Bible Writers not just ignorant "goat herders" (page 6)

Julia Orwell

In a time when most people were illiterate and formal education was reserved for the upper classes who weren't being stupified by the toil of subsistence farming etc, of course the Bible was written by educated people. Herodotus was way wrong on heaps of things in his histories, but you wouldn't call him uneducated. Same with bible writers.

Seraphim23

MP I didn’t know that it was the job of ancient documents to help people. I personality give people money who are in need and I am not rich by western standards, of course I am rich from the point of view of third world standards as you are.

cofty

Can anybody think of any unique gem of knowledge or insight in the bible? I can't.

I have a little patch of mildew in my downstairs toilet. According to the OT I should demolish my house and burn all my possessions. Apparenty its caused by leprosy!

If I cant trust the bible for DIY advice why should I trust it on important matters?

mP

Seraphim

P I didn’t know that it was the job of ancient documents to help people. I personality give people money who are in need and I am not rich by western standards, of course I am rich from the point of view of third world standards as you are.

mP:

There is one central theme in the bible, and that is obedience to the representatives of God on earth. There are examples when others want to worship jehovah their own way or become high priests themselves but the selected ones wont have it. This shows the use god as a proxy for their own selfish, greedy ways, just like today. Its always about the king and priests first, everyone else has to do their duty and pay tax, feed and die in their wars. Not very impressive or compatible with a "good" loving father god figure.

I do reasonably well, but i dont give money to poor people, because there are none here, id rather donate to animal charities like the rspca.

mP

cofty

Can anybody think of any unique gem of knowledge or insight in the bible? I can't.

mP:

everything in the bible is copied from neighbours :) writing system, religious customs, language, knowledge and so on.

Comatose

I'd like to know if there is a real medical reason why a woman would be unclean longer after birthing a girl instead of a boy? Maybe they figured it out back then and the wisdom has been lost. This could be very important as I have several friends who are expecting.

Terry

Applehippie: OK, but I was more or less commenting on a culture and time we are not familiar with. Those people were a lot smarter and more cultured than we give them credit for.

I'm having a hard time grappling with the non-specific nature of your assertion. Could you give 5 or 6 examples of what you're referring to?

Thanks!

tiki

a lot of negativity in these comments....but historically i think applehippie makes a very valid point. people are too quick to think that we are so advanced our antecedents had to have been so primitive. you have to put things in context - like the plagues on egypt....there is an excellent documentary that goes through each one chronogically from the red tide that killed the fish...the proliferation of frogs....the whole thing down to the first-born eating the best top part of the grain which was poisoned, in turn killing them. the biblical documentation of this natural progression of events is, as the writer believed, actual smiting from god. he had no idea of the science behind it, so everything was seen as a miracle from god.

there is another documentary i saw that was about jesus and what his life most likely was really like and he was not born into a decrepit poor eke out a living existence. he was educated, travelled with his uncle, a very wealthy businessman, likely as far as what are now the british isles - total different picture from the typical jw idea.

at any rate - current culture dictated how the history was written. language has changed significantly - and what we are reading and understanding may not necessarily be what was being depicted.

breakfast of champions

I don't believe the bible fas written by goatherders or fishermen simply for the fact that people of those classes were illiterate. The idea of "lower classes" knowing how to read and write is a modern concept. Sure, a guy like Moses (if he existed) would make for a great writer: privileged to be educated in Egypt. But your average fisherman like Peter would have been completely illiterate; there is no way he could have written the books attributed to him.

AndDontCallMeShirley

The bible says the flood happened therefore it did. That's enough proof for me lol.....want more?

the Black Sea was once merely a freshwater lake -- until an enormous wall of water from the Mediterranean 200 times more powerful than Niagara Falls swept it and everything else away. Including Noah and his ark.

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This is like saying that if, 3,000 years from now, archeologists discover the buried ruins of New York City, it's proof positive Spiderman was real.

Bible Writers not just ignorant "goat herders"

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