time. You just can't get the modern version of the novel or expository polemic written in 1000 BC. It's a question of literary genre and worldview, not superstition and profit.

Hope this helps to answer your question!

Answer 3

None of the Bible’s Writers Believed That Jesus is God:

Christians and Muslims both believe in Jesus, love him, and honor him. They are, however, divided over the question of his divinity.

Fortunately, this difference can be resolved if we refer the question to both the Bible and the Quran, because, both the Bible and the Quran teach that Jesus is not God.

It is clear enough to everyone that the Quran denies the divinity of Jesus, so we do not need to spend much time explaining that.

On the other hand, many people misunderstand the Bible; they feel that the belief in Jesus as God is so widespread that it must have come from the Bible. This article shows quite conclusively that the Bible does not teach that.

The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is not God. In the Bible God is always someone else other than Jesus.

Some will say that something Jesus said or something he did while on the earth proves that he is God. We will show that the disciples never came to the conclusion that Jesus is God. And those are people who lived and walked with Jesus and thus knew first hand what he said and did. Furthermore, we are told in the Acts of the Apostles in the Bible that the disciples were being guided by the Holy Spirit. If Jesus is God, surely they should know it. But they did not. They kept worshipping the one true God who was worshipped by Abraham, Moses, and Jesus (see Acts 3:13).

All of the writers of the Bible believed that God was not Jesus. The idea that Jesus is God did not become part of Christian belief until after the Bible was written, and took many centuries to become part of the faith of Christians.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, authors of the first three Gospels, believed that Jesus was not God (see Mark 10:18 and Matthew 19:17). They believed that he was the son of God in the sense of a righteous person. Many others too, are similarly called sons of God (see Matthew 23:1-9).

Paul, believed to be the author of some thirteen or fourteen letters in the Bible, also believed that Jesus is not God. For Paul, God first created Jesus, then used Jesus as the agent by which to create the rest of creation (see Colossians 1:15 and 1 Corinthians 8:6). Similar ideas are found in the letter to the Hebrews, and also in the Gospel and Letters of John composed some seventy years after Jesus. In all of these writings, however, Jesus is still a creature of God and is therefore forever subservient to God (see 1 Corinthians 15:28).

Now, because Paul, John, and the author of Hebrews believed that Jesus was God’s first creature, some of what they wrote clearly show that Jesus was a pre-existent powerful being. This is often misunderstood to mean that he must have been God. But to say that Jesus was God is to go against what these very authors wrote. Although these authors had this later belief that Jesus is greater than all creatures, they also believed that he was still lesser than God. In fact, John quotes Jesus as saying: “...the Father is greater than I.” (John 14:28). And Paul declares that the head of every woman is her husband, the head of every man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God (see 1 Corinthians 11:3).

Therefore, to find something in these writings and claim that these teach that Jesus is God is to misuse and misquote what those authors are saying. What they wrote must be understood in the context of their belief that Jesus is a creature of God as they have already clearly said.

So we see then, that some of the later writers had a higher view of Jesus, but none of the writers of the Bible believed that Jesus is God. The Bible clearly teaches that there is only one true God, the one whom Jesus worshipped (see John 17: 3).

In the rest of this article we will explore the Bible in more depth, and deal with the passages which are most often misquoted as proofs of Jesus’ divinity. We will show, with God’s help, that these do not mean what they are so often used to prove.

Answer 4

Hello,

What a good question.Would never think of it myself.

In fact, Nazorean Gnostics or Manichaeans regard some authors in the book as just men starting fanciful superstitions, there are books in the Bible whic are true, but some are worthy enough to be ignored, because they sound unreal. They may even put ideas in your head.

Answer 5

They just wrote of the legends they have been told by those older than themselves.
Stories were handed down from generation to generation, some were inadvertantly changed, some got changed to fill in gaps of remembrance. It was honest thought of a flawed principal.

Answer 6

A more pertinent question: Why do atheist trolls hang out in the "Religion & Spirituality" section of Yahoo Answers????

Isn't there an "Atheism" section??????

Answer 7

Maybe they were just writing what they were inspired to write? Why not that possibility? Why count that one out?

Answer 8

I don't know but they had a terrible agent, not one of them made any money out of it.

Answer 9

Little of column A, little of column B....

Answer 10

they were pompous bs'ers, just like you.