Bible believers, do you really know what you're getting yourself into?

Question

I am, as I type this, in the Library of Congress (waiting for a book, it takes forever for them to retrieve them). I sat down at a computer, just happened to be in the Reference section. To my left right and back (and beyond) are literally thousands of texts of and about the bible. All of them are different, saying different things about your God, many contradict the other. To my immediate right is the Concodance to the Septuagint, by Hatch and Redpath. Do you know what the Septuagint is? I'll save you the answer, it's a Greek biblical text that says a lot of different things than the Latin Text. My question is this, now that I've seen the literally thousands of different texts in and about the Bible, have those who believe it to be true actually considered that for centuries people have disagreed over what is and is not in it or what wording to use? There are so many differences, did you actually think of that before calling it inerrant?

Answer 1

The Septuagintis the oldest known ancient translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek.

The Hebrew Bible may refer to either the Hebrew language or to the Hebrew people who historically used Hebrew as a spoken language, and have continuously used the language in prayer and study, or both.

Tanakh is an acronym for the three parts of the Hebrew Bible:
the Torah ("Teaching/Law" also known as the Pentateuch),
Nevi'im ("Prophets"),
Ketuvim ("Writings," or Hagiographa

The Septuagint was generally abandoned in favour of the Masoretic text as the basis for translations of the Old Testament into Western languages from Martin Luther's Protestant Bible to the present day; already Jerome's Vulgate was based on the Hebrew.

The earliest Latin translation was the Old Latin text, or Vetus Latina, which, from internal evidence, seems to have been made by several authors over a period of time. It was based on the Septuagint, and thus included books not in the Hebrew Bible.

Pope Damasus I assembled the first list of books of the Bible at the Council of Rome in 382 A.D. He commissioned Saint Jerome to produce a reliable and consistent text by translating the original Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin. This translation became known as the Latin Vulgate Bible and was declared by the Church to be the only authentic and official Bible.

As Hebrew and Greek, the original languages of the Bible, have idioms and concepts not easily translated, there is an on going critical tension about whether it is better to give a word for word translation or to give a translation that gives a parallel idiom in the target language. For instance, in the English language Catholic translation, the New American Bible, as well as the Protestant translations of the Christian Bible, translations like the King James Version, the New Revised Standard Version and the New American Standard Bible are seen as literal translations (or "word for word"), whereas translations like the New International Version and New Living Version attempt to give relevant parallel idioms. The Living Bible and The Message are two paraphrases of the Bible that try to convey the original meaning in contemporary language. The further away one gets from word to word translation, the text becomes more readable while relying more on the theological, linguistic or cultural understanding of the translator, which one would not normally expect a lay reader to require.

The differences of Bibles can be further researched by the Alexandrian Cannon (Catholics) and the Palestinian Cannon (accepted by Jews and and most Protestants) .

Answer 2

First off God is real. It is a Sin to Murder.Its iteresting that you used Murder instead of Kill which makes the argument easier.Murder is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent (or malice aforethought) and you must understand that Murder isnt the same as killing for other reasons.God often commanded war in the old testament.Because you believe in loving each other and not killing for no good reason,doesnt mean you dont have the right to protect yourself,your family or others.Without war,which is often the "good" fight,we cannot protect ourselves. On the contrary,our Bible teaches us of good but warns us of evil.You cannot deny it is here.Ignoring it wont make it go away.Violence is at an all time high.You cannot simply forget the danger.That would simply be wreckless.We know there is good,we do love.But I think its a little imaginative to think that a big hug and a positive attitude will turn a robber away,right?That if you dont expect that bad things will happen they wont.Thats just silly. If you dont have a full understanding of religion,how can you say its contradictory? You obviously dont know the first thing about what the Bible says. It is a common mistake that non believers make.Christians have to study the Bible to have a true understanding,it takes time and knowledge.But here comes some know-it-all that read one verse,or rallied with some other non-believer about what the Bible says and thinks they know it all. By the way,even science is full of contradictions,opposing opinions and misinterpretation.

Answer 3

I don't doubt that you have done extreme, meticulous research on proving the Bible to be wrong. It must have been an exhaustive project!! But, if you have the time and money to spend on it, good for you.

If you are going under the premise that the Bible is untrue because some people "disagreed" with it years ago and that the Library of Congress shelves these books...you are going to be diappointed. There are a lot of different books and articles about Elvis, John Lennon, Hitler, Howard Hughes, etc., but that is because some writers have a vengence on these famous icons and wish to capture the larger audience, just like your little authors there.

Sure the Bible audience is immense! That is why these non-beleivers are against the Bible, they hope to reach them out of spite. Do you think that beleivers would waste time looking to prove it wrong, when they already know that it is the Word of God? Why? Who has that kind of time to waste?

So look, now you have used very mature words and references and we are all very impressed. However, you are speaking to the wrong audience. Beleivers don't listen to angry non-beleivers for truth. A life in God's kingdom has already touched the hearts of beleivers to keep them safe and content in HIs embrace.

You can read the "opinons" of writers in any library that you want, but that won't make them smarter or wiser, nor you. Millions of people read the National Enquirer to find out about Brittany Spears or Oprah, does that make it true? The audience size doesn't determine the validity of the text. Otherwise all of the Harry Potter stories would have to be considered true.

Go home and relax, you did a day's work...but with no pay, or payoff.

Answer 4

Now that you have seen all the books about the Bible in the Library of Congress. Do you hold a higher respect for that same book. Because of its evident importants.

Hermeneutics is the vehicle to understanding the words of the Bible

Answer 5

I have to laugh at some of the answers your getting, like from Marc P-
"If the King James bible was good enough for Jesus, its good enough for me!"

Christ never said to His Apostles, "Go and write Bibles and distribute them, and let everyone judge for himself." That injunction was reserved for the Sixteenth Century, and we have seen the result of it. Ever since the Sixteenth Century there have been springing up religion upon religion, and churches upon churches, all fighting and quarreling with one another, and all because of the private interpretation of the Bible.

And why is SlamDunk and
ocdfj talking about Satan and the devil.
I re-read your question and do not see why they would bring this up...........


And the Bible only believers,
The idea that all revealed truth is to be found in "66 books" is not only not in Scripture, it is contradicted by Scripture (1 Corinthians 11:2, 2 Thessalonians 2:15, 2 Thessalonians 3:6, 1 Timothy 3:15, 2 Peter 1:20-21, 2 Peter 3:16). It is a concept unheard of in the Old Testament, where the authority of those who sat on the Chair of Moses (Matthew 23:2-3) existed. In addition to this, for 400 years, there was no defined canon of "Sacred Scripture" aside from the Old Testament; there was no "New Testament"; there was only Tradition and non-canonical books and letters.

The lesson, though, is this: relying on the "Bible alone" is a bad idea; we are not to rely solely on Sacred Scripture to understand Christ's message. While Scripture is "given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16-17), it is not sufficient for reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness. It is the Church that is the "pillar and ground of Truth" (1 Timothy 3:15)! Jesus did not come to write a book; He came to redeem us, and He founded a Sacramental Church through His apostles to show us the way. It is to them, to the Church Fathers, to the Sacred Deposit of Faith, to the living Church that is guided by the Holy Spirit, and to Scripture that we must prayerfully look.

Answer 6

I have read the Bible and have taken courses about it - real college courses that actually talk about what is and isn't verifiable. I understand that some stories are allegories and some things have been mistranslated from the original Greek. The basics for my Christian faith are summed up as follows: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. If I only live my life according to these two rules then I will have lived a Godly and righteous life. It seems to me that the technicalities of which parts of the Bible are true are irrelevant to my faith.

Answer 7

You seem to be a person, that is way to smart for God, And For Satan, You also believe that once you are dead, you are in deed dead, and there is nothing beyond this life. You are also the type that has no faith in anything but what you read, except for the Bible, Knowledge and money are your gods, And do these gods give you true comfort? When something like death or cancer, or other such things disturb your life? No matter what you will never find comfort in your knowledge! And as an end result you will try your best to discourage, and to turn others from God, You remind me of Saul, the one who later became Paul, for years he persecuted Christians, be Jesus revealed himself to him, You really should seek to know Jesus, instead of trying to chase others away from Jesus, I encourage you to come to grips with the fact that Jesus is, And you are not God. Regardless of what you believe, take your education to new heights and learn to come to know Jesus.

Answer 8

I happen to also use the Septuagint.
And, beyond the inspired word of God, all books can contain error.
This is why the facts of our faith should be found ONLY in the Bible.
As for the modern versions, anyone that has taken the time to study KNOWS about the differences. Those of us that are the most serious have determined to dig for the truth.

Answer 9

There is one thing that I have not deceived myself about. If the devil knew what to that out of the bible he would do it. And if he knew what to change he would. Regardless of the bible differences, it is a spiritual book. It is not design that the full texts be understood with the natural eye. That is why we have so many differences. The intellect of man trying to understand the things of God.

The scripture teaches we are to ask for the Holy Spirit of understanding. The spirit that comes from God. When we allow the spirit to work in our life the bible has done its job.

Answer 10

Yup. I've known about it for ages.

There really is only a small percentage of people who think there is only ONE end all - be all - inerrant - THE bible.

Most of us know there are hundreds upon thousands of translations.

Usually people who say THE bible (yeah? which one?) is the inerrant word of God - are refering to the King James Version.

How about the "naughty" version of the King James. In the 1631 edition they forgot the "not" in the commandment about adultery. It became known as the Wicked Bible.

You too can have a copy for a mere $89,500
http://www.greatsite.com/ancient-rare-bibles-books/platinum.html

How about that each publishing house puts their own spin on the bible?

Nifty little article:
http://www.asapnet.net/remnant/page5isKJVonly.htm

Another nifty article:
http://www.biblecollectors.org/bible_misprints.htm