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Is it possible for believers to believe the Bible has mistakes in it?

sojourner

Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
Thomas Aquinas attributed all organisms had a soul.
That's not what Genesis says, and it's Genesis, not Aquinas, that we're dealing with.
And yes, the Bible does "mean "humanness means in the image of God." It means that God breathed into mankind a heart establishing a "living being" and our spirit is that life.
You're mushing two different stories together. One story has God breathing into humanity's nostrils, making humanity living beings. But that has nothing to do with the other story, in which humanity is made in God's image. Which story do you want to use here? Because you can't use both.
 

sojourner

Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
I am 100% convinced there are NO mistakes in the Bible nor are there any errors. God does allow people to record their opinions though, some of which are not true.

Here is something that will blow your mind. I have found many (maybe hundreds) of "contradictions" between the 4 gospels yet God has revealed in the process that his Word is EVEN more true and HE IS MUCH BIGGER and REAL than I could ever believe before.
Actually, there are scribal errors in the texts. There is information that is incorrect, from a purely empirical perspective.
 
That's not what Genesis says, and it's Genesis, not Aquinas, that we're dealing with.

You're mushing two different stories together. One story has God breathing into humanity's nostrils, making humanity living beings. But that has nothing to do with the other story, in which humanity is made in God's image. Which story do you want to use here? Because you can't use both.

There are those that say the two stories mesh but then I have a problem with them saying that people are able to understand Scriptures messages without the benefit of scholars. No wonder Christianity is such a mixed bag of believers. First of all, the Bible is written by man, not God. Secondly, your interpretation whether your own or of some unique biblical camp is only different from Aquinas because you are not the genius that Aquinas was. Point is that what you understand of Christianity is by all those who's philosophy contributed to 2000 years of Christian thought. Your diversion is unacceptable.
 

psychoslice

Veteran Member
Its got to be said, that of course there are mistakes in the bible, after all it was written by man, and then rewritten over and over. It would be naïve to believe it doesn't have mistakes.
 
You raise some important theological issues here -- issues that lie at the heart of who we are and who God is -- and how we are in relationship.

There is a theological idea, championed by theologian Sallie McFague, that God has a physical body, and that that body is the universe -- the world (here, I'm speaking of "world" as "physical existence" -- not simply "the earth"). The world is God's body -- the earth, stars, planets -- everything that physically exists is God's physical body. In that sense, the creation is part of the Creator. We are all part of God; God is as close to us as the air we take into our lungs.

God is also holy -- that is, set apart from God's creation. God is both/and -- not either/or. In theological lingo, we say that God is both transcendent (apart from us) and imminent (close to us). We speak of God as holy when we speak of God's transcendency.

How can it be possible to "put too much heart" into a relationship? Deep love, deep connection, is a far different thing than a pathological attachment, or lack of self-differentiation. In a real sense, our own lives are defined by the ones we love and the ones who love us. That's the way in which humanity is one community -- what happens to one, happens to all. To paraphrase Kahlil Gibran, who speaks about love, "let your love be as the strings of a lute, which must vibrate separately, yet vibrate with the same music."

You say that "God in the sinner makes God a sinner too," and that "being a companion to a murderer at a murder makes me guilty of murder too. I believe the Father...holds...God's self to a higher standard." You're both right and wrong here. Let's continue to use Gibran's metaphor of the lute strings. There is, in nature, a phenomenon known as "sympathetic vibration." If we have two strings, and one is set in motion -- that is -- sets up a vibration, and the other string is left silent, the silent string will begin to vibrate. You see, the string with the vibration -- life -- defines the other string. Theologically speaking, when God, who is life, breathes into the lifeless lumps of clay called "humanity," we become nephesh, or beings that are defined as "living." It is God who defines us -- not the other way round. We don't define God. Therefore, when God is imminent -- close as the air we breathe, God doesn't become "dead" because we're dead in our sin, rather, we become "alive," because we have life in us. That's the essence of grace -- that God-With-Us makes us alive, even though we're dead in our sin.

The Cosmic Plenum: Tillich: Urgrund and Urbild
"[Now take note to the following, in that Tillich considers that the] "essential perfection within the Godhead remains in a state of 'dreaming innocence,' meaning that divine ideas, expressed in the divine mind, though they constitute the essential perfection of all that can be, remain somehow unreal unless they are expressed beyond God in existence."
[John P. Dourley, THE PSYCHE AS SACRAMENT: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF C.G. JUNG AND PAUL TILLICH, Inner City Books, 1981, p.56.]"

"Dourley proceeds:
"Hence man's situation in existence is depicted in the tension between his experience of his essential self and his existential distance and alienation from it. Tillich believes that man cannot destroy the groundedness of his essential being in God, but neither can he regain it or confer it upon himself...The movement towards or back to the essential...is still the basic movement of life..."
Tillich: Urgrund and Urbild
 
I haven't ignored them at all. They're simply not cogent to what I said.

What in the world does this have to do with "what the bible says about Jesus' Divinity?"

Duh.

It matters what the Bible has to say about Jesus' only if it is interpreted correctly and that takes an understanding of words. What does it have to do with, "What the Bible says about Jesus' divinity"? Everything. If we cannot speak in Christian symbols with an agreement as to what they mean, the discussion becomes pointless. At the very least parties to a discussion must understand what the other's define and how they define. Words or phrases explained in Jewish vernacular supersede any Christian designation of Christian symbolism. Christianity has created their own language and that is where biblical scholarship must question interpretations, such as, Jesus' divinity.

You can say that the phrase, "Son of God" refers to Jesus' divinity only if in the vernacular that is what was meant.

I contend that there is no biblical, OT or NT passage that declares Jesus' divinity. Divinity, calling Jesus the Christ, steps away from the vernacular. Jesus Christ is a Christian designation, symbol. Saying, Jesus as the Christ (Tillich) says a whole lot about the vernacular and represents clearly that the Church deems Jesus as sacred (up the meaning of sacred.)
 
I guess we just can't understand the scriptures that we wrote, interpreted, commented on, translated into other languages. and passed on to others.
There is a fine line that a believer must walk. To a Catholic that fine line is to follow what the Church teaches. In the ELCA many are learning to read the Bible correctly, as in a critical reading (biblical scholasticism) and fine themselves at odds with the conservative, old ways. Churches are splitting all over the US because of these differences.

Yes you can but then you must take ownership of your interpretation whether it is right or wrong. Be open to new truths and be open to change what you believe. Remembering that the Christian God is infinite and beyond any finite being, man.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
There is a fine line that a believer must walk. To a Catholic that fine line is to follow what the Church teaches. In the ELCA many are learning to read the Bible correctly, as in a critical reading (biblical scholasticism) and fine themselves at odds with the conservative, old ways. Churches are splitting all over the US because of these differences.

Yes you can but then you must take ownership of your interpretation whether it is right or wrong. Be open to new truths and be open to change what you believe. Remembering that the Christian God is infinite and beyond any finite being, man.
So you're assuming we don't take ownership of our scriptures and that we are not open to new truths and change? Do you know anything about the commentary system that we've been using for well over 2000 years and how this works?
 

savagewind

Veteran Member
Premium Member
By The Spirit leaving in Thomas' remark "my god" of Jesus it was for separating believers in Man from believers in God. A man said it. You believe it. Therefore the angels know you are trusting in Adam.

The other one they use to prove Jesus is God is the remark "The Father and I are one". But I am one with my husband. A first year bible student would not draw the conclusion that Jesus and God are the same person from those words. You must hypnotize yourself into believing it because the Bible also says Adam and Eve are one.
 

sojourner

Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
There are those that say the two stories mesh but then I have a problem with them saying that people are able to understand Scriptures messages without the benefit of scholars. No wonder Christianity is such a mixed bag of believers. First of all, the Bible is written by man, not God. Secondly, your interpretation whether your own or of some unique biblical camp is only different from Aquinas because you are not the genius that Aquinas was. Point is that what you understand of Christianity is by all those who's philosophy contributed to 2000 years of Christian thought. Your diversion is unacceptable.
I'm not stating my interpretation. Aquinas isn't engaging in an exegetical exercise. Aquinas is doing theology. I'm stating what the text says in Genesis two. Genesis one and two are fundamentally different accounts, from different sources. It's not a diversion; it's an attempt to get you to think critically for yourself, instead of bringing in material from all over the map that simply isn't germane. If you understood the importance of being specific as to textual material, you wouldn't have posted this.
 

sojourner

Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
First of all, please learn how to use the quote feature.
On to your post. You said:
"It matters what the Bible has to say about Jesus' only if it is interpreted correctly and that takes an understanding of words. What does it have to do with, "What the Bible says about Jesus' divinity"? Everything. If we cannot speak in Christian symbols with an agreement as to what they mean, the discussion becomes pointless. At the very least parties to a discussion must understand what the other's define and how they define. Words or phrases explained in Jewish vernacular supersede any Christian designation of Christian symbolism. Christianity has created their own language and that is where biblical scholarship must question interpretations, such as, Jesus' divinity."
First, anything we have written of Jesus is in Greek, so when we're dealing with the words that are in the bible, we're dealing with Greek terms, not Hebrew terms. That's the first understanding of words we have to deal with. The second understanding we have to come to is that it's not just words, but concepts, because one can't just stop at a transliteration of terms. Often, there are not equivalents and so the translational and interpretational process must continue beyond "understanding words."

Second, I don't know why Jewish vernacular "supersedes Christian designation." The texts are in Greek, and do not represent a clearly Jewish POV. You need to remember that we're not talking about "what early xtians thought." We're talking about "what's in the bible." And "what's in the bible" was finally written at least 15 years following Jesus' death, to largely Gentile audiences -- or, in the case of the gospels, to displaced and hellenized Judaic groups living in Gentile territories. Therefore, the writings, themselves, are infused in more than just "Jewish thought."

You said:
"You can say that the phrase, "Son of God" refers to Jesus' divinity only if in the vernacular that is what was meant."

First, I didn't point to that phrase in stating my position. Second, you have to realize that, while "son of God" had a particular, vernacular meaning in Judaism, it also had a unique meaning in Greek, and which is given precedence depends on which text the phrase is found.

You said:
"I contend that there is no biblical, OT or NT passage that declares Jesus' divinity."
John 1 disagrees with you.

You said:
"Divinity, calling Jesus the Christ, steps away from the vernacular. Jesus Christ is a Christian designation, symbol."
It's also a Hebraic designation. It's where we get the term "messiah." They both mean "anointed."

You've got a whole lotta smoke and mirrors gong on here, thinly disguised as intellectia.
 
First of all, please learn how to use the quote feature.
On to your post. You said:
"It matters what the Bible has to say about Jesus' only if it is interpreted correctly and that takes an understanding of words. What does it have to do with, "What the Bible says about Jesus' divinity"? Everything. If we cannot speak in Christian symbols with an agreement as to what they mean, the discussion becomes pointless. At the very least parties to a discussion must understand what the other's define and how they define. Words or phrases explained in Jewish vernacular supersede any Christian designation of Christian symbolism. Christianity has created their own language and that is where biblical scholarship must question interpretations, such as, Jesus' divinity."
First, anything we have written of Jesus is in Greek, so when we're dealing with the words that are in the bible, we're dealing with Greek terms, not Hebrew terms. That's the first understanding of words we have to deal with. The second understanding we have to come to is that it's not just words, but concepts, because one can't just stop at a transliteration of terms. Often, there are not equivalents and so the translational and interpretational process must continue beyond "understanding words."

Second, I don't know why Jewish vernacular "supersedes Christian designation." The texts are in Greek, and do not represent a clearly Jewish POV. You need to remember that we're not talking about "what early xtians thought." We're talking about "what's in the bible." And "what's in the bible" was finally written at least 15 years following Jesus' death, to largely Gentile audiences -- or, in the case of the gospels, to displaced and hellenized Judaic groups living in Gentile territories. Therefore, the writings, themselves, are infused in more than just "Jewish thought."

You said:
"You can say that the phrase, "Son of God" refers to Jesus' divinity only if in the vernacular that is what was meant."

First, I didn't point to that phrase in stating my position. Second, you have to realize that, while "son of God" had a particular, vernacular meaning in Judaism, it also had a unique meaning in Greek, and which is given precedence depends on which text the phrase is found.

You said:
"I contend that there is no biblical, OT or NT passage that declares Jesus' divinity."
John 1 disagrees with you.

You said:
"Divinity, calling Jesus the Christ, steps away from the vernacular. Jesus Christ is a Christian designation, symbol."
It's also a Hebraic designation. It's where we get the term "messiah." They both mean "anointed."

You've got a whole lotta smoke and mirrors gong on here, thinly disguised as intellectia.

So far you've presented a lot of smoke. I'm not trying to be difficult about this conversation. Honestly, do you dance around these issues to avoid discussion that may challenge your belief system? I've not studied the Bible, theology and the history of Christianity to not know what you've said above about understanding words is anything less than your response. I suspect that you need to take your studies a step farther.

Ex.; John 1; In the beginning was the Word; the Word was in God's presence, and the Word was God. NAB1970.
ff: "1, 1-18: . . . Commentators are divided on whether the inititial reference to the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ is in 1,9 or 1,14." Ibid.
ff: "1, 9: The earlier versions make every man (instead of the light) the subject of coming into the world." Ibid.
ff: "1, 14: Made his dwelling: literally, "set up his tent, or tabernacle." In the Exodus the tabernacle or tent of meeting was the site of God's dwelling among men (Ex 25, 8f); now that site is the Word-made-flesh. Glory: the glory of God (the visible manifestation of his majesty in power), which once filled the tabernacle (Ex 40, 34) and the temple (1 Kgs 8, 10f.27), is now centered in Jesus. Filled with enduring love: It is not clear whether filled modifies glory or Word or only Son. The two words love and enduring (often translated "grace and truth") represent two Old Testament terms used to describe the dealings of the God of the covenant with Israel (Ex 34, 6); love signifying God's love in choosing Israel and his steadfast expression of that love in the covenant; enduring signifying his faithfulness to his covenant promises. Jesus is a new manifestation of God's covenant, enduring love, replacing the Old; cf v 16."

This ex., words are important and for all the reasons you stated above. When I say that you need to pay close attention to the words in a passage I mean for you to use every hermeneutic tool at your disposal. I apologize, it is not that you don't use all the hermeneutic tools but that you don't apply what hermeneutics shows you. The above example is a great choice on your part but it does not indicate Jesus' divinity.

I can accept that your belief is different than mine but then you must also understand that Christianity is therefore without communion.

Now, the above quotes are from the era of Vatican II and to this day I consider both the Jerome Biblical Commentary, ed., 1968 and, the NAB ed., 1970 the best commentary and translation, respectively, that the Church has ever put into print. No other commentary even comes close to what the JBC1968 presents, although this edition has been removed from publication as has the 1970 edition of the NAB. There is doctrine in this edition of the JBC but at least it has true biblical scholarship. The commentary made me question Catholic Doctrine even more.

I happened to begin reading the Bible with John 1 and how I read it was to utilize the OT references listed in the NAB1970. The OT became my dictionary for terms I did not fully understand in the context of the passages I read. I soon developed my own understanding and wondered if my studies were true to what Christians interpreted. I soon found biblical scholars and theologians that were saying the same thing.

Further, I was taught to read from the early theologians and learn how Christianity has progressed. Yes, I do all that you mentioned above and maybe even more. I struggle with ancient languages and finding meaning in the culture that writings were written but I get there with more research.
 
I'm not stating my interpretation. Aquinas isn't engaging in an exegetical exercise. Aquinas is doing theology. I'm stating what the text says in Genesis two. Genesis one and two are fundamentally different accounts, from different sources. It's not a diversion; it's an attempt to get you to think critically for yourself, instead of bringing in material from all over the map that simply isn't germane. If you understood the importance of being specific as to textual material, you wouldn't have posted this.

On the contrary, I need you to understand that critical thinking, such as Thomas Aquinas', is more important than yours' or my critical thinking. Two thousand years of critical thinking has given Christianity its identity, good or bad. Theological thinking comes from critical thinking about the Bible. Christianity is as much apart of philosophy and logic as it is from biblical texts. The NT is just that, critical thinking on the part of those that wrote the four Gospels. Any reading of the Bible that is literal fails to understand beyond one's upbringing, indoctrination and, education. No literal reading imparts the Christian God's message. A literal reading is a personal reading and that leads to a personal god. If two people are on the same page those people will understand each other. How many different interpretations exist today? I bring to you critical thinking that incorporates every tool at my disposal. I am always seeking the truth. Truth (small t) always changes. Truth (capital T) never changes. And that means that any change to Truth as we know it is man's finite interpretation of God. What makes you think that man could even begin to know God? All we have to go by is what John 1 says to best of our understanding.

Don't come back at me for this reply and say that you did not say that. You are really great at implying and then denying by diverting critical thinking on my part from the original point you've made.
 
Is this what you meant to say? Or is there an o missing? If the o isn't missing then what does it mean?

Sorry, I can only think that I started to comment and then got called away.

You posted: "If one doesn't learn and apply how can they possibly do this--John 4:22-24." You make a really great point about learning and the passages you mentioned here is a great example. In 22-24 as with the Didache 11: 4-7 speaks of the Spirit. What is being said is about the community of believers discernment of prophets speaking in the Spirit. Here then, in both writings, is about a community of believers. The Spirit ". . . is not a reference to an interior worship within man's spirit" but that of God. One must also learn what the word salvation meant to the people at the time of this writing. The passage says, "salvation is from the Jews." What did salvation mean to the Jews? What John says in 4: 24 is the same as what is said in John 1; 1: 9; and 1: 14. See my comment in #414.
 
So you're assuming we don't take ownership of our scriptures and that we are not open to new truths and change? Do you know anything about the commentary system that we've been using for well over 2000 years and how this works?

You've missed my point. I am speaking about Christian commentaries. I apologize for not clarifying that I was referring to Christian commentaries. I work with many Jewish exegesis and value them greatly as the Christian Bible is first defined by the Jewish Testament.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
You've missed my point. I am speaking about Christian commentaries. I apologize for not clarifying that I was referring to Christian commentaries. I work with many Jewish exegesis and value them greatly as the Christian Bible is first defined by the Jewish Testament.
No worries, and thanks for the clarification.
 

sojourner

Annoyingly Progressive Since 2006
Honestly, do you dance around these issues to avoid discussion that may challenge your belief system?
I'm quite comfortable with challenges to my belief system, thanks. I've been there, done that, worn out the T-shirt as far as apologetics are concerned, and I couldn't care less what others believe, or what others think about my beliefs. Mine are mine; yours are yours -- they're both valid.
I suspect that you need to take your studies a step farther.
I suspect that a formal education, culminating in a graduate degree with high honors, and being invited to publish critical papers on the NT is study enough for purposes of this forum.
Now, the above quotes are from the era of Vatican II and to this day I consider both the Jerome Biblical Commentary, ed., 1968 and, the NAB ed., 1970 the best commentary and translation, respectively, that the Church has ever put into print. No other commentary even comes close to what the JBC1968 presents, although this edition has been removed from publication as has the 1970 edition of the NAB. There is doctrine in this edition of the JBC but at least it has true biblical scholarship.
The Anchor and the TDNT are better... You should use more scholarly study material, if you're that interested in scholastics.
The above example is a great choice on your part but it does not indicate Jesus' divinity.
Not conclusively or explicitly, but, as I said, some sort of Divine concept is implied therein.

Look, when the Ecumenical Council met at Nicea, they relied on biblical texts in the formation of the doctrine. They also relied on extra-biblical Tradition. If there was no textual implication of Jesus' Divinity, the doctrine wouldn't force the issue so strongly.
 
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