Why were there later human additions to the Bible and the Torah?

Question

If there were human addition to God's Words, wouldn't that change the original message of God? Is it not God's Words incomparable to human speech? Wouldn't that be consider impure, and distorted?
Please don't take this offensive, I am merely wondering why..

my Christian teacher said something about the creation of the Earth in the Bible..He said that in the Bible, it says that Earth was created 10,000 years ago..
and I think I have read something about the 4 Gospels written by Jesus Christ's(pbuh) disciples. Isn't that human addition?
Please correct me if I'm wrong..

Wasn't the New Testament written by someone when the person was referring to the Old Testament?

Didn't Jesus Christ (pbuh) receive the Bible from God?

Answer 1

Indoctrinated much?

Can you give some examples in regards to the Torah? The dead sea scrolls along with other archaeological findings show it to be identical.

Answer 2

Quantrill is 100% correct -- the Dead Sea Scrolls prove the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) is essentially unchanged from thousands of years ago. (The Torah -- Law -- is contained within the Tanakh.)

Similarly, the oldest existant copies we have of the New Testament are also unchanged. Interestingly, a very small piece of the Gospel of Mark was found in one of the caves (my memory tells me it was cave #9) along with the Dead Sea Scrolls. The text is also unchanged.

Do you perhaps perceive a "change" to be slight differences in translation? When one translation uses a certain word, but another translation uses another word that has the same meaning as the first translation -- this isn't really a difference, is it?

Perhaps you've been told that you cannot trust the Hebrew Bible to be God's true word because some Muslims interpret Jeremiah 8:8 to say the Jewish scribes purposefully mis-copied the Bible? The verse reads:

8 “ How can you say, ‘We are wise,
And the law of the LORD is with us’?
Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.

God doesn't say here that the scribes were writing lies -- instead, He says that SOME scribes didn't follow the very laws they were copying! In other words, God was calling these men hypocrites. But that doesn't mean God called all Jews liars and hypocrites -- only the scribes at that particular time in history. Again, God NEVER accuses the Jewish scribes of miscopying Scriptures. If this was true, wouldn't you expect many prophets would have declared this? But there's no mention from prophets like Isaiah, Jesus (whom you consider to be only a prophet), Ezekiel, or Daniel that this is occuring.

Regarding your last question, yes, Jesus spoke only what God the Father commanded Him to speak. These words were faithfully recorded by two of His Apostles (Matthew and John) and two disciples (Mark, who recorded Peter's words, and Luke, who spoke with the Apostles, disciples and Paul). All four writers of the Gospels were guided by God's Holy Spirit as they were writing.

I hope this helps.

Answer 3

Ok- the Torah does not have human additions- the Torah is the law given on Mt Sinai to Moses, by God and consists of the Five books of Moses and the Mishnah (oral law). teh additional books in the Tanach, Nevi'im and Ketuvim (Prophets and Writings) were written by people with the power of prophecy (at least in the Jewish belief of these things). However, since they were not directly dictated by God, as was the Torah (written and oral), they are less authoritative and serve only to illustrate or guide us in the correct observance of a commandment- they do not act as sources of law nor can they overrule the Torah.

Obviously, from the Jewish POV, the "New' Testament is irrelavant- written by humans and lacking in any validity whatsoever. The Koran- which is also an extra narrative which takes form the Tanach, is seen in exactly the same light by Judaism- human written and irrelevant to us.

Answer 4

Jesus is the living Word of God. The Father didn't give Him the Bible. The Apostles wrote of the acts and works that Jesus did on earth. The Holy Spirit gave other inspiration to complete the work.

Answer 5

You are asking some very interesting questions. Your inquiries go beyond the knowledge that your instructor can provide. He appears to be avoiding giving you any history of how people created Christianity through their leadership and decision making.

Early Christians were a scattered and diverse group due to horrific persecution and development of different philosopies. Their dedication and persistence was amazing. It took centuries of internal squabbling, academic debate and political competition to define Christianity, and even then there have been many different viewpoints.

My advice to you is to continue your quest by expanding your influences and instructors. In particular, you would benefit by reading more of the history about how humans have created the Bible through different translations and editing (translating the many languages of Biblical texts has always been an issue). Read about how the very important and revolutionary King James version was created. Read about how the Biblical Apocrypha was created. Read about the Council of Nicaea to know more about how the early Christian church made decisions on how to define God. Read about the Council of Trent to know more about how the Catholic church decided to respond to Protestantism and Catholic Biblical interpretation. Also read about errors in translation. This is the last link.
The links I've supplied are intended as an overview to get you started. Pursue them as much as you are comfortable or find them interesting. The important thing here is for you to have your own personal quest so you can make your own decisions. This process could last your entire life time.

Answer 6

No Christ did not get it from God. It was written long after his death. There are many people arguing about just exactly what you asked. Everyone says they have the answer, or that there is still many questions, and therefore research to be done. They just found many books from the bible hidden. and on an on and on...anyone who tells you they know the truth for sure are full of it, and I don't mean spirituality.

Blessed Be

Answer 7

I know nothing about the Torah, but I do know that there were no human additions to the Bible. The Bible clearly states in Revelations Chapter 22: verses 18-19 as told by the Prophet John: "And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book. And if anyone removes any of the words of this prophetic book, God will remove that person's share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.", meaning do not distort the message in the Book of Revelations, we should be quick to put its principles into practice in our life. In answering the second part of your question, yes, it would be considered impure and distorted.

Answer 8

Dear Friend,

There are many translations of Gods Word the Bible, however 2 Timothy 3:16 states: 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness

All scripture is God breathed, differing translations do not change their meaning, God gave us these translations so that he could effectively communicate with all people.

God Bless

Answer 9

The whole thing was human additions.

Answer 10

What human additions are you talking about?