Divinely inspired?

[ciaphas]

How can a text so ridden with inerrancies be the word of god? sure some are down to mistranslations, but there are many that just don't make sense.

just to point out, these weren't found by me, but here are a few examples.

How many men did the chief of David's captains kill?

Sam 23:8 says 800, Chronicles 11:11 says 300

Abraham seems to have different numbers of sons in different orders depending on which bit of genesis you read.

Abjam and Asa seem to be brothers and father and son.

Father in Kings 15:8 yet Kings 15:1-2 and 15:9-10 state that they have the same mother, Maachah.

the list goes on (the list i found these on has 455 such examples), why aren't these passages corrected?

 

[98cwitr]

Seek and ye shall find:

Cleared-up "Bible Contradictions"

 

[drich0150]

How can a text so ridden with inerrancies be the word of god? sure some are down to mistranslations, but there are many that just don't make sense.

just to point out, these weren't found by me, but here are a few examples.

If you find inconsistencies in something that is "Divinely Inspired" Then Perhaps you should take another look at what it really means for the Bible to be Divinely inspired.

I believe you are mistaking Divine inspiration, for divine interpretation.

Just because you can not see how something works doesn't mean someone else does not as well. Do you think that your web site or you, for that matter, who has taken an English translation or interpretation, along with the ideas of modern day record keeping, can accurately hold an ancient culture to your specific standards, without any further research or knowledge of what you are speaking?

Or are you just reading what is written on the page and making an observation based in western Anglo system of thought and education?

What of all of the inconsistencies found in the written records of ancient Egypt? These records contain the lion's share of what we know of recorded ancient history. (Outside of the bible) why are they explained away as quirks of that culture, and the written record of the Hebrews are looked at with contempt by the same people?

How many websites are their devoted to the inconsistencies of Egyptian form of record keeping?
why do you think that is?

 

[max1120]

How can a text so ridden with inerrancies be the word of god? sure some are down to mistranslations, but there are many that just don't make sense.

just to point out, these weren't found by me, but here are a few examples.

How many men did the chief of David's captains kill?

Sam 23:8 says 800, Chronicles 11:11 says 300

Abraham seems to have different numbers of sons in different orders depending on which bit of genesis you read.

Abjam and Asa seem to be brothers and father and son.

Father in Kings 15:8 yet Kings 15:1-2 and 15:9-10 state that they have the same mother, Maachah.

the list goes on (the list i found these on has 455 such examples), why aren't these passages corrected?

You are correct the bible is riddled with such inaccuracy. One other thing is that it has been added to and subtracted from by men to manipulate its meaning for centuries. Take for example the last 12 verses of Mark's Gospel. Those last 12 verses do not appear in any of the earliest copies of Mark's Gospel. They do not appear in any copy of Mark until the about 5th or 6th century. The reason for this is that they were added. There are other cases of this also.

 

[singpeace]

Ciaphas,

Great question. Great examples.

I will personally take it upon myself to research them.

Having said that, remember the original texts of the Scriptures were written in Hebrew and Greek. Through translation, a meaning may be lost. Example: the English language has one way to spell 'knew' with one meaning. Whereas the Hebrew and Greek have several slight variations in the spelling of 'knew' with many different meanings.

Also, there are over 2000 translations of the Bible universally, with 450 of those in the English language alone.

It is best to take any verse or word that makes little sense and find the original Hebrew (for old test) or Greek (for new test) meaning of the English. Then look that word up in the Hebrew or Greek dictionary. There is no better way to clarify that the Word truly is inspired of God.

 

[razeontherock]

How can a text so ridden with inerrancies be the word of God?

You answered your own question

You can spend decades looking, only to find out it really is that simple. Still, it's the struggle that makes it worthwhile.

 

[Emmy]

Dear ciaphas. The Bible is God` speaking to Man, written by God-inspired men and women. If everything in the Bible were the same, I would have my doubts, different people see deeds differently. There also is the time factor, it is a different picture earlier, or later. The police will tell you how differently different people, will describe the same happening, or event. The fact is, many men and women have had solace and help from the Bible. And thousands upon thousands believe and are being transformed by God`s Word to us, myself included. I say this humbly and with love, ciaphas. Greetings from Emmy, sister in Christ.

 

[Martinius]

It won't seem so puzzling if you think of the Bible as man's interpretation of his relationship with God over thousands of years. And not as one unified connected book but as individual "chapters" written by different authors, each with a different focus, different purpose, different audience, at a different time in history. It is a compilation written by men.

I prefer to think of the Bible as inspired by God, rather than the inerrant word of God. In researching this I came across a book by an esteemed Rabbi and Bible scholar, Julian Morgenstern. Written almost 100 years ago, the Rabbi's book is about Genesis and how the creation stories and other parts of Genesis should be taught to Jewish religion students. He says this:

These stories are not literal history. They merely express the way in which the imaginative, unscientific mind of our ancestors, at a remote period of their religious and cultural evolution, conceived of creation and the first life on earth. All primitive peoples have dealt with these same problems in much the same manner and have found their answers to these problems in myths and folklore.

Considering that what we call the Old Testament are the Hebrew Scriptures, it is interesting that these Jewish Biblical Scholars (there were 14 other scholar Rabbis on the committee that reviewed and approved the book) see the first book of the Bible not as the word of God but as primitive concepts of the world and how it came to be. Morgenstern also writes this:

Its stories are less actual history than records of the way in which our early ancestors, with childlike minds, conceived of life itself, and of Israel's history as having actually begun. This is a matter of prime importance. Much of our present confused thinking about religion is due to the fact that in childhood most of us were taught that the stories of creation, the flood, the abnormal ages of the first generations, and many other stories of Genesis were literally true and must be accepted as such without question. Modern education and scientific environment, however, make us realize that this belief can not be maintained. Yet many have mistakenly imagined that Judaism actually rests upon blind acceptance of these stories.

The fact that the Genesis stories and many others in the OT are not the word of God does not mean they are not valuable. They can still teach us truths about God and our relationship with Him. And accepting the idea that every word did not come directly from God can help us avoid wasting time trying to explain all the errors, inconsistencies and contradictions.

Ask yourself what is important to faith. Is it whether the Bible is the word of God or is it about what the Bible teaches us regarding how we relate to God and how we should live our lives?

 

[ebia]

How can a text so ridden with inerrancies be the word of god? sure some are down to mistranslations, but there are many that just don't make sense.

just to point out, these weren't found by me, but here are a few examples.

How many men did the chief of David's captains kill?

Sam 23:8 says 800, Chronicles 11:11 says 300

Abraham seems to have different numbers of sons in different orders depending on which bit of genesis you read.

Abjam and Asa seem to be brothers and father and son.

Father in Kings 15:8 yet Kings 15:1-2 and 15:9-10 state that they have the same mother, Maachah.

the list goes on (the list i found these on has 455 such examples), why aren't these passages corrected?

Something is good or bad according to how well it fits its purpose; the best hammer in the world is a poor screwdriver. What makes you think the purpose of Scripture is to transmit irrelevant facts like the exact number of men killed by David's captain?

 

[ciaphas]

ok, too many points here to manage.

I appreciate the link to thebereans.net, that clears up quite a few and I'm looking through them.

If you say that the bible can't be taken as the literal word of god then how can you know which bits to follow and which bits were the ramblings and predjudices of the individual. For example Leviticus 18:22, how do you know if god is against homosexuality? If he didn't guide the hands of the authors directly you might be needlesly discriminating against homosexuals because of a homophobe several thousand years ago.

 

[98cwitr]

ok, too many points here to manage.

I appreciate the link to thebereans.net, that clears up quite a few and I'm looking through them.

If you say that the bible can't be taken as the literal word of god then how can you know which bits to follow and which bits were the ramblings and predjudices of the individual. For example Leviticus 18:22, how do you know if god is against homosexuality? If he didn't guide the hands of the authors directly you might be needlesly discriminating against homosexuals because of a homophobe several thousand years ago.

I believe that since the people were divinely inspired then the Bible can be taken as absolute truth, and since the Holy Spirit is Truth, then the Bible is the Word of God.

If someone says that the Bible is NOT the Word of God, or contains errors, they simply are not able to discern that they are capable of fallacy themselves. They rely on their own ability to grasp and comprehend what the Bible says. When they fail to do that they just as soon think that the Bible is wrong or has errors before they consider that they themselves have lacked the understanding to put the verses into their proper context.