my november 21st post what if religion is wrong about homosexuality? led to some discussion about how to interpret the bible, and foremost, if the bible should be taken literal, rather than interpreted. i guess at the heart of this discussion is the question if the bible is the word of god? which in a way leads to the question who wrote the bible? i guess one could argue that no matter who wrote the bible it is still the word of god, but if the bible was written not by eye witnesses, or not by those that we were taught it was, and if it was edited, translated … over time then the bible might still contain the word of god, but requires a scholarly understanding and interpretation of its underlying meaning, which then means it can not be taken at face value.
channel 4 in the uk did a fascinating documentary about who wrote the bible. looking at historical accuracy of who wrote the different books of both the old and new testament, and the many editorial choices that were made along the way. while a long video it is worth watching in full, since it raises and also answers a lot of questions. i think that blind faith is not what god wants us to have, but instead an informed and thought through believe and faith, one that uses the brain god gave us.
December 19, 2006 at 6:12 am
The phrase “editorial choices” and “word of god” cannot be used to describe the same thing. The bible has undergone so many changes since it’s origin that anything in it must be read with skepticism. Compare this to the Hindu Vedas or The Holy Quran, that have managed to stay unchanged, the latter has even become memorized so that different people can recite it to the exact number of characters.
Of course, unchanged does not in all cases mean authentic but it does add to the credibility and acceptance of the artifact in question.
December 19, 2006 at 3:19 pm
well, i think that the problem with any of these books is that they are written down documents of stories that before (in some cases for hundreds of years) were spread via word of mouth which does not assure an accurate documentation of the stories.
January 1, 2007 at 1:59 am
This view of the bible being a word of mouth type of translation before man wrote it down is certainly a correct one, but to most Christians, its on faith that it is all what God intended us to hear. I did not yet read the article you posted about Homosexuality, but I can say with all certainty that God loves us all, and we are all his children.
In this messed up world today, we all need to know that we have someone who cares for us AS we are, and he asked very little, only that we love one another as we love him and ourselves. we need to start passing that love around, instead of the hatred we see so much.