Posted by Holly {24.237.190.232} on September 07, 2003 at 21:42:56:
In Reply to: Re: Sammy Long you're close minded! posted by sammy smith {67.119.8.140} on September 07, 2003 at 16:59:04:
There are very few places in the Bible where it says, "and God said...". We don't hear directly from God much at all. Other people wrote the text (and other people recopied the text, and other people translated the text, and other people re-translated the text). Come on, God wasn't sitting on a cloud somewhere writing, "and then Job did this, and Noah said this, and then Moses did this...".
There are many unique schools of thought on who were the original authors of the different books of the bible, but anyone who thinks God literally wrote it from his point of view with 100% his own words is wrong, I think.
So you can't open up the bible randomly, find the phrase "the mule ate" and then say, "okay, there's my proof that mule's eat! It says so right in the bible!"
I mean, of course mules eat, but the same goes for more complex examples. Understanding the Bible's text requires so much erudition, source criticism, understanding of translation history, understanding of ancient culture, etc, etc....
Much of the Bible is just history. It's not like every page is meant to prove this or that. It's not a dictionary or encyclopedia.
You can't pick out a line that says, "And then Hazekiah decreed, 'pants are evil'" and jump to the conclusion that those are God's words shining through. Maybe Hazekiah is the village idiot with a different importance in the story. Maybe he doesn't even have a significance in the story.
I really hate seeing the bible used to "prove" anything because it's always done in a fashion where a 10-word phrase is lifted out of context and presumed to be "God's opinion". That's a very ignorant understanding of the Good Book.
Where have I used the bible to manipulate the acceptance of gays? You just say that it says so in the bible but you have no particular verses to quote from.