God Spin-off- Does anyone believe that the Bible is a literal interpretation?

It's only my personal opinion, so no offense to anyone, but I find it odd that so many people actually believe the bible was written as an accurate interpretation.

First, Eve didnt eat an apple, because apples cant grow in that part of the world..but beyond that, language grows with time. Something written today would no doubt be written with personal prejudice , why not something written then?

I believe it's an interpretation. I think a lot of the bible are fable stories ...
JMO.

I look at the Bible as an oral history- that passed done from generation to generation until someone thought to write it down.. so as when you play 'telephone' parts of the story will change or be altered.

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Posted by Sassyz75

I look at the Bible as an oral history- that passed done from generation to generation until someone thought to write it down.. so as when you play 'telephone' parts of the story will change or be altered.

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i agree with this. Also, back in those days, the Monks at the monestary used to hand copy it, so i'm sure that just like the 'telephone theory' that Sassy mentioned, many things got lost in translation/ inverted in some ways

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Posted by neeniebean86

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Posted by Sassyz75

I look at the Bible as an oral history- that passed done from generation to generation until someone thought to write it down.. so as when you play 'telephone' parts of the story will change or be altered.

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i agree with this. Also, back in those days, the Monks at the monestary used to hand copy it, so i'm sure that just like the 'telephone theory' that Sassy mentioned, many things got lost in translation/ inverted in some ways

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I agree- it would be impossible for it to be any different

Well, it's interesting that you mention the 'apple' as an example because NOWHERE in the bible does it say the fruit was an apple. it just says it's a fruit!

It can't be a literal interpreation. There two entirely separate and distinct creation stories
(Were adam and eve created at the same time, or was eve created from adam's rib?) and two entirely separate and distinct Noah's ark stories. they're intermeshed, but they're totally separate. If you go through with a highlghtrer and separate the J and E voices you can see two different stories. Those are just a few examples. i'm actually really interested in this and I took an entire class on the origins of the bible..

There's a GREAT book on the origins of the bible called 'Who Wrote the bible?'

i think it was david fishman or something? I could be WAY off. All of my books are at FH's house so I can't tell you. Look it up on amazon or bn.com. It's SUCH an intriguing book.

Another point, adding to the 'telephone' theory is that some parts of the bible are in hebrew, some are in aramaic, and some of it contains words that no one can trnaslate and which at some point they just made up and assumed a meaning for. This is dangerous because a slight differnce can cause a hige difference in interpretation. if you read differen t 'versions' of the bible, you'll find VERY different connotations of the same passages. I took a lot of religious studies classes in college and in my hebrew bible class a lot of times when we read a passage in class from our standard text (JPS translation) he'd have some of the people read it from their bibles..often there were three or four VERY different messages in the same passage, and it's coming from the same original texts.

Also, some translations we have of the bible now come from the GREEK translations (which is why the books of the bible are known by their greek names and not their hebrew names)...so it's an english translation of a greek translation of a hebrew translation of a mixed langage text.

Also what you have to know is that there were MANY more books of the same origin and character of the bible. At several points in history groups of scholars ahve sat down and decided what should and should not be included. So there are many 'biblical' texts that we will never see because in 90 A.D they were thrown out.

If you believe the bible is sent straight from god, then you have to wonder what all of the other messages from god that were thrown out had to say.

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Posted by marymoon

If you believe the bible is sent straight from god, then you have to wonder what all of the other messages from god that were thrown out had to say.

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Great point. I completly agree. SO THEN, if many agree that its a mixture of fact and fiction and misinterpretation why do so many people ACT as if it is literal? If some of the facts could me misconstured, why not the important ones?

for me personally, whether or not the stories are fact or fiction, it is the messages that they send, and to me all the messages are from God, and should not be misconstrued.

IMO

Honestly, I think it's so hard to messwith people and religion. They'll believe whatever they were taught so strongly no matter what you say to them. That's why the apple is SUCH a striking example. I guarantee that if you asked most people would say Eve ate an apple, but the bible itself doesn't even say it was an apple. I think it's so ridiculous and evens cary that we can just be put into a habit of believing something that came from literally nowhere (the apple thing). With the bible, ANY educated reader can clearly see that the Bible was written by humans. The five books of 'moses' alone bear the fingerprint of four or more distinct voices.

Did you ever notice that sometimes God is refered to as 'god' sometimes 'lord' and sometimes in the hebrew even as a plural tense. And these things follow patterns, but if you show this to people, and I believe it makes it CLEARLY evident that even if it is 'inspired'by god, the bible has human fingerprints, people will NOT believe it.

People will strongly believe one thing the bible says..be it about homosexualit, marriage, sabbath, whatever, and then completely disregard another...kashrut laws, worship modes, other things..

i mean COMPLETELY disregard them, and everyone has some excuse, but not excuse is better than the next, and no one follows everything in the bible to a 't'. In fact it would be completely impossible to do this because the bible contains so many glaring inconsistencies.

I really don;t know why people ignore hard fact and evidence. I think people have a deep emotional connection to the bible and cant distance themselves to look at it in an educated way. it scares them to think that any of the things they live by might not be true or might even be contradicted in the bible itself. Even the apple thing. If you actually show someone that there's no apple in the bible, it will freak some people out...they'll say 'oh, this translation is wrong, blah blah' because they can't accept anything, even a small detail being different from what they were taught.

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Posted by marymoon

Honestly, I think it's so hard to messwith people and religion. They'll believe whatever they were taught so strongly no matter what you say to them. That's why the apple is SUCH a striking example. I guarantee that if you asked most people would say Eve ate an apple, but the bible itself doesn't even say it was an apple. I think it's so ridiculous and evens cary that we can just be put into a habit of believing something that came from literally nowhere (the apple thing). With the bible, ANY educated reader can clearly see that the Bible was written by humans. The five books of 'moses' alone bear the fingerprint of four or more distinct voices.

Did you ever notice that sometimes God is refered to as 'god' sometimes 'lord' and sometimes in the hebrew even as a plural tense. And these things follow patterns, but if you show this to people, and I believe it makes it CLEARLY evident that even if it is 'inspired'by god, the bible has human fingerprints, people will NOT believe it.

People will strongly believe one thing the bible says..be it about homosexualit, marriage, sabbath, whatever, and then completely disregard another...kashrut laws, worship modes, other things..

i mean COMPLETELY disregard them, and everyone has some excuse, but not excuse is better than the next, and no one follows everything in the bible to a 't'. In fact it would be completely impossible to do this because the bible contains so many glaring inconsistencies.

I really don;t know why people ignore hard fact and evidence. I think people have a deep emotional connection to the bible and cant distance themselves to look at it in an educated way. it scares them to think that any of the things they live by might not be true or might even be contradicted in the bible itself. Even the apple thing. If you actually show someone that there's no apple in the bible, it will freak some people out...they'll say 'oh, this translation is wrong, blah blah' because they can't accept anything, even a small detail being different from what they were taught.

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that's just it

it's all faith

Definitely. Faith is one thing

Trying so insist it's all 100% literally true and written and translated by the big man himself is what gets to me

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Posted by marymoon

Definitely. Faith is one thing

Trying so insist it's all 100% literally true and written and translated by the big man himself is what gets to me

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it's not literal, but the hidden symbols and overriding messages are true, IMO

it's not supposed to make sense -- we're not supposed to understand the meaning, but we need to believe that it is true

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Posted by don424

it's not supposed to make sense -- we're not supposed to understand the meaning, but we need to believe that it is true

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You need to believe that it is true because it is what makes sense to you. For me, the bible is a book that has many good points and advice, but is not a work of non-fiction. I guess I just don't have faith in a book. It also doesn't help that it is sexist and belittling to women. JMHO

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Posted by heidla

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Posted by don424

it's not supposed to make sense -- we're not supposed to understand the meaning, but we need to believe that it is true

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You need to believe that it is true because it is what makes sense to you. For me, the bible is a book that has many good points and advice, but is not a work of non-fiction. I guess I just don't have faith in a book. It also doesn't help that it is sexist and belittling to women. JMHO

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you are correct, i guess what i mean is that i don't go 'by the book' -- but i do take a lot of stock in what it teaches

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Posted by don424

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Posted by heidla

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Posted by don424

it's not supposed to make sense -- we're not supposed to understand the meaning, but we need to believe that it is true

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You need to believe that it is true because it is what makes sense to you. For me, the bible is a book that has many good points and advice, but is not a work of non-fiction. I guess I just don't have faith in a book. It also doesn't help that it is sexist and belittling to women. JMHO

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you are correct, i guess what i mean is that i don't go 'by the book' -- but i do take a lot of stock in what it teaches

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The difference is though 'taking a lot of stock' and believing in it 100% without any room for doubt. I too believe in a LOT of what the Bible says and teachs, but some of it I dont...That has nothing to do with faith, I believe, but not all of it and not because I dont WANT to, or because it doesnt fit my needs, but because its impossible as an educated eprson to believe some of it...Which brings me always to the question, if some of it is fiction, then how do you distinguish what is and isint? Is it a personal thing, or an education thing that leads us to say , this is real, this is not?

ETA_ Like Don saying 'the messages' it teaches...Well It would take me a LOT of faith to believe all of the messages, and thats what I question. How can we ever know if somone didnt put their personal prejudice at the time into these messages? Wouldnt God want us to have enough FAITH in him that we would treat all people equal? So why then would believe that homosexuality is a sin? Because someone told us in a book written so far back we cant remember? II m not making much sense..sorry..I know what i want to say, but cant say it clearly..lol

This is such an awesome topic, because at this moment I am taking a class based on the New Testament. I have always had the same type of questions you guys have had and this class has made it so much easier to understand certain things.

What I am learning could be just one groups take on it, but it is amazing to sit back and actually be able to get some sort of understanding from it all. We have learned so far, that the writings within the bible arent necessarily true, but literal interpretations, if you would call them that. People who wrote them, picked out the style of writing that they were most comfortable with. Often the politics had an influence on the writings. That is why some is in aramaic, hebrew and greek.

Supposedly Greek translations started with Alexander the Great, because he was so in love with the Greek culture that he required everyone to speak it and the bible to be translated. The class is sooo awesome, if you guys are really into getting a good understanding, besides the normal services at church, I would highly suggest that you take a class on it.

I took some classes in college and it was really fascinating

I think the bible, like everything else, you have to take ti for yourself. You decide what feels right to you and what doesn't. I think it's the same thing with all religious teachings (flame away)...if you talk to ten priests on one topic, you'll get ten different answers..but that's ok..that's what faith is, I think, being surrounded by mixed messages, but being able to decide what feels 'right' to you.