Q: I’ve been asked this question before and am unsure how to answer. If regular people, like Paul, wrote the stories of the Bible, how are we supposed to believe in God’s teachings when men wrote His word?
- The Bible was written by over 40 different authors, most of whom had never met each other: high government officials, peasants, military officers, fishermen, religious teachers, and many others
- It was written in three different languages on three different continents
- It was written over a period of 1500 years
- It claims to be God’s Word, not a claim made every day, and has withstood the test of time and attempts to disprove and destroy it
Take these facts into consideration when you consider one more fact: that the Bible is unified. The Bible was written over these many years by these various authors living in different lands and speaking different languages, and yet, it doesn’t contradict itself. That is a big deal, considering if I were to write a book the length and breadth of the Bible, I know I would contradict myself at least once, if not several times. And I am just one person, speaking one language, living in one land:
7 comments:
One more question on this train of thought. .the origin of the Bible. How did all of these individual writings written on 3 continents on different languages ultimately come together into one cohesive book what we call the Bible?
Anonymous-
Rather than type a book here, I think this website gives pretty good summary of how it all went down. Read it over and let me know what you think. I hope you don't take this as a cop-out; I just think the author frames it better than I ever could:
http://www.allaboutthejourney.org/history-of-the-bible.htm
Although this website is interesting and extremely explanatory, I don't think that it answers HOW the writings came together; it only states that they did indeed come together.It then goes on to explain how the Jewish Tanakh eventually conformed into the Christian Bible...but how did the writings find each other to form the Tanakh?
No contradictions! Are your kidding me? What a bold statement. Try googling "Bible contradictions" and see how many hits you get of Websites with hundreds of documented "Bible contradictions." Wow, I'm sorry I had to call you on that one Fitz.
DWWJ
The contradictions that atheists and literary scholars point to in the Bible are not so much contradictions as they are perspective differences or stylistic license. For instance, some of these sites will talk about the order of things that happen in the four Gospels, but history wasn't written the same way (by anyone) then as it is now. People wrote for impact, and so some authors group teachings, some want to show that when Jesus acted, the authorities always reacted. And so the stories or where they happen vary so that the writer can emphasize his point. But there are no philosophical or theological contradictions. (We could talk about the four people at different parts of the elephant or the four people on four corners of the street during a wreck, but I'm sure you've heard these).
DWWJ-
I did as you suggested and did find many websites claiming to list Bible contradictions, but also found just as many refutations of said contradictions. I then did a Google search for 'alien landings in Nevada' and came up with 29,000 websites. Just because a website pops up when doing a Google search doesn't give the topic any credibility. Did you have any specific contradictions you wanted to address?
Anonymous-
Again, I hope you don't take this as a cop-out, but yours is a question that could require a whole book about the formation of the Scriptures. Rather than type for a couple of days, I found another good explanation about how it all went down here:
http://www.truthnet.org/Bible-Origins/5_Old-Testament-
Books/index.htm
I hope it helps...
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