For Bible believers-Inspired Bible?

by JWdaughter 16 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  JWdaughter

  One issue I have with declaring the bible an entirely inspired work from God is the bit in the OT about killing girls who were "proven"to not be virgins on their wedding night-by stoning them. The absence of blood on the sheet or cloak was considered entirely valid proof that they were immoral and so they were to be stoned.

  That is scientifically invalid. Not all girls bleed when they lose their virginity-in fact, the more skilled the partner, the less likely that they will bleed at all. The older the woman, the less likely she will bleed. Even when a virgin.

  So, how could one believe in an that the bible is inspired/written by God when it made that kind of statement and directive?
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  Crazyguy

  Good point and the fact that the 4 gospels got how Jesus was resurrected and who came and what was said all different is another point. Also the writers of the gospels got geographical information wrong proving that the writers were not his apostles and didn't even live in the area. One last one is in the gospel of John he says Jesus is from Galilee the others say he is not and even John admits this is why many do not believe he is the messiah. Oh wait just thought of another, Jesus would have never been tried during the week of the passover and in order to do this they the religious leaders would have broken at least 7 of thier own laws and not to mention Jesus would also not have been killed for stating he was the messiah, this was not a capital offense and many others had claimed the same thing at the time.
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  Phizzy

  It depends what you mean by inspired. A writer may claim to be inspired by all sorts of things or people, his/her work is not inerrant though. Many believers feel this about the Bible, that though god's spirit moved the writers, hence "inspired", the Bible is not inerrant.

  Now, don't ask me how this is supposed to be logical, I am only repeating what I have been told.

  If someone claims inerrancy for the Bible, that is nonsense of course. It is chock full of errors, though the Internet is full of articles by apologists trying to prove they are not errors at all, good luck with that, I say.

  A degree of inspiration ? that sounds like nonsense too to me.

  I see no proof for any outside influence upon the writers.
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  opusdei1972

  There was no inspiration. This was a false religion.
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  Bart Belteshassur

  The OT is with out doubt inspired, but not by Jehovah. IMO it is inspired by the leaders of the post exile Judeans, in as much as the redaction and creation of this collection of books achieved the objective of the redactors. That is that during the long period of persian, greek, selucid, and then roman domination of their "state hood" the OT created the instrument that the religious and elite of the Judaite and Israelite returnees post exile, used to encourage the people to take up the concept of "people hood" as apposed to the restoration of "monarchy". In this way the OT has truely suceeded down to this day as the Jewish people continue to use the sense of people hood to make themselves a lobby in many countries.

  I would also say that the weaving of the NT and use of mythical, pesher,midrash, and true events was one of the most inspired works of all time (just look at the net yield in terms of money), again though conceived by, and cleverly written by eductated elite with the purpose of taking the great wealth availble with the Jewish communities living outside of Judea. Creation of a personnel fortune for the early christain leaders and a significant political power base by the Jewish elite without the need for the temple as the central focus, they took the ideals of "people hood" to a new financial level.

  All in all very clever and very inspired, but God had nothing to do with it.

  BB
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  opusdei1972

  I believe that Moses was a historical person who came from Egypt as those of the tribe of Levi with egyptian names, may be around 1200 BCE. But all the stuff about the Exodus was a legend taken from many different facts which happened at different times in the second millennium BCE. I don't think that Moses was totaly an invention, but during Josiah's reign his legendary acts took a final form in writing, and many laws were attributed to him.
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  Deputy Dog

  Could you tell us which passage in the bible you're refering to.
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  Bart Belteshassur

  Deputy Dog - The passage refered in the OP is Deut 22: 13-21. Specifically "pelt her with stones, and she must die," verse 21.

  BB
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  tornapart

  I think that a lot of the laws the Israelites had were actually man-made and not God-made. Maybe they crept in over time and blended in with the laws that actually did come from God. Jesus pointed his finger at the pharisees and condemned them for their traditions of men. The bible as we know it, wasn't put together until centuries after Jesus, so how much of it can be classified as 'inspired scripture' and how much is written by men?
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  Phizzy

  Another point of course is, if you believe god inspired the Scriptures in any way at all, why did he bother ?

  He didn't bother to preserve those inspired words, all we have is copies of copies of copies of Manuscripts that we know contain errors, redaction/editing and interpolations. Nobody can be even near certain what the originals of any Bible book actually said !