The bible is different then any other book, story, or oral tradition in that it was inspired of God...
um, then no other scripture, etc... has ever been inspired by God. You truly can't believe that. As far as God having the power to keep things straight, I agree. I do not agree that man did not screw it up though, and THAT is my point.
By your account all of the politically correct versions of the Bible would self-incinerate and so would those who changed them to be so.
Why do you believe that early religion was different than current religion. If your whole basis is that they were the chosen people and therefore could do no wrong I'll just refer you to the fact that they (with few exceptions) NEVER KEPT THE COVENANT WITH GOD. That's why the Ten Commandments came to be. That's why there are still other religions. That's why Jesus walked the earth. God is not falable, but His chosen people most certainly were/are. (who knows, maybe some of the scriptures were written or stories created when they were dancing in front of the golden calf they enacted to be a god symbol).
I would note: the dead sea scrolls recently found were written as a translation of the originals. And I'm not doubting the ability of man to copy scriptures, but rather the spoken tradition before the first written tradition. The NT is pretty much the same after 1500+ years as well(except for the new PC versions). I would also add that they contain information showing how the early Isrealites(12 tribes) converted "politically" to Judaism(under the instruction of the oh so wise rabbis)... Ie. that the ideas of the Bible were used for POLITICAL ends even then.
-to clarify; it was not the persons who were in the wrong period, but rather the places and creatures surrounding some of them did not exist or had not been brought from other lands when the stories were supposed to have taken place.
Let me pose one question to you: If you were born to a group of people that was in slavery and the person who led you to freedom told you you were free because of a god, would you believe them? (now subtract 5000 years of learning and assume that he is the only religious leader in your world).
Whether his reasoning for telling you this is because he truly believed it or it was bunk and he wanted to command and control the people he just freed would be a thin line. And if it happened today you would not believe him further than you could throw him. But wait, his great uncle Jebidiah was a hero before the slavery too. And so was his sister Sarah, and his daughter Judie patutie has special gifts as well.
Whoever he talked about would get talked about again and again, because if you believed him once(and maybe a fool) you'd surely be a fool if you no longer believed him. Later on, when he died and so did anyone that ever cared about him being him in paticular, and SOMEONE ELSE wanted to control people what would they do? Write the same outrageous tales that noone believes, or tone it down a little and make it "just" believeable for those who have "faith". Once it's written, remember, you can't unwrite it. You have to make the plan "right" the first time. Even more though people who had already heard it must be able to deal with it being a little different. So what do you do? The same thing that the early Christian Church did - take out what you don't want and make a "reasonable" Bible(the NT left out a LOT of scripture that was around). Make it not conflict too much with what each of the twelve tribes has to put in, but you certainly can't include every tale ever told by all the tribes. In the monumental task you write it the way it will best control the people you wish to impact.
And while I do not think it lessens the Divinity of the Bible I do understand why it was written the way it was written. Why some parts were left out (although after 5000 years there's no telling how much or which parts of the orignal spoken traditions were left out, but the Dead Sea Scrolls point to some possibilities).
I would note- one of the easiest examples of this is that I have been instructed by my Church that the Nephilim do not exist as such. I have no mention of the great battles that waged before the dawn of man. I have not been raised to believe in evil Angels at all. Fear not, I have been self educated on these scriptures which were purposely omitted by the council in Constantinople. |
