Bible Question?

Question

Knowing that the text in bible came from stories that were passed down for hundreds of years by word of mouth before being recorded in writing. Those writings sat around for several hundred more years before being read again. There was no way to verfy the credibility of them as there was no record of even who wrote most of them.

Then only certain texts were chosen to be put into a book called the bible. This was done by church leaders. They selected the texts that would be put into this new book. Several ceturies later it was edited again and some of the texts were removed from the bible. The later it was rewritten by english monarky and called the King James version.

Keeping all this in mind, here is my question:

With all these biased selections and deletionsof texts, multible translations over time, and belifes of man (that god had not directly talked to) can we take every thing in the bible as acurate facts?

Some are saying that my information is wrong. Don't just say it, show me. provide links to non-bias sources. I am an open minded person.

Answer 1

maybe, maybe not....rewritten and passed down, edited and removed, lots of stuff got taken out and i believe that what we have today is but a fraction of the actual thing....

Answer 2

Whoa, rewind a second. While it's true that stories were passed down orally through the generations, keep in mind that the human brain is a MARVELOUS thing. We're capable of memorizing millions of things, if not billions. Jews from the beginning believed in God. These "stories" that they passed down were preserved to the word. If even one word was wrong, the elders of the village would have corrected it. And on down through the generations it went.

After Moses wrote the Pentateuch, people immediately set to memorizing it. Keep in mind that at that time, writing utensils and something to write on were not readily available. Therefore, the best way to preserve their Holy Books was...guess how? Memorization, of course.

So the way it went was like this: Moses wrote the original. As soon as the original started to fray even slightly, it was recopied carefully. Scribes who were entrusted with such a task had extremely strict laws involving copying the texts. For example, they couldn't even touch the texts without being ritually clean, and they could not write one word without first glancing at the text they were copying from.

For a long time, the Jews just had MAYBE twelve copies (for each of the twelve tribes) of the original. So it went on from there.

As for the texts that were chosen to be part of the canon, there's a reason that certain writings weren't chosen. I've read much of the Apocryphal writings, and I understand why they weren't canonized.

As far as the King James version goes, it wasn't the first English translation. Keep that in mind. Secondly, when one reads the older versions (as long as they can get past the Middle English), they find that the meaning is still the same.

Until the 1940s, the oldest texts we possessed were from about the 10th century. THEN we discovered scrolls that dated back to the 1st century A.D., and even some from the 1st century B.C. When comparing them side by side, they were nearly EXACT. The meaning didn't change, though the phrasing was slightly different in areas. And that's in 1000 years of copying.

Did you know that there are currently more than 24,000 fragments of the Bible in existence? The only ancient document that comes CLOSE is Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey, of which there are about 500.

Also, if one compares the KJV to various other translations (NKJV, NIV, RSV, et cetera), they basically all say the same thing. There are some minor differences of course, but the main message is still the same.

Sorry for the long answer, but this kind of question NEEDS a thorough answer. I'm still not done though...

So how do we know that the Bible contains facts? Well, for parts of it, we don't. However, for other stories there is historical and archaeological evidence that the events in the Bible actually DID happen exactly as described.

I can provide sources if asked, but there are so many it would take forever. Let's just say I've read a lot on the subject.

Answer 3

Yes because even through all that the Bible still stands up as the most accurate ancient book of all time. We find fragments even now that say the exact same thing that is written in the Bible.

If you are talking about the New Testament then you have no idea what you are talking about or how ancient texts are looked at. It has been proven that all four gospels were written before 90 AD. Alexander the Greats first biographer, Arrian, was not even born until a little before 90 AD. That is four centuries removed from Alexander and yet history considers him to be the most accurate history of the campaigns and is taken in whole as fact.

So how can we do one without the other? Either pretty much all of history is debunked or we accept the Bible as an accurate text because the hypocrisy here is astounding.

Answer 4

The New Testament(what Christians follow, Old Testament is Jewish and was a "schoolmaster" and temporary until the NT) is a collection of texts written by people whom God talked to through the Holy Spirit i.e. the apostles and people who they laid hands upon. These people could not pass on spiritual gifts to anyone else. John was the last apostle alive and died about 90 AD so any writings past 200AD can be counted out as true. This includes the Quran, book of Mormon, and the book of Judas.

We do have copies written by scribes who belived this was God's word and would not change it for fear of being struck dead on the spot. In fact, if they messed up even once on a page, they would instantly throw away the paper and start afresh.

As for translations, you have to be careful. A thing called dynamic equivilance ruins what should be considered holy and reverent. The more literal, the better off you are.

Answer 5

That's the problem when you claim to take the Bible literally. You box yourself into this position. Of course, literalists will never admit they are boxed in. They pick and choose, but never admit that they pick and choose, and all the while blame and judge others for picking and choosing.

Someone did a great question the other day about Noah's ark and how it could not possibly be the size as indicated in the Bible.

I mean, as a Christian, what can I say? Some things in the Bible are not clear or are incomplete. Let's face it, people spend years studying the Bible and learning from others as to what it all means and there always will be questions. But I chalk it up to errors in transcription and not anything to do with God. God is always right, man does not always get it right. To me, it has no effect on my faith whatsoever, because my relationship with Christ is so much more than just whether or not a fact in the Bible is accurate or clear.

Answer 6

I can add to what steonkeys has to say: everything in the bible happened then, is happening now, and is yet to happen. The historian Flavius Josephus actually made this determination about himself, realized who he was, and predicted the rise of Vespasian to the throne of Rome, and spoke this to Vespasian directly. When it actually happened, Vespasian rescued Josephus from the Roman jail he was being held in, and gave Josephus a citizenship and a commission to serve in his home province of Judea, as a historian, and recording as a reporter. Josephus had fulfilled the story of Joseph in Egypt, in a later time era!

Then there's the story about Joseph and the butler and the baker, both of which had fallen into disfavor with the same Pharoah. After Joseph prophesied, the butler was restored, and the baker was condemned. Remember what happened to President Clinton and Pastor Bakker? Need I say more?
Even Bakker's name rings true to the english bible translation, in a country that has english as it's national language. And if you were to ask Bakker about it, he would certainly say that it was predestination, and fulfillment of OT prophesy. He's that kind of believer. I've personally worked in his former church (Heritage USA) and seen firsthand the things Bakker accomplished there. Nothing that man planned or did was by accident, and there's a lot there that is not obvious to the layman.

The Mormons have a passage in the Book of Mormon, (somewhere in one of the Nephi books) about things that are written coming true, even if they are not true at the time they're written. It implies that we are subject to the lies that we tell, and the lies that we write! Personally, I find this to be right on the mark! Therefore, I try to witness accurately, and not fabricate when speaking, or writing. Even my creative writing is based on personal experience.
This also means that the writings of Paul the 'Apostle', like it or not, are true today, even if they were not true when Paul composed them.

Answer 7

Actually, with the New Testament, most of the books were written down within years of the events. The books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts were written within a few decades of the events, enough time for the facts to be verified by other people who were alive at the same time. As for the rest of the books, most of these are letters written only years after Jesus's life on earth ended. In fact, the New Testament books are actually more reliable than other historical books, which have been written centuries after the events.

As for the Old Testament, I can't answer how long after the events those were written. However, in terms of their propecies about Jesus Christ, they were written centuries before his birth even if they waited to write them down.

Answer 8

Sorry but your facts are entirely inaccurate. Much of the Bible was written as letters and documents and journals. Even the 10 commandments was originally a written document. The books were not chosen by church leaders. The church leaders only recognized at their councils what had been used by the actual church since the beginning of the 2nd century.

Answer 9

When you are in school, you were given some books to study and you will have an examination to pass. Do you verify those are useful or correct. When you study those things and reproduce in the examination then only you can go to the next level.
In the same way the events and the teachings in the bible are written by the inspiration of Holy Spirit to lead a good life and to have peace in our life. Those who follows will have peace and joy spiritually. The facts are proved nowadays.

Answer 10

We certainly can. Everything that is in the bible happened. Scientific findings and geography findings are begin to prove that the bible is infact true, and the inspiried word of God. Take for example the dead sea scrolls, compare them to a latest translation, or the king james, and you'll find that they are more or less spot on.

And anyway, why do you just doubt the bible? The Qu'ran was changed many times by muhammad, and when he died, there were four versions of his latest installment, so some followers decided to combine the four versions to make the "true" version.

Answer 11

incredibly, you may exchange your wording in user-friendly terms slightly: Hebrew Bible Roman Catholic Bible Protestant Bible The Jewish scholars finished the version of the Hebrew Bible in correct to the third century. That text cloth is roofed in the two the RC and Prot. Bible. The order of the books is diverse, because of the fact of underlying assumptions. The Christian Bible (the hot testomony) wasn't incredibly nailed down till almost the 10th century or so. After that, it became into locked in. This became into accomplished in a chain of Church Councils. this text is the comparable in the two the RC and Prot. Bible, and the previous testomony is tremendously plenty the comparable in the two of those Bibles, different than that the order could be slightly diverse. the only distinction between the RC and Prot. Bibles is the presence of the Apocrypha -- various books that have been unknown in Hebrew, yet have been coated robotically in Greek language translations of the previous testomony that have been in commonplace use around the time of the early Church. That Greek translation of the previous testomony (referred to as the Septuagint) became into so commonplace (maximum Jews did no longer at that factor endure in techniques the thank you to talk or study Hebrew anymore) that whenever you discover the previous testomony quoted interior the hot testomony, it is continually the Septuagint text cloth they're quoting.