If Biblical interpretations are neither correct nor consistent, is our understanding of the Bible correct?

Question

There are many translations of the Bible, with Christian churches interpreting it differently. The original writers of the Bible, for example, used the Hebrew verb "bara," which English speakers translate as "create." However, the term "to create out of nothing" does not exist in the Hebrew language.

The term "bara" means "to expand, fatten, or fill up." The original writers of the Bible said that God "filled up" the universe. Christians say He created it out of nothing. They must, therefore, have a different God than the ancient Hebrews, for to them, no such God has ever existed.

Moreover, in no translation of the Bible does it say that God created water. Rather, it says there was darkness upon the face of the deep, which he later divided with the firmament. It says the earth was without form and void, but not that it was nonexistent.

God did NOT create the world out of nothing. This is a false belief of many. If this is wrong, how much of traditional Christian belief is wrong?

Please reference my other question at:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070711073551AAfdLH6&pa=FYd1D2bwHTHwLL5nEu4.RODE3IIof0O8eUJkhd8eslgmyK5lEnD3Bfg5Ya9m7SwI6Ut6YF_gYDmLbg--&paid=asked&msgr_status=

"Bara" does have more than one meaning, but nowhere in any Hebrew dictionary is there a Hebrew word for "create out of nothing." Bara, in all of its definitions ALWAYS implies a development of something from something else. If you want to use the English word "create," fine, but it is still a creation out of something else if it is based upon the word "Bara" ... period.

The Hebrew God did NOT create the universe out of nothing.

Answer 1

"How much of traditional Christian belief is wrong?"
Lots

The great majority working in the field of New Testament research have been religious apologists, theologians, scholars who are products of divinity schools and university religion departments, not historians per se.

Answer 2

Yes while I am not by any means a Biblical scholar, nor even a Hebrew speaker, I do know there are many inconsistencies in the Bible. For instance the word translated as "virgin" as in "born of a virgin" really could have been translated more accurately as "young girl." I think where people get into trouble is when they think of the Bible as a complete book handed down in finished form from God. What needs to be understood is that it was written by different mortal men over the course of decades. Hence there are certain writings that conflict with each other. Add to that that it has been translated from Hebrew into Greek then Latin and then into all the other world languages and you compound the problem with all the mistakes in translation that could have been made and continue on for centuries. This is why the Dead Sea Scrolls are so important, they are so early and they can be compared to later accounts to see if there are any inaccuracies. There was a great TV series on US television called "Mysteries of the Bible" which would probably answer many of your questions. It was a series that explored a different Biblical event or chapter every week and would ask various Biblical experts to explain things.

Answer 3

Odd. The definition listed in my lexicon for "bara" is:

"to create, form, make, produce; to cut ,to cut down; to engrave,to carve;This word occurs in the very first word of the Bible. Barah emphasizes the initiation of the object, not manipulating it after original creation. Entirely new productions are associated with Bara ( Ex 34:10; num 16:30; Ps 51:10; Is 4:5 41:20 48:6,7 65;17,18; Jer 31;22)The word Bara also possesses the meaning of "bringing into existence"in Isa 43:1 Ezek 21:30; 28:13-15. There is every reason to believe that bara was ex nihilo (out of nothing)."

Isn't that the polar opposite of your definition?

Answer 4

Christian belief is not solely based on the Bible. Neither is the Bible a book on theology, it is a book of faith. The texts in the Bible were formulated by men under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but yet still men struggling to understand something which no human eye has ever seen. Perhaps, it is because a language lacks words to express the realities which cannot be seen in the human level, that the authors of the book of genesis could not express such divine inspiration.

Answer 5

You must remember that the bible was not written as a complete text. It is made of many different writings (stories) by many different people over a couple of hundred years. The stories are written by the hand of man, not God. When the bible was put together it was done so by the religious leaders of that time. The picked what texts would be used in the bible. Only a select few made it and even more was left out as it conflicted with some of their beliefs.

OK, now that was the original bible. Later the english re rote it and removed more texts and did some more editing, now known as the King Kames version.

Answer 6

This is a very good question. I don't think that we have an understanding of the Bible that is 100% correct. I don't think that any of us has all the answers. That is why I believe that religion should be an individual thing. I think there is a lot wrong with the "traditional Christian belief". I am not a traditional Christian. I know that people are not perfect.

Answer 7

That's strange, Strong's Hebrew and Greek dictionary has the word בּרא or bârâ' as "to create." Which Hebrew dictionary are you using?

If you're mistaken about that, wouldn't that invalidate the rest of your question?

Answer 8

There are different translations of the bible - true.

But if you bring me any bible I can clearly show you the purpose of life and gods plan for humans and the world.

Bible Translations are like pizza's , all pizzas are good , but some are better than others.

Answer 9

Technically, this is already could twenty first on the different fringe of the international. See how no longer something happens? (inspite of the incontrovertible fact that i does not doubt a coincidental earthquake in Japan could reason crazies to alter into much greater enthusiast)

Answer 10

The Bible is the best selling book in the world because it is part fiction part reality and part reference it has factual stories fictional stories that can be interpreted many different ways and both can be referenced as a sort of moral guidline.