Accuracy of the Bible?

[Lotuspetal_uk]

Shalom and the Lord's blessings be upon you today...

I thought I'd take advantage of the little one taking a very rare afternoon nap for me to ask another one of my niggly questions.

Up until recently, I was very confident in my debates with my husband whenever the topic concerning the Bible's accuracy would pop up. His religion states that the Bible - be it KJV, NIV, NASB etc... - is merely an inaccurate translation and that the original has been lost (if you ever debate with a Muslim you'd know what I'm on about). I was able to refute his claims by saying that given the sheer volume of older translations from Egypt to Jeruslam to Greece, it can be safe to say that what we have now still conveys the core message of G-d's love for us. This was also reinforced by a website that Stillsmallvoice had posted which showed the care that scribes took in preserving the Torah in order to maintain its accuracy.

Recently I have been reading that in fact there are some serious mis-translations especially in what we have as the New Testament and that there may also be some question marks over the accuracy of the other books with the exception of the Torah.

Does anyone have any sources or websites in support of the Bible's accuracy?

I must also apologise for not doing a search in here initially (because I know this has been asked before ) but can anyone also provide for me any Bibles which you feel is more accurately translated into English?

Thank you and G-d bless

LP

 

[BenTsion]

Lotuspetal,
Shalom!

First of all, let me tell you that there are three areas which your husband (or anyone who's done their homework) might try to attack the Bible:

The first one being translations. Let me assure you that, even though there are some serious mistranslations, most of them do get the plan of salvation accurately. Problem lies mostly with the western depreciation of the old testament, which has to do with the anti-semitism that permeated the church in the 3rd century. Having that in consideration, I'd recommend the Complete Jewish Bible, or the Orthodox Bible, which seem to bo a better job in being fair to our
jewish roots.

Second problem one may point out is how the Bible, if taken literally, can't be taken seriously. That problem usually has to do with who's reading it, rather than the Bible itself. For instance, at the time the Bible was written, mathematical precision was not an important thing. That again is something that comes from our culture. Numbers were seen more as symbolic representations of a large quantity, or as a complete period of time, and many others. If you study the Kabbalah you can learn all that. Remember that the authors of the Bible were INSPIRED, they didn't go into a trance through which G-d wrote with his own finger. I believe the Bible to be inerrant, but I also believe that it is inerrant when read through the proper context, taking the cultural aspect, the moment the writer was living through, its relationship with previous texts. There are things that only make sense when correlated to other texts. For a better understanding of that, I suggest that you study the Jewish Middrasha. It'll help
you read the Bible through the proper angle, thus making it easier for you to confront your husband's ideas.

Third problem is with apparent contradictions within the Bible. The Middrasha can give you a hand with that, but I also recommend a book called the 'Encyclopedia of Biblical (or Bible, can't remember) Difficulties'. You'll see that many of these apparent contradictions can be easily explained away.

Maybe I went a little bit off-topic here, but I hope what I wrote can be useful for you or anyone having the same problem as you.

Oh, and I'll include your husband in my prayers.

In Mashiach,
Ben Tsion

 

[Lotuspetal_uk]

The Lord bless you Ben! Shalom,

Thank you for your response - are these publications available online? If no, do you have the isbn numbers for me to order them?

Thank you again

G-d bless
LP

 

[BenTsion]

Lotuspetal,
I think the Orthodox bible is available online. Check out the 'Online Texts' thread. As for the other ones, try amazon.com. As I've just moved, many of my books are still in large boxes - but let me know if you can't find them at amazon.com so that I can look up the ISBN for you.

Also, check out a website called www.answeringislam.org - where several of the claims and attacks of islam are answered by Christians and Messianics.

In Mashiach,
Ben Tsion

 

[Lotuspetal_uk]

Shalom!

Thanking you again Ben I tend to visit the 'answering Islam' site quite a bit and I agree it is very very useful I'll check out the online texts thread.

G-d bless

 

[Rabbi Cohen]

BS"D

Lotuspetal,
I think the Orthodox bible is available online. Check out the 'Online Texts' thread.

Lotuspetal,

The Orthodox bible is by Artists for Israel International and I have a link to it on the Beit Tikvah Website, click my website button below to get to the Beit Tikvah site and then when directed to the main home page, click "Read the Scriptures".

Kol Tuv, (All the best)
R.Cohen

 

[Lotuspetal_uk]

Shalom Rabbi Cohen,

Thank you for the link!

Your website is excellent by the way! I wish I was still teaching because I would have had my students take a peek at your site for good web-design ideas

G-d bless

 

[simchat_torah]

I've also posted here in these forums in the "online texts" thread... found at the top of these forums as a sticky.

-Yafet.