The Bible is more human than previosuly thought

http://news.yahoo.com/jerusalem-scholars-trace-bibles-evolution-092932128.html

For many Jews and Christians, religion dictates that the words of the Bible in the original Hebrew are divine, unaltered and unalterable. For Orthodox Jews, the accuracy is considered so inviolable that if a synagogue's Torah scroll is found to have a minute error in a single letter, the entire scroll is unusable.

But the ongoing work of the academic detectives of the Bible Project, as their undertaking is known, shows that this text at the root of Judaism, Christianity and Islam was somewhat fluid for long periods of its history, and that its transmission through the ages was messier and more human than most of us imagine.

Interesting read. For me it has always been obvious that the Bible is a human creation. It is basically a historical text narrating the history of the jewish people. It is quite evident, just look at the Epic of Gilgamesh and how many similarities between the stories are there. But for some people the Bible remains the unadulterated word of God.

What do you think?

As a Muslim I also believe Bible has been altered

Sounds like a lot of time to spend (200 years!?) on this text. At any time in the future someone might find an older manuscript and all of this work becomes almost pointless since that new text will become the most authentic. Also, most of the "hiccups" these studies find are irrelevant and can be marked up to simple copy errors.

I'm not quite sure why it's a revelation that humans were involved. That's always been stated.LJS9502_basic

Wait ...so God had humans write the bible and he/she didn't itself?

Never knew that... my world is ruined now

As a Muslim I also believe Bible has been altered

Harisemo

[QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"]I'm not quite sure why it's a revelation that humans were involved. That's always been stated.kuraimen

[QUOTE="kuraimen"][QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"]I'm not quite sure why it's a revelation that humans were involved. That's always been stated.LJS9502_basic

Wait ...so God had humans write the bible and he/she didn't itself?

Never knew that... my world is ruined now

Kcube

[QUOTE="Kcube"]

Wait ...so God had humans write the bible and he/she didn't itself?

Never knew that... my world is ruined now

kuraimen

I wonder what the Bible was like before it was altered like it has been.

For all we know it had dragons.

[QUOTE="kuraimen"][QUOTE="Kcube"]

Wait ...so God had humans write the bible and he/she didn't itself?

Never knew that... my world is ruined now

Kcube

I wonder what the Bible was like before it was altered like it has been.

For all we know it had dragons.

It started out altered from gods word.. It was a council of men. Not angels or gods.. That decided what stories made it in and what stories didn't in the bible.

[QUOTE="kuraimen"][QUOTE="Kcube"]

Wait ...so God had humans write the bible and he/she didn't itself?

Never knew that... my world is ruined now

I wonder what the Bible was like before it was altered like it has been.

For all we know it had dragons.

This is a fad.

[QUOTE="Harisemo"]

As a Muslim I also believe Bible has been altered

Moon_Tzu

History.

i'm no expert in subject matter but in comparison with the old and new, some muslim scholars suggested that the old testiment are true to its word and predicts the upcoming arrival of islam and the new one is to remove that prediction and altered by some corrupted people.

Nothing really new...

The bible feels like a history book with many exaggerated stories.

I respect it. But i dont think people should live by it. At least not word for word.

Especially the Old Testemant...

A smart man once said "If there were a god religions wouldn't exist". Which is quite accurate in my opinion. Hypothetical situation: There is a god, there is no denying his existence, everyone worships him and him only, religions would indeed be unnecessary, priests would be unnecessary. Because why would someone have to go to church or a mosque, talk to a priest when an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient god exists.

There's edits and changes in the translation to English from Latin alone. If you look up historical bible texts there are TONS of variations, sometimes in key details, especially since back in the middle ages the Bibles were transcribed by hand.

[QUOTE="kuraimen"][QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"]I'm not quite sure why it's a revelation that humans were involved. That's always been stated.LJS9502_basic

A smart man once said "If there were a god religions wouldn't exist". Which is quite accurate in my opinion. Hypothetical situation: There is a god, there is no denying his existence, everyone worships him and him only, religions would indeed be unnecessary, priests would be unnecessary. Because why would someone have to go to church or a mosque, talk to a priest when an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient god exists.

Stavrogin_

This is my view on religion.

To me if god does exist, i dont think he/she/it would let us know or have someone right a book about her/him/it.

I think he/she/it gave us the power to decide what is right for ourselves.

A smart man once said "If there were a god religions wouldn't exist". Which is quite accurate in my opinion. Hypothetical situation: There is a god, there is no denying his existence, everyone worships him and him only, religions would indeed be unnecessary, priests would be unnecessary. Because why would someone have to go to church or a mosque, talk to a priest when an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient god exists.

Stavrogin_

lol crap article. Nothing new here move along. Christians who believe the bible are words written directly by God are morons. The long standing belief is that it is the word of God because the "teachings necessary for salvation" has been preserved and directed by God. And the authors were humans who at first spread the work orally and then later in writing. However God helped to preserve those specific teachings. Also, because of translation issues, the hebrew/greek texts are significantly different than the english counterparts and thus all significant interpretations must be performed on the hebrew translations. ferrari2001

As a general rule, articles by secular media (yahoo news, New York Times, etc.) on religious matters are usually not good sources.

I thought everyone knew that the Bible has been altered???

There could be whole books out there we'll never read!

of course it was written by men. the part in leviticus about how much god hates menstruation is a dead giveaway.

Common sense, the bible's written by humans. And anyone who has a faith worth anything will admit that.

Common sense, the bible's written by humans. And anyone who has a faith worth anything will admit that.

MaskJackal

The thing is that most people force themselves to believe that somehow their god spoke to the authors. So according to their 'logic' it was written by god.

You can't take the bible literally at its word, no one thinks God literally said all of that for us, not to be changed. Its a guideline for good living, with differences depending on the chapter and writer and things like that, based on how Christian or Jewish God would want us to be. Good, giving, and kind. Whether or not you believe Jesus could change water to wine, you can't fault his utter good intentions and the lessons he teaches. In the end though, its from humans for humans, and even if you are 100% anti religion, you have to admit it is a convincing and very good reasoned tale.

I'm agnostic myself, but considering all the crime movies I love I know that the bible and Batman are my two moral compasses in life. No offense anyone, but its a good thing to read and listen to as long as you don't get into the literal interpretation of everything (like cutting off your right eye and the sodomy).

lol crap article. Nothing new here move along. Christians who believe the bible are words written directly by God are morons. The long standing belief is that it is the word of God because the "teachings necessary for salvation" has been preserved and directed by God. And the authors were humans who at first spread the work orally and then later in writing. However God helped to preserve those specific teachings. Also, because of translation issues, the hebrew/greek texts are significantly different than the english counterparts and thus all significant interpretations must be performed on the hebrew translations. ferrari2001

[QUOTE="ferrari2001"]lol crap article. Nothing new here move along. Christians who believe the bible are words written directly by God are morons. The long standing belief is that it is the word of God because the "teachings necessary for salvation" has been preserved and directed by God. And the authors were humans who at first spread the work orally and then later in writing. However God helped to preserve those specific teachings. Also, because of translation issues, the hebrew/greek texts are significantly different than the english counterparts and thus all significant interpretations must be performed on the hebrew translations. whipassmt

As a general rule, articles by secular media (yahoo news, New York Times, etc.) on religious matters are usually not good sources.

"that this text at the root of Judaism, Christianity and Islam"

and islam ??