Which Bible?

Hoofie

Hello friendly folk,

I'm afraid I don't have time to scroll through everything on this site, so I thought I'd ask the question instead - does anybody recommend a "neutral" translation of the Bible that I can use as the basis for my studies..? I just want to start doing my own research and I'd be grateful for any advice from fellow ex-JWs as to where to start. I really want to start building up my spirituality again but drawn from my own efforts this time, rather than following any organised religion. I know the NIV is well respected. Any thoughts?

Sorry if this thread repeats any previous ones from time gone by.

Thanks.

Hoofie

xx

dh

i don't have much use for bibles, but if i want to check something, i will check it in all of the various translations on bible.com, i think that gives the general gist of what the scripture is saying.

Leolaia

There is no neutral Bible. I personally prefer the Jerusalem Bible (esp. the one with all the notes and references) because it is so easy to read, and organized in a way that you can truly see how each book is organized into sections and topics and themes. Plus it has all the apocrypha.

LittleToe

If you want something to start with, that you can actually read, I recommend "The Message".

The NIV Study Bible is fairly well respected for study.

Terry

If I could help save you a lot of wasted time I'd tell you this.

Don't make the same mistake I made for 20 years of my life.

I kept starting over and over with the Bible. I taught myself a bit of Greek and I bought the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance and I studied hermenutics and read all the commentaries, etc. etc. etc.

START WITH YOUR PREMISE. The Premise is the foundation. Everything rests on the foundation.

Start with: IS THE BIBLE a reliable document of divine communication.

Unless you actually discover the answer to this question you are repairing the roof of a building half-eaten by termites.

Truly, I urge you to spend at least a month on this. There are three kinds of books about religion. Jehovah's Witnesses only read the first kind.

1.Books that are apologies for a religious point of view.

Those kinds of books are repair jobs. They exist to patch the holes. They spend a lot of time jury-rigging doctrines to make them come out sounding reasonable.Those books are propaganda and you will learn NOTHING from them.

2.Books with wild speculations about Bible-related subjects. These can be rot about angels and shrouds of Turin, and missing arks of the covenant, etc. These are soap-opera level nonsensical fluff. Don't waste your time.

3.Scholarly analysis books. These books deal with history, archeology, objective analyses and academic examinations of facts, figures, myths and ancient people.

I'd stick with number 3.

READ:

1.Who Wrote the Bible by Richard Elliot Friedman

http://users.cyberone.com.au/myers/bible.html

2.The Battle for God (A History of Fundamentalism) by Karen Armstrong

http://www.christianethicstoday.com/Issue/029/The%20Battle%20For%20God%20%20By%20Karen%20Armstrong_029_29_.htm

3.The Mythmaker (Paul and the Invention of Christianity) by Talmudic scholar Hyam Maccoby

http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/maccoby2.htm

4.Secret Origins of the Bible by Tim Callahan

http://www.cs.umd.edu/~mvz/bible/callahan.pdf

5.101 Myths of the Bible by Gary Greenberg

http://ggreenberg.tripod.com/101myths-book.htm

Why read these and other books like them?

Ask yourself this question: If the bible isn't really a divine messege from God---why waste my life studying it?

Is it possible the foundation of Christianity is a grab-bag of myths, patchwork traditions, hearsay histories, deliberate doctrinal manipulations and political propagandas?

If you read the other-side of the story and end up deciding the Bible is true after all, won't you be relieved you made an honest investigation?

LittleToe

Like Terry, I would also recommend "Who Wrote the Bible". Also "The New Jerome Bible Commentary".

Hoofie

Wow! What a reply! Thank you so much. I really appreciate that kind of advice - it's so beneficial because I really didn't know where to start. If you were here, I'd hug you I've been so desperate to find a path to God but never knew how - my mind was so filled with JW doctrine I couldn't ever look beyond it without enormous guilt or feeling like I shouldn't really be interested.

I'll let you know how I get on. Thanks.

Hoofie xx

Navigator

I'm with Leolia on this one and prefer the Jerusalem Bible. Where Old Testatment material is cited in the New Testament it is clearly referenced so you can refer to it. A useful tool would be The Interpreter's one-volume Commentary on the Bible. It contains all of the material referred to in Terry's #3. It tells you where stuff has been added, modified, edited, copied, etc..It discusses languages, history,culture, authorship, money, how the various books were selected, etc. You can't really understand the bible unless you know the background in which it was written and collected.

Jew

Hello,

I am pleased to use this site for checking various translations. I hope it helps you.

http://bible.gospelcom.net/

You can search every biblical passage in numerous Bibles.

Hoofie

Thanks for all of your advice - it's all been noted. I'm quite excited about my research!

Which Bible?

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