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Many people grow up believing the Bible is a single unchanging book that has remained exactly the same throughout history. In reality the Bible is a collection of writings that were edited copied translated and rewritten many times over thousands of years. Understanding this history does not require rejecting faith but it does require honesty about how the text came to be.
The original biblical manuscripts no longer exist. What we have today are copies of copies written by different scribes in different places and languages. During this process errors were introduced such as missing words spelling changes or sentences written differently. Over time some of these small differences became larger theological changes.
Translation is another major factor. The Bible has been translated from Hebrew Aramaic and Greek into many modern languages. Every translation involves interpretation. Certain words have no exact equivalent and translators often chose meanings that reflected the beliefs of their time. This means some verses may sound stronger softer or even different depending on the translation being read.
There were also deliberate edits. Church leaders debated for centuries about which books should be included and which should be excluded. Some passages were added later while others were removed or altered to support specific doctrines. These decisions shaped the Bible that exists today.
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small_nate
theres a verse in deuteronomy where the hebrew word Qadesh (pagan rent boy) was replaced with 'sodomite' by the small homogenous group of biased british men who wrote the KJV; ofc in order to perpetuate homophobia. Of course the fact that the word sodomite even exists is another problem worth a whole separate blog post.
fool
i thought people knew
i do not want to push my faith on anybody by any means, but fun fact: the Quran remains the same / was preserved word by word for 1400+ years.
it's one of the miracles that makes me believe in it even more :)
It’s surprising, but I still encounter people who believe the Bible has no mistakes at all. They often see it as completely inerrant, even though textual analysis, historical context, and translation differences show there are many areas that are open to interpretation
by Risotto; ; Report
i don't think they're stupid, i believe it gives them some sense of reassurance; being completely ignorant of facts like these saves them the trouble of rethinking everything they have been taught since they were little by their parents and the people before them. it takes a lot of courage to admit to being wrong for years and i don't completely blame them for that— it's like their safe space, ofc it is always a better option to get out of it and discover new things and new ideas, but i'm not judging those who don't.
by fool; ; Report
i wouldnt say its a miracle, but strategy. arabic is the holy language of islam, which ensured the preservation of the verses in the quran. meanwhile the roman catholic church's gatekeeping of the bible shifted focus away from the actual word and also lead to small underground translation efforts.
by small_nate; ; Report
i understand where you're coming from, but also have you considered all the "bad people" who exist on earth that tried and will always try to change the words of holy books such as the quran and the bible, to fit to their likings? when they don't like a certain rule and they don't feel comfortable not following it alone so they change the script (little by little) so all people do the same and they won't feel bad about it anymore;; you can compare older bibles with new ones if you want to see some examples of that (what wasn't allowed then and how it is okay now).
but when it comes to the quran, although there were efforts to change it, many, but they have all been caught and not a single letter has been changed.
i also want to mention the time factor, even if there were no "bad people" and everybody genuinely tried to preserve some book with 604 pages word for word, in order, for over a thousand years, wouldn't it be nearly impossible to achieve? we're humans after all and we're all bound to make mistakes unknowingly;;;
forget "a thousand years", even if you tell a story to your friend and they tell it to another friend a few days later they still might come up with parts of it that does not exist/ you did not say, but they still believe is true because their mind imagined it,,,, idk how to explain but i hope you understand what i'm trying to say TvT;
anyways thank you for your reply!
by fool; ; Report