Quote:Good stuff, guys. I'm reading along. Just don't have anything to add at this point. Well, maybe just this: anyone who takes the Bible (or any other text that's more than a couple of thousand years old) as literal truth, hasn't considered when, for whom, and under what circumstances the Book was written. It's not that there are any untruths in the Bible. It's that they were written down from the limited point of view and limited understanding of the people of that time and place. The truths may be universal; the method of their presentation is case-specific.
It was also written by people who were writing for the benefit of themselves and thus omitted masses of details that would have been useful to those of us deciphering their intent and meaning a couple of millenia later. They saw no reason to describe or elaborate on what was perfectly obvious to them and perfectly obvious to their reading public.
It isn't much different from us now writing a short story about our house or our washing machine or our can opener. We would assume our reading public would know what those things are and we would feel no need to provide any details about their attributes, function, or purpose. It would be the same about describing activities of 'going nightclubbing' or "going to grade school' or 'going to the mall'. You would assume your readers knew what those things are and what you did in them, with them, at them, etc.
But a historian two thousand years from now might find the words, phrases, concept quite puzzling and draw very different conclusion from them than what you originally intended.
And that is why Andrew is right. It is necessary to go all the way back, learn the history, language, culture of the people of Bible times, and read the words through their eyes before we are in a position to either commend or condemn the Bible.
Once we do that, however, it is an amazing collection of literature and can enhance your understanding of God, faith, and what is reasonable to believe.
