Does God look like you and me? (PART ONE of a two part
article.)
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CLICK ON THIS !
That is the question I am applying to my stern review of one
of the most noticed and often unread books in our global community, and that
book is The Bible.
First of all, let me clear up an important point: I do
have a personal bias. So keep this in mind as you read the article. I am
a guy who regularly goes to church, and I do actually read this bible, almost
everyday, in Spanish and English. So each day I usually get through one
complete page.
Let us translate the word "BIBLE."
So here is one version of what the word "bible"
actually means:
Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin biblia, from Greek, pl. of biblion, book, diminutive of biblos, papyrus, book, from Bublos, Byblos.
And here is a bit more along the same line:
Bi·ble (b
n.
1.
a. The sacred book of Christianity, a collection of ancient writings including the books of both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
b. The Hebrew Scriptures, the sacred book of Judaism.
c. A particular copy of a Bible: the old family Bible.
d. A book or collection of writings constituting the sacred text of a religion.
2. often bible A book considered authoritative in its field: the bible of French cooking.
And here is a bit more along the same line:
Bi·ble (b
n.
1.
a. The sacred book of Christianity, a collection of ancient writings including the books of both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
b. The Hebrew Scriptures, the sacred book of Judaism.
c. A particular copy of a Bible: the old family Bible.
d. A book or collection of writings constituting the sacred text of a religion.
2. often bible A book considered authoritative in its field: the bible of French cooking.
The Bible I am reviewing for this article is the said same
book containing the scripture of the Old Testament, and the New Testament. It
is the book that is used by the Christian faith based communities of the world.
My friend Sal Smario did a study of how many different
versions of Christian faith church systems there are in the USofA, and he came
up with 44,000 different types of styles, church groups, systems, whatever the
right word is for describing Anglican compared to Methodist compared to Greek
Orthodox. etcetera.
Forty-four thousand! That's a lot of variation interpreting
one book's message(s).
You have to go into the Bible to gain some understanding
about the content of this book. There are statements from this book that are
used by churchy people to build entire philosophies of how to live life, what
is wrong, and what is right.
Here is an example:
"All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for
teaching and rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that we may
be thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
The Bible is often used as a history text book, and roundly
criticized as being historically inaccurate.
Okay, fine.
A historical point-of-view about how we get our different
versions of history:
The Greek historian Herodotus is a source that is often used
by scholars. Herodotus wrote around 488 to 428 BC, and the earliest known copy
of his work dates from 900AD, so that's a time span of 1300 years, and there
are 8 extant copies of this work that date from 900 AD, none before.
Okay, the Roman guy, Livy, he wrote stuff down around 59 BC
to 17 AD, and the earliest copies that exist today date from 900 AD, giving us
a time-span of 900 years from when he wrote to when the first known copy was
made of his work, and there are 20 known original copies of his work that date
from 900 AD, and none from before 900AD.
Now, to the Bible.
The New Testament section of the Bible, was started 400 to
100 AD, and the earliest existing copy dates at 130 AD, and the oldest copy
dates from 350 AD, with a time span between the events depicted and the actual
first copies of 30 to 310 years. There are 5000 Greek copies, dating from 130
AD to 350 AD, 10,000 Latin copies, also dating from around the same time, and
3600 copies from the early Church Fathers, like Saint Isaac (one of the desert
Fathers of Syria, dating around 400AD.)
What is the point of all these dates and such? We place a
lot of credibility on the writings of certain people about the times of certain
periods of history, even though the earliest copies of their work are separated
from them by many, many years. And we base this credibility on the anecdotal
evidence they supply.
The Bible gets knocked for being historically fantastical,
stupid and dumb, filled with superstitious, old-school culturally dogmatic
narrow-minded strictures that oppress women, harness men with chains of
impossible virtue, and suppress and terrify people into anti-scientific
outlooks that defy common sense.
Well, interestingly, from the Old Testament, there is a
specific reference to the fact that the Earth is round, a sphere, and NOT flat.
This statement is made in Isaiah, 40:22. This book was written sometime around
the 7th to 6th century, BC.
Here is another one that I like, and you can read it for
yourself: "God stretches the sky over empty space and hangs the
earth on nothing." (Job 26:7)
To help you understand why the Bible is so hard to pin down
as a true book of record, hang in here with me while we examine some
"facts" about this book of Job, in the Old Testament.
Now, some scholars believe the book of Job was written
before any other book of the Old Testament, before the Pentateuch. Many
conservative Bible experts think it was written during the reign of King
Solomon. A few scholars state that it may have been written by Moses, or that
the patriarch Job himself may have written this account of his experiences.
Some scholars claim it is dated to 2000–1800 BC. If the book Job was written by
Moses, it is probable he did so during his stay in Midian. These theories have
no solid evidence to support them. We can say for certain that the book Job was
written by an unknown author, and the exact date of the book’s writing is a
mystery. Some believe its unknown author put it in writing as late as the
second century BC. Others insist it must have been written about 450 BC., long
after the Jews returned from being captives in Babylonia.
Many conservative scholars place the writing of the book at the time of King
Solomon, about 950 BC. This bunch claim historical evidence favors this date,
called the golden age of biblical Wisdom Literature. Ezekiel (who wrote around
600 BC) mentions Job in Ezekiel 14:14. Some scholars claim the book Job
is dated to 2000–1800 BC.
Whatever.
The point is that long before our wonderful science helped
us to understand that our Earth was in space, in a vacuum, a direct statement
about this fact was written down by an unknown author under the pen name of
Job, and that this statement made it into this very odd and weird book known as
The Bible.
So, this strange book, the Bible, was written over a 1600
year stretch, and has approximately 40 different authors.
Okay, now to the main point of my article, as a focus of my
review of The Bible, and that is the question, "Does God look like you and
me?"
“Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like
a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a
man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing
metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and
brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds
on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.” (Ezekiel 1:26-28.)
“His head and hair were white like wool, as white as
snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in
a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right
hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword.
His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.” (Revelation
1:14-16.)
In the Old Testament, in the book of
Exodus 33-20, and 33-23, the following admonitions are made by the author of
this book, who, by the way, is supposedly none other than Moses. Okay, so
this following text is God talking to Moses:
"But He (God) said, 'You cannot see My face; for no
man shall see Me, and live.'”
" Then I (God) will remove my hand and
you will see my back; but my face must not be seen.”
So Moses did see God's back.
So Moses did see God's back.
In conclusion, The Bible is one big long story of
corruption, murder, betrayal and temptation, to say just a little. And that's
just what God did, let alone the stuff that everyone else got up to. God even
let's his own son get murdered. I know this last set of statements might
pee-off some people. And I get the why part of this. The Bible is very, very
interesting, and my tiny little poke at it will NOT harm the content that
reaches people and makes them think anew about the direction their own lives
are taking.
See you in Part Two of my review of The Bible.
FOR REAL CRAZY, CHECK OUT THIS LINK:
Interesting read. However, you seem to have misunderstood Isaiah, 40:22. Hebrew cosmology understoof the world as a flat disk surrounded by water, as did the majority of the Near East at that time. Here is a link with a few references: http://fayfreethinkers.com/tracts/flatearth.shtml
ReplyDeleteTHANKS for the insight...and clarification...about the Bible and Isaiah, 40:22...could it be that the author of this actually did perceive the Earth as a sphere...New International Version
Delete"He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in."