Quiz Show: Bible Contradictions
 

In case anyone was still thinking of taking anything in the bible at face value...



---------- Post added at 08:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:30 PM ----------

Supplemental material:

Contradictions in the Bible poster | Contradictions in the Bible | Project Reason

http://www.project-reason.org/images/gallery3/bc_2.jpg

Unfortunately, the links to the large versions are broken right now, but the thumbnail should give you a good idea. Each red arc represents a contradiction.

I love that they cited wikipedia too!

Yeah, I presume that was for the dates of different rulers.

Wow, you mean there are contradictions in a book that was.............

* written over a 1500 year span (from 1400 B.C to A.D. 100)
* over 40 generations
* over 40 authors from many walks of life (i.e. - kings, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, poets, statesmen, scholars)
* in different places (i.e. - wilderness, dungeon, palaces)
* at different times (i.e. - war, peace)
* in different moods (i.e. - heights of joy, depths of despair)
* on three continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe)
* in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek)
* before scientific methodology

Go Figure?

DaveOrion: Sadly, this is a lot less obvious to more people than it should be, which is why it's important to keep spreading the point.

Fantastic Video. There is another by the same author that I like so very much:

Haha, nice.

Sorta like a missionary? :) To each their own.

They should set up an editorial panel and do a complete revision. Maybe call it the Revised Testament or something.

Its been translated & revised so many times its not even funny. Dont know if another would help but I do agree that something should be done, not exactly sure what that is though.

As far as the Old Testament, the Dead Sea Scrolls give a clue to the true intent of the authors. If I only read Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek I'd have it goin on. Levite take over, end threadjack.

Wait a minute, was that sarcasm BG?

No, not really. I'm genuinely interested in what a properly edited Bible would look like. It's not just a translation; it would be actual substantive editing, which would tackle such tasks as:

• removing contradictions,
• removing inconsistencies,
• removing redundancies,
• removing extraneous material,
• removing irrelevant material,
• fixing factual errors,
• delineating between the spiritual and the material, the literal and the metaphorical, and
• replacing dated/archaic/inaccurate language.

It wouldn't surprise me if someone told me the Bible was as overwritten as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Jefferson tried to do exactly that with the NT, dont think it caught on......

The Jefferson Bible

Among the many reasons that there are so many contradictions in the Bible, and why many can never be reconciled (the questions of dogma/law) is that the Bible never was a coherent whole. Even within the Book of Genesis there are 2 distinct threads (the P-coda and the N-coda), which were attempts to meld the Hebrew and Babylonian versions of creation (going from memory here, my text is at home). As a result, a law in one society might contradict a law in the other, leading to a direct contradicition.

In the New Testatment, the gospels were written more with specific audiences in mind than with any particular desire to lay out an accurate historical story. A particular example is St. Luke's story of the visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, who was pregnant with John the Baptist. While a 17-yo maiden might make such a journey unescorted in those days, it is unlikely. But it is a virtual certainty that the gospel's having Elizabeth recognise her cousin Mary as the "mother of god" was solely intended to show the followers of John the Baptist the obvious ascendancy of Christ.

This makes perfect sense in the historical context of the bloody internecine struggle for messianic supremacy between the followers of Christ and John at the time . I leave it to your imagination to determine which faction won.

Much of what you suggest above has already been done in the widely ignored and generally dismal failure of the Readers' Digest Condensed Bible.

a revised bible that would boil down the "intent and meaning" of the entire book would be one page and read...

"don't be a dick or else" thats really what the vast majority of all worlds religions come down to.... don't be a dick or else. the rest is basically supporting evidence and its believability is contingent on your ability to muster a suitable suspension of dis-belief.

you say it like dicks are bad things. why do bad people have to tarnish the good reputations that dicks have built up over the years by having god associate them with the other.

dicks are for everyone

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/4065/317756full.gif
http://comics.com/frazz/2010-04-30/