The Validity of the Bible

[eleventyseven]

First off, let me apologize, for the following post is uneducated and unresearched, and the product of a faith unsure of its doctrine.


I have a lot of questions to ask here, so I figure I'll start with this one. : )

I'm beginning to doubt the absolute truthfulness of the Bible. Don't get me wrong, I believe God's word is God's word is God's word, and I do not doubt his judgment. But how can we be certain that the Bible is 100% God's word?

Many faiths already don't take it literally word for word - many people cut their hair, eat pork, pierce and tattoo their bodies. Women in ministry is common. I'd like to know why we can disregard these rules, but not others.

My problem is that the Bible was not written by God, it was written by Man. No, I don't think it was all some hoax written by some guy hundreds of years ago. I'm certain there is a lot of truth in the Bible, buried or not. But it was written a very long time ago, and from what I have come to understand, it was written many many years after the events in the Bible even occurred. Not only that, but the Bible has been translated through so many different languages, I can't help but believe that some of the initial meaning of the text has been lost over time.
Think about all the information that could not be interpreted directly into other languages, left to the translator to put what he "thinks" it means. And even if it can be translated directly, think about the hundreds of different ways people may extrapolate from it. And even if you DO have the correct translation and interpretation, who's to say that the information being interpreted wasn't false?

I have trouble trusting people from hundreds of years ago, when racism and sexism and other social prejudices were much more prevalent than in modern times. I think it's not unreasonable to believe that a man could incorporate his own intolerance into what is supposed to be the Word of God.

So, um, I can't think of anything else to put. : / I'd love to hear everyone's view on how they perceive the validity of the Bible.

Thanks and God Bless. : )

 

[Gabbylittleangel]

Ask Him. God answers prayer.

 

[cyberjosh]

Welcome to the boards eleventyseven!

You ask a very good (and tough) question and your sincerity is noted.

First of all one thing I had to learn over time is that I thought that people way back when were so different from us today until I started reading all kinds of ancient literature (Christian, Jewish, and otherwise) and I discovered alot of what we believe today was present back then, and they weren't primitive (only behind in technology) in their thoughts either (people like Plato were geniuses - and could outsmart the average modern man), thus I find that the concern of their views not applying to us today or being too limited or shortsighted (and the issues of sexism, etc.) not as pressing as they seem. Now as for the Bible in particular the Bible actually esteems women better than almost any other ancient culture (and even Deborah in the book of judges was an esteemed woman - as was Miriam Moses' sister). And the writers of the Bible wrote with intelligence as the Holy Spirit guided them to write the things that were to be given to their people.

Now, whew (you brought up alot of points), next, you bring up issues related to freedom under the new covenant "many people cut their hair, eat pork, pierce and tattoo their bodies. Women in ministry is common". Now many of those are controversial but the old testament enforced legalistic observances to model the perfect and holy standards that God requires of his people. This ultimately and obviously resulted in the realization that it is impossible to keep such standards perfectly, thus the law and old legal system condemned those who tried to keep it and could only point them in one direction for their direction: Jesus Christ. This is what the whole book of Galatians is about (which Paul wrote to the people of Galatia to instruct them to move away from Jewish legalism and walk in the freedom of Christ by his grace). Hair and food are material thins and will perish in the end, and what you do with either is typically amoral (lacking any moral qualities) so it really doesn't matter what you eat or how you cut your hair - God instead looks at the motives of your heart for your actions.) Tattoos and women in the ministry are much more controversial, and perhaps would be suited for another thread, but it all has to do with motives of the heart over (rather than) legalism because of our freedom in Christ, and that is how issues must be judged.

Now another point of so many Bible versions brings up the issue of textual transmission. There are endless scholarly opinions on the exact details of transmission, but we do not have the original autographs. However with several tens of thousands of Biblical manuscripts we can (and have) checked them against one another and found a majority text which seems faithful enough to the proposed original. Luckily books like the Gospels repeat themselves (Four Gospels), and the the Epistles have recurring themes so it is pretty much guranteed that theology is not much affected by textual problems (if one book leaves off a traditional reading or idea the other is bound to have it - thus nothing theologically speaking [which is most important] is lost in the end). Only rarely do theological differences arise over a textual varients. Plus the agent of properly interpreting the Scriptures is the Holy Spirit who will reveal the proper interpretation to us if we seek it earnestly and pray.

I of course assume you believe in God and that God inspired the Scriptures, or none of this will make sense to you. But I will stop for now until I get some feedback and see if I am actually addressing your questions.

God Bless,

~Josh

 

[cyberjosh]

I also have a small (hosted) website on which I posted an article solely on the Bible's historical accuracy, in which I claim as a thesis that there are no grounds whatsoever to reject the Bible on historical grounds and I proceed to show the historical accuracy of the Bible's accounts using archeology and ancient historical accounts. I'm a big Biblical Archeology buff, so I love studying that stuff. If you would like to see it, I can post a link up here for you.

~Josh

 

[Veritas]

I'm beginning to doubt the absolute truthfulness of the Bible. Don't get me wrong, I believe God's word is God's word is God's word, and I do not doubt his judgment. But how can we be certain that the Bible is 100% God's word?

Well, we can have faith that God loves us enough to preserve His Word for us to make Himself plainly known. I think Gabby's suggestion is a great one. Ask God. Talk to Him. Ask Him what the Truth is. After all Jesus did say that He is Truth.

Many faiths already don't take it literally word for word - many people cut their hair, eat pork, pierce and tattoo their bodies. Women in ministry is common. I'd like to know why we can disregard these rules, but not others.

This is definately a broad topic. Lots of areas to discuss here. You might want to open a thread for each of these things.

In short, I'd say that differences occur among the body of believers because people aren't perfect. But even if believers disagree on certain smaller things, we can always agree and rejoice in knowing Jesus, our Lord and Savior, who saved us from sin and death.

My problem is that the Bible was not written by God, it was written by Man. No, I don't think it was all some hoax written by some guy hundreds of years ago. I'm certain there is a lot of truth in the Bible, buried or not. But it was written a very long time ago, and from what I have come to understand, it was written many many years after the events in the Bible even occurred. Not only that, but the Bible has been translated through so many different languages, I can't help but believe that some of the initial meaning of the text has been lost over time.
Think about all the information that could not be interpreted directly into other languages, left to the translator to put what he "thinks" it means. And even if it can be translated directly, think about the hundreds of different ways people may extrapolate from it. And even if you DO have the correct translation and interpretation, who's to say that the information being interpreted wasn't false?

Cybershark has lots of great information related to this. I'm looking into his stuff myself. Very cool!

Do you like to read much? I can suggest two books for you that address many of your questions above. One is More Than a Carpenterby Josh McDowell and the other is The Case For Christby Lee Strobel. More than a Carpenter is a shorter read that you can pick up for free at alot of Christian bookstores. There is alot of good info about history, manuscripts, translations, etc. of the Bible in both books.

From off the top of my head, I can tell you that the we have alot of ancient manuscripts for the New Testament - about 24,000 of them (in Greek, Latin, Ethiopic, Slavic, and Armenian). The amazing thing is that they are in 99% agreement with eacother. And many of those date way back. I know of a scrap which contains a verse from Matthew that actually dates all the way back to 30-70AD.

I have trouble trusting people from hundreds of years ago, when racism and sexism and other social prejudices were much more prevalent than in modern times. I think it's not unreasonable to believe that a man could incorporate his own intolerance into what is supposed to be the Word of God.

Well, I believe our modern times has it's own forms of racism, sexism, and social prejudices. I believe God's Word is timeless and still speak's out against mankind's depravity. Thank God we're saved!

 

[ÃÂoppleganger]

Does the fact that the Septuagent (Jewish/Greek) text and the Massaroth, vary so little from texts found at Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls) after 2000 years, mean anything to ya? Just something to think about.