Christian Seberino wrote:
On Tue, March 27, 2007 3:00 pm, DJA wrote:
Can you point me to one specific
Bible (last time I was in a Christian bookstore, there were dozens - all
different)?
Those are all different translations of the same ancient documents.
No they're not. Granted, some are very similar, but most contain enough
difference in them to often say quite different things in various
places. I have looked and read. They're in English. I am quite
proficient in it. I know what the words mean. Whether those words mean
what the author intended is irrelevant. To the reader, the words say
what the words say. And I'm telling you different Bibles are different.
In fact, there is really no such thing as *The* Bible. It doesn't exist.
It's at this point in history merely a parable of itself. It's not even
the 2000 years old that most people believe it is. Most of it is far
younger. The stories some of it tells are far older.
If
scholarly translations aren't adequate for you feel free to learn Greek
and Arabic and read the ancient manuscripts in the original language.
cs
If I pick up a dozen Bibles, all different English translations, all
having different wording, some Subtlety different, some vastly, then its
quite apparent there was no scholarship involved. Just a bunch of
authors who felt compelled to give a "proper" interpretation of god's word.
The Bible is one of the most misunderstood pieces of literature ever
published. That fact has led to the plethora of paraphrased, elucidated,
red-lettered, demystified, and otherwise interpreted versions which have
successively over the centuries given rise to a copy of a collection of
original writings which themselves have not existed for centuries and
longer.
We have no original manuscripts and we certainly have no witnesses. So
that leaves one thing with regards to the basis for the Christian
religion: faith. And faith is what one has when facts are not available.
It's a placeholder for knowledge. It's ignorance in denial. Holy
guessing. I have no desire to take away the comfort of someone's
religion, but for myself, I prefer knowledge, and lacking that I embrace
my ignorance as it gives me great comfort that I have much more to
learn. I don't ever want to know everything.
To my way of thinking, not even god knows everything. Were that
possible, it would mean that not even god could create something new,
and so would no longer be god.
--
Best Regards,
~DJA.
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