I’ve been reading/hearing about people who quote the bible and about how some of it is contradictory or that all verses aren’t treated the same for a while now. I just finished reading through some stuff on www.fallwell.com and decided to blog about what I think. Not my stance on gays (though I see nothing wrong with being gay), but rather my stance on quoting the bible.
The most recently written books in the bible are believed to have been written in the 4th century (300-399 AD), while the Old Testament is believed to have been written in the first millenium BC (1000BC-1BC). The oldest records are from around 200BC. That’s 800 years in which any number of things might have happened that changed the exact wording of the original documents. Then there’s the 2000 years since then that would also contribute to changes to the text, accidental or otherwise. If you’ve ever played “telephone” (the game where a phrase is said to one person, who then whispers it to the next person in line and so on until the end where what the last person heard is announced) you know what this means. The original documents would have to be transcribed every so often to keep the book(s) alive and relevant, and who knows if the scribes had the whole text as a source. It’s entirely possible (as mentioned in a fiction book I recently read regarding a completely different book) that the original words may have been too worn to read, so the scribes would have had to guess at the words based on the context.
And then you have to take into account not only how many different versions and wordings would surface in that period of time, but also the different versions that might appear in the same time frame, such as the King James version and the New International Version that are popular now (these are the only two I can think of off the top of my head). You can only imagine how multiple versions, all considered “correct” and “unquestionable” could be further mangled by further transcriptions and interpretations.
You also have to take into account that it is very unlikely that the original authors knew English (I think I’ve heard that they didn’t, but I don’t want to claim an assumption as fact), so you have to factor in translations, which can be brutal on exact wordings, depending on the languages. Often they can only be relied upon to get the basic idea of the message.
Basically, I feel that the bible, while holy and a good source of guidance, should not be taken literally or word-for-word. There are just too many things that could have happened in addition to the things that must have happened to trust that what you are reading is word-for-word what the original authors (the apostles, if you prefer) intended. Plus the fact that there are at least two different versions of the bible in mass publication, each with slightly different wording doesn’t help.
I could lead this into how Christianity is only slightly different from Catholicism or Judaism (as I understand them…which is not very well, I admit) and that I feel it is entirely possible that these separate religions branched apart at some point in history where different groups believed the text should be read in different ways. In a Wikipedia article I was reading (not the best source, I know…) about dating the bible, there’s a section about the Hebrew bible and the Torah which mentions books from the Christian bible. But before I get too in depth with that, I’m going to stop. That was not and is not the purpose of this particular post, though it somewhat leads to my next point (which I was going to put in anyway).
Anybody who spreads the word of the gospel, especially reverends, preachers, or any widely accepted “authority” on the subject of a particular holy text, should keep in mind that 1. It is highly unlikely that the text is word-for-word as it was originally written, and 2. that everybody will have their own interpretation of the text. They are free to preach their interpretation and to help others find guidance through faith, but they need to keep in mind that what they believe the text says, may not be what somebody else thinks it says, and neither of them is necessarily wrong. None of us were alive when Jesus walked the Earth; nobody alive today was present when the books of the Old Testament were written, and as such, nobody at all (that we can physically talk to) is the absolute authority on the bible, their religion, or their religious figure. In fact, I firmly believe that if Jesus or God were to ever physically walk this Earth in present times, they would be surprised at some of the things we do in their name and/or in worship of them. I don’t have any specific examples, but I’m sure we have taken things farther than ever intended, if worship was ever intended in the first place.
Unlike my previous posts, where I just posted my thoughts and left well enough alone, for this one I’m actually going to ask that you post a comment with your thoughts or opinions, not that I expect much traffic. Just, please keep it civil. I like hearing opposing viewpoints, but I can’t stand arrogant “my opinion is better than yours” talk. Any comments I feel are like this will not be approved. I am not so starved for attention/recognition/feedback/traffic/etc. that I will let anything go by. Also, as I touched on a second ago, I don’t get much traffic, which means I can easily moderate every comment one at a time. I choose to do so to help keep spam out. Between the low traffic and over aggressive spam filter, I don’t check the pending comments very often, so if you post something, don’t be surprised if it doesn’t show up for a while. (Man I did not mean for the after-word about comments to go so long. I guess I just can’t help talking too much…)
