Deflection

I have heard that God has placed every word in the Bible, and yet the bible found in the Dead Sea Scrolls show that the words have been changed through the years until modern publishing. On the other hand, I have heard that the Bible is filled with stories that we learn how to live our day to day religious life. The truth is somewhere in between.

We are all individuals, and we all see the world completely different look at the world that we live in every day. If two identical twins were to read the same passage in the Bible, they will tell people that they read the passage differently. Therefore, does it make sense that God placed each word in the Bible? If people are going to read his word differently? This is a hard question to answer, but the truth is that everyone gets to read the Bible from the same words, and it up to each individual to interpret the meaning.

The Bible is God’s Word, since it is where we get our sense of belonging to a congregation. The Bible is where we get our religious values. It pushes us into a quality life with belonging, getting along with others, making a difference with others, finding value in our day to day life, having a life with dignity and humility, caring for others, being there for others, not judging other without knowing their background, giving grace when grace is needed, and adding quality to the life that we live. Although these are the teachings of Jesus, they are also religious values found in the Old Testament.

The dead sea scrolls are a direct reminder that we are not reading the original words in the Bible, especially in the New Testament. Regarding the Old Testament, individual Jews would recite the Bible in front of a group and be corrected to keep the original testament in order until it was finally written down. They also use literature techniques to memorize the original text. When the New Testament was copied, the scribes would get tired and leave words out and/or copy words written by the previous reader on the pages. Consequently, the scrolls do reveal that we are not reading the original Bible. Therefore, it is hard to state that God placed all of the words in the Bible. But, probably with God’s intervention, we are all reading the same words in the Bible with the invention of the modern printing presses.

Although the scribes did alter the original words in the Bible, as pointed out in the book Stop Misquoting the Bible, by Bart Ehramn, can it be stated that the concepts are the same. If someone wrote commentary on a copy of the Bible and the scribe writes those words into his copy of the Bible, does that change the concept of what is written in the Bible? Are these still the words that God intended to be written in the Bible? I feel that everyone will have their option on this topic. This does come down to the point of the language that the original Bible was written in, and the language that the Dead Sea Schools were written in before they were bottled: Hebrews. The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod Church pastors learn Hebrews in seminary, so that they can read the original words of the Bible. The questions are how many languages have the Bible been translated to over the years? The Catholics have translated it to Latin, and Martin Lutheran translated to German. Then, when a person wants to read the Bible, there are many English translations to choose from when buying a Bible today. King Henry the eighth had it translated into the King James Version, when he through the Catholic Church out of England. With the King James written with shakespearian background. With the King James versing still bing widely used as I was growing up, I feel that many of us found it difficult stumbling over the shakespearian words that made it a little more difficult for us to learn the Bible. As for today, there are many easier versions of the Bible to read, like the NIV. Probably the most important part of reading the Bible is finding a version that a person pick up the most meaning for themselves. As for myself, I will pick the NIV over the King James, unless I want to see a verse from a different point of view. This comes down to the original point of this paragraph, has the concepts of the original changed in our reading of the Bible? This seems to be point that everyone needs to find comfort in as they study the Bible.

Is it a simplification to state that the Bible is filled with stories for us to learn from? Once again, given the fact that we are all individuals, we are all going to read the stories differently, As for those of us that take nine months every year to study a different book in the Bible, we read the same book like every eight years, and we feeling that we are almost reading it for the first time, despite the fact that some of us have been through the same book twice before. This accounts for the fact that we are in a different place in our lives every time we read the book, but I will not mention that we are eight years older and probably forgotten parts of the book. The same is true for each individual that is reading a story in the Bible. For some, they can personally relate to the story, but , as for others, the stories seem to be abstract without any feeling for the written passage. With us being individuals, it only can be expected that each person would interoperate each story differently.

As the Bible teaches us, one should not be judging the other person without knowing where they are coming from. Or, from another point of view from the Bible, we should not be judging others since it is for others to judge God. It is not up to us to find fault in how others worship; however, regarding the scriptures, it is up to every individual to grow in the words of God, and to make this a better world, if possible, for everyone to live in through the years.

Roger