Posted by Amy K on September 04, 2003 at 19:28:32:
In Reply to: Re: oops posted by Amy K on September 04, 2003 at 19:08:46:
I need to clarify...by original texts, I mean the oldest available texts in the original languages. I'm not claiming that those texts were the ones that actually came from the pen of John, Luke, James, etc. However, see again my comment re: the Dead Sea Scrolls. The texts were METICULOUSLY copied throughout the centuries--see also the link in my earlier post to "Can I Really Trust the Bible?"
: Sorry, Mel, I corrected you before I saw that you corrected yourself.
: You are right, there are lots of different Bible versions. You have a misconception about how the majority of them are translated, though. Most of them go back to the ORIGINAL Hebrew and Greek texts, not to the English version immediately preceding them.
: There are basically two types of translations, one being the literal, "word for word" translations and the other being the "thought for thought" translations. I don't trust some of the "thought for thought" translations anymore than you do! When reading and quoting Scripture, I use a word for word translation from the original texts, the New American Standard Bible. The King James Bible is also a good literal translation.
: When the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in this century, some scholars were "surprised" at how very close they were to the translations we have today. Doesn't surprise me...God is faithful to preserve His word.
: Just like you, I very much dislike it when people misquote and twist Scripture to suit their own purposes. However, this is not the fault of the Scripture--it's the fault of the person doing the misquoting. Scripture itself condemns doing this.
: Again, if you take the time to seriously study Scripture with intellectual honesty, you will see that most of it is VERY clear and VERY easily understood.
:
: : Thanks, Betty...I screwed up on something, though...I double-checked the quote about the blind man and Jesus said he hadn't sinned. So I have to rescind my theory that Jesus believed in reincarnation. Doesn't change my mind...but in all fairness, I misquoted the Bible.
: : One interesting thing I noted, though, was that there are quite a few different versions of the Bible...all worded just slightly differently. I'm not sure why so many kings/scribes could have taken it upon themselves to "re-word" the supposed word of god. I thought it wasn't up to interpretation? It's supposed to be directly from the mouth of god? So that blows that idea right there. Then on top of that, individuals re-interpret these re-interpretations! Yet STILL say they're obeying god exactly. I didn't know "obey" meant "do exactly what someone tells you to do...except if you don't really like it...then, add or take away a few words so you can say you thought they meant something else."
: : I'll stop now b/c I'm not being fair...there is no need to be ascerbic...but it just drives me crazy the way the Bible is taken literally when that serves a person, then interpreted when THAT serves the person. All well and good...but then don't tell ME I'm the one who's changing things around just to serve my own purpose, you know?
: : Ah well. Back to work!
: : Mels
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