Which Bible

[AgnosticMike]

G'day I'm new to this forum but find the level of faith Christians put in their version of the Bible a little odd. It seems as though each of the versions of the New Testament through history have been very different. The books that were included and accepted by the early church differ from those accepted today. I know that Revelation took a long time to be accepted as part of the Canon and other books do not fit the credential of being written by apostles. I suppose the whole thing seems to be guess work. Christians have to have faith in the various councils and people who were deciding what was in and what wasn't. It seems faith in God is not enough, faith in the people who put the Bible together is also required.



Agnostic Mike

 

[CrazyforYeshua]

You know, I actually agree with that. The Holy Bible is all that is needed, no churchs' Bible, nothing that has to be agreed on, God has given us His Word, what else do we need?

 

[BarbB]

Actually, I have faith that God nudged men to include the books to be included and exclude those books which were excluded.

 

[gracechick]

You're right. We do have to have faith that the Word is written & put together exactly the way the Lord knew it needed to be
& believing that the Bible is the absolute Word from God who is the author of truth is what gives me the peace of mind & great hope to keep running the race to the finnish.

 

[ebia]

It seems faith in God is not enough, faith in the people who put the Bible together is also required.

Yes, faith in (at least the Christian concept of ) God has to include faith in his ability to work through fallable people, and fallable works. Neither the canon, nor the actually books, of the bible need to be fallable for God to work through them. In fact, God has the habit of working through the most unlikely people, events, and situations.

 

[thepianist]

G'day I'm new to this forum but find the level of faith Christians put in their version of the Bible a little odd. It seems as though each of the versions of the New Testament through history have been very different. The books that were included and accepted by the early church differ from those accepted today. I know that Revelation took a long time to be accepted as part of the Canon and other books do not fit the credential of being written by apostles. I suppose the whole thing seems to be guess work. Christians have to have faith in the various councils and people who were deciding what was in and what wasn't. It seems faith in God is not enough, faith in the people who put the Bible together is also required.



Agnostic Mike

Actually, with me, there is no problem with the Bible. You see, I just stick with the King James Version. It's easy to read and understand....and it should be - it was written on a sixth grade level....no too difficult for most people.

My faith is not in a 'book' of any kind or version. My faith is in my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

 

[ebia]

Actually, with me, there is no problem with the Bible. You see, I just stick with the King James Version. It's easy to read and understand....and it should be - it was written on a sixth grade level....no too difficult for most people.

Even the "King James Only" sites say that it ranges from grade 6 to grade 10 depending on passage. However, I would like to see some evidence that this is true, based on tests designed to cope with archaic documents. Tests designed purely for conteporary documents will not take into account the archaic language of the A.V.

 

[DeaconDean]

Listen people, does it really matter which Bible you read? Isn't it more important to read which ever version you chose and to be faithful to it? I'm like thepianist, I love my KJV bible but I wont put you down if like the NIV. The important thing is to read and study which ever version you chose daily. Right?

 

[ebia]

Listen people, does it really matter which Bible you read?

Not at all, and the Authorised Version is a perfectly fine version, but pretending that it has a reading age of grade 6 when anyone who has actually opened it can see that this is not true is not particularly helpful.

 

[heron]

Mike, it sounds like you've done a lot of reading on the subject.

 

[BarbB]

Listen people, does it really matter which Bible you read? Isn't it more important to read which ever version you chose and to be faithful to it? I'm like thepianist, I love my KJV bible but I wont put you down if like the NIV. The important thing is to read and study which ever version you chose daily. Right?

I was saved reading The Good News Bible, which any Bible reader will tell you is the baby-version. Didn't matter - by 2Chronicles, I was convinced of the truth in the Bible and saved. I have since graduated to the NKJV and KJV.

 

[f3191]

Basically, all the bibles hopefully share the same meanings, just in odd translations each. Some are a little more hard to understand. I prefer the NIV, since it makes more sense to me.

 

[AvgJoe]

G'day I'm new to this forum but find the level of faith Christians put in their version of the Bible a little odd. It seems as though each of the versions of the New Testament through history have been very different. The books that were included and accepted by the early church differ from those accepted today. I know that Revelation took a long time to be accepted as part of the Canon and other books do not fit the credential of being written by apostles. I suppose the whole thing seems to be guess work. Christians have to have faith in the various councils and people who were deciding what was in and what wasn't. It seems faith in God is not enough, faith in the people who put the Bible together is also required.



Agnostic Mike

I don't place any faith in the people involved at all. My faith is placed completely in God. God knows the end from the beginning. He knew the response of everyone involved before they were even born and God had from the first day of creation to make sure that the right people, wound up at the right place, at the right time.

As for today's versions, I use the NLT, AMP, KJV, NKJV, NIV and the ESV. The Amplified Bible is great for study. It brings out the various shades of meaning of the Scriptures.

 

[Phospho]

Listen people, does it really matter which Bible you read? Isn't it more important to read which ever version you chose and to be faithful to it? I'm like thepianist, I love my KJV bible but I wont put you down if like the NIV. The important thing is to read and study which ever version you chose daily. Right?

I have to disagree here. There are some versions written it seems to give a certain slant on certain passages, which makes them mean something totally different than what the original texts say.


for example, the NIV John 3.16 says that "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

the contention is the word "shall"...the intent of that word is no where found in the original texts that we have, the word intent there is supposed to be "should". The NIV was written by two groups dogmatically sided to "once saved, always saved" and "Jesus only salvation" and neither one is sound scripturally.

this probably doesn't belong here, but I had to say my piece. The best version out on the market today, which is taken directly from the earliest extant manuscripts, written to express the intent of the meanings of the original languages for english understanding, is the NASB...in case you are interested.

Blessings!

 

[Merlin]

The 'Bible' is a collection of about 66 books.
Throughout history, many authors have claimed to be authoritative by writing under another name, usually an Apostle.

The 'councils' just helped to sort out which books were authentic and which weren't.
They often used a philosophy of 'when in doubt, throw it out'

What is left is good advice, regardless.

The OT was the set of books given to the children of Israel.
The books cover Israel's history,
the laws God gave to the children of Israel,
prophecy about Israel, about Jesus, and more.

The NT starts with 4 biographies of Jesus,
the history of the early church,
various letters to different churches instructing them on various issues,
and finally a book of end-times prophecy.

 

[heron]

The Bible I read out of most often has little to do with my respect for it. I like the Jerusalem Bible because the pages have a lot of white space, the layout often appears as poetry, and it doesn't feel as compressed and cluttered. It lays flat when I set it on a desk. But I grab whatever's around. If I really want to get close to the true intent, I go here:
http://www.studylight.org/

 

[Rafael]

The New American Standard Bible is very accurate in translation to the original meanings of the Greek and Hebrew. Also, a very accurate paraphrase is the New Living translation that is written in modern phrasings. The Amplified Bible is the first Bible I read that really opened up scriptures to me. Here is a comparison link:
http://www.zondervanbibles.com/translations.htm

 

[heron]

Great link, Rafael! I didn't realize Zondervan distributed so many versions. It's refreshing to see a straightforward, unbiased comparison.

 

[AgnosticMike]

Many people say they have faith in the processes or the people that have put our modern Bibles together. The early church had a different version to what we have today. They had problems with books that were not able to be confirmed as apostolic. They were closer to the action and I find it hard to understand how councils many years later were able to sort out those uncertainties and make them certainties. Certain councils including and omitted various books. Even today there are those who content that there are books missing.

So those who have that faith in the process are treading on shakey ground.

 

[AgnosticMike]

Considering the number of times parts of the Bible have been translated, isn't that a recipe alone for error and misinterpretation? Translating a language involves interpretation and is far from an exact science.

One example: Jesus spoke Aramaic. Passed down orally to an inconlusive number of recipients. It was translated to Koine Greek sometime after, around 40 years plus approx. Those documents copied many times. Copies found in Koine Greek and translated to modern English. Many commentaries written to try and explain with many disagreeing. Pastor stands up and gives his opinion to congregation. Generally speaking congregation accept what is said and pass on to other people.