What We Know About The BIBLE That Ain’t So
May 30, 2009 by Richard E. Kelly
Filed under Featured Article
When l was growing up, I was taught that the Bible was the inspired Word of God; that God put His thoughts into the minds of writers like the faithful prophets and apostles to make it historically inerrant. I was told that it’s God’s book with no mistakes and no contradictions – and that’s what most American Christians still believe today.
As it turns out, that’s not what’s taught in mainstream Christian seminaries. Scholars have made significant progress in understanding the Bible over the last 200 years and the results of their studies are regularly and routinely taught to university graduate students and prospective pastors.
In Bart D. Ehrman’s book, Jesus, Interrupted – Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don’t Know About Them), the author reports that not only are most Americans ignorant about the contents of the Bible, they are completely in the dark about what scholars have been saying about it for the past two centuries. This is what motivated Ehrman to write this book.
With this bold claim driving me, I decided to check it out. Ehrman’s excellent writing skills make his book easy to read and it’s definitely an eye opener. But still, it gnawed at me as to why this information is not more widely known; it gives credence to Will Rogers’ quote, “It’s not what we don’t know that gives us trouble; it’s what we know that ain’t so.”
So I’ve decided to share with our readers some of what I’ve learned from Ehrman’s book in this and future articles.
The first thing you need to know is that I personally don’t believe this information is a threat to anyone espousing true Christianity; I think it should actually enhance their faith. The Bible makes better sense if readers acknowledge its inconsistencies, instead of staunchly insisting that there absolutely are none within its pages.
All of the books in the Bible are distinct and shouldn’t be read as if they’re all saying the same thing—even when talking about the same subject.
So what are some of the things we think we know about the Bible that ain’t so?
- We don’t know for sure who wrote the four Gospels: Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John. These books were originally written anonymously and not by any of the apostles because they were all illiterate and couldn’t read or write.
- The authors of the New Testament actually have differing views about Jesus and how salvation works.
- The New Testament contains books that were forged in the names of the apostles by Christian writers who lived decades later.
- Established Christian doctrines—such as “the suffering messiah,” “the divinity of Jesus,” and “the Trinity”—were actually the inventions of still later theologians.
- There are other books that did not make it into the Bible that at one time or another were considered canonical— including other Gospels allegedly written by Jesus’ followers, Peter, Thomas, and Mary.
- The account of Creation in Genesis 1 is very different from the account in Genesis 2. Not only is the wording and writing style different (particularly when read in Hebrew), the two chapters actually use different names for God, and the content of the chapters differs greatly.
This is just a small sample of the many interesting, well-researched new facts that I’ve learned about the Bible from reading Ehrman’s book, Jesus, Interrupted. I’ll be sharing more with our readers in the near future.
[Photo credits: Dave Hiebert (feature graphic, Bible verse closeup); Piotr Bizior (Man with book)]
Mr Kelly I don’t know if you are a Christian or not but I wonder why you wanted to write this aritcle. Are you trying to turn everyone in to athiests? You might be right about what you are saying but this guy’s book is just his opinion. If the bible wasn’t the word of God then why would it have been around so long? Can you name one other book that has been around for 2000 years? If we didn’t have the Bible and God and Jesus in our lives, what reason would we have to be good people? Think what would happen to us if we did not have a belief in God we would all probably be like criminals. Look at Africa where they don’t believe in Jesus and how horrible life is there. Remember that America is one nation under God and that is why we lead the world and everyone looks up to us. What other nation can say that?
Sebastian, I have been reading the Bible since I was five years old and a student of it for the past sixty years. Unfortunately, I had to unlearn most of what I was taught growing up as a child during my adult life. If you are interested, you can read my story in “Growing Up in Mama’s Club”, a memoir of my life from age four to twenty.
Because of how I was raised, I was saddled with lots of “misinformation” and perhaps that’s one of my biggest motivators to write what I do about the Bible. While I quoted from Will Rogers in my post, I think Mark Twain said it best, “The trouble with the world is not that people know so little, but that they know so many things that ain’t so.”
In spite of what a minority of Christians may think about Bart Ehrman, the fact remains that the majority of reputable Bible scholars know those things mentioned in my post about the Bible, and much more, to be accurate historical facts. And what’s more, the vast majority of them are kind, loving Christians who proclaim to be followers of Jesus Christ.
I intend to write more articles debunking misinformation about the Bible in future JOO posts. For one, the Bible as we know it today has not been around for 2,000 years. And in so doing, I hope that I will be able to help people see that there is not only value in reading the Bible devotionally, there is also great value in reading it historically.
Great beginning to what I’m sure will prove an enlightening series. I’m hooked.
Sebastian; if you fear information that threatens your faith, you need to examine your faith and shore it up if you feel that is the right thing to do. Faith as defined by Webster’s New World Dictionary is: “1. unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence”
Faith cannot be threatened by any information, if it is valid for you.
Your premise that faith makes people more moral has not been born out by my life experience.
Sebastian:
Certainly you realize that there are good people in Africa right? There are good people who are athiests right? People who do not lie, cheat, steal, murder and rape? I am a good person who treats others in my life well, raise my children to be kind and work hard, I work hard, I help others through various charities both with monetary assistance as well as with elbow grease. I don’t even smoke or sleep around. Yet I have no god in my life. I do not choose to read the bible anymore (35 years of reading it weekly is plenty). I do not believe Christ was divine, yet I am a good person. I live in a country that supports my right to non-belief…which was one of the cornerstones of our founding fathers.
I’m pretty sure that there are many folks in Africa who are also good people. Unfortunately for many reasons they live in poverty and are stricken with disease. I’m guessing it is not due to their reading material choices though.
Sebastian,
What Dick Kelly is educating all of us on are some of the critical issues connected with the Bible. Like Dick, I too have been a Bible student of sorts for all my life and have read it from cover to cover on at least three occasions.
I have to agree that some parts of the Bible such as the Psalms and Proverbs are very beautiful to read and uplifting to the soul. The Bible has many great teachings that we can all learn from and use in our daily lives. I think that Jesus’ teaching to “love your neighbor as yourself,” the source of our “Golden Rule,” is something we should all believe in and accept as good advice.
On the other hand, many other books written after the Bible have been equally uplifting. It is easy to learn lessons about the follies and dangers of greed and the desire for unlimited power by reading Shakespeare’s plays The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, Othello and Richard III. We can also take joy and comfort from his many sonnets and short plays. But we do not set up churches to “worship” Shakespeare.
The bottom line is that many conservative and fundamentalist churches unwaveringly preach that the Bible should be accepted word for word exactly as it is written (preferably the King James Version of 1611). They want you to believe that God created the heavens and the earth in six literal days, that Joshua was really able to make the sun stand still, and that Jonah survived in the belly of a large fish for three days without injury. They want you to think that Jesus and the Apostles all spoke in Elizabethan English, using “thee” and “thou” and ending each verb with “…est.”
Dick is pointing to Mr. Ehrman’s book as a resource with great information that has been known for over 200 years by historians and Biblical scholars. This is information that we not only should have known by now, but need to know.
Dick is not saying to stop believing in God or Jesus – believe in whomever you wish. At the same time, understand that the Bible is not quite what it has claimed to be and that there are real problems with blanket statements like “every word in the Bible is inspired of God.”
By the way, Sebastian – having the Bible and believing in God and Jesus does not seem to stop some very religious people from becoming horrific and repeating criminals. There are very few atheists and agnostics serving life sentences in maximum security prisons in the United States. They performed their cruel and criminal acts without any remorse in spite of their belief in a fiery and eternal Hell.
I’ve chosen not to believe in Jesus as anyone divine, but I still try to follow his advice “to love my neighbor as myself.” Thanks again to Dick Kelly for bringing this information to our readers.
Thank you for your timely post on the Bible, as I am well aware of how most people are ignorant about what’s in it or how it got here. In my hair salon, you would be surprised how often I will make a comment about Bible history, not really meaning to go there, and not one person in the last forty years had a clue of what I was talking about. That’s when I get questions like: “What do you mean the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered in 1947? I never heard about the Gospel of Mary, and you say it was found about the same time? Who were the Essenes? Are you saying that the scrolls inform us about the teachings of early Christianity?”
While the information is out there for all to see, no one really cares to take the time to find out about it or ask questions. I think most people are very comfortable to live in the dark and let their pastors shine the light on them, although that is a very dim light. And as far as the Dark Continent is concerned, it’s not Africa, it’s America. And, one thing is for sure, you will not find any atheists in Africa, because they eat them there. (Okay, that’s a bad joke.)
Did you know that copies of the complete scrolls are here in California at the Huntington Library in Pasadena? In fact, the story of how the library acquired them is very interesting. If your readers would like to know, I would be pleased to share the details.
In my experience, I have found that most righteous Christians won’t die for their faith, although they will kill for it. And I sometimes wonder what will replace all the religions in the world in the future when mankind travels to other dimensions and other realities in the fabric of space. Scientists and astronomers say we are made of star dust. While that may be so, our society may be in great danger if we ultimately abandon our thinking skills.
the three worst things that ever struck civilization are 1. the human sex drive,2organized religion and 3 the love of money.
I am an agnostic. God is unknown and unknowable
There is no one up there who hears when we pray
I agree with Irving on two of the three. Sex is important for bonding and intimacy.
Actually, it is really the misuse of the three that is the problem; ie. the love of, not money itself, and the abuse of the sex drive and religion.
I have been in several discussion over the years with individuals who believe the Bible is 100% inerrant. It is only after speaking with them for a few minutes you realize they are parroting something they heard from a pastor or read in a book written by a bilical apologist without examining and looking further to see if what they have been told or read is true. I have also read in some books where one is trying to trash the Bible will go to an extreme and “throw the baby out with the bath water” so to speak.
IMO it is hard to find a balace with the two where both will do their best to be honest about the facts without letting their bias get in the way.
I remember more than once speaking with one who will defend the Bible to a tee and will spout; > The Bible has stood the test of time, time and again. It is not so
much a matter of the Bible being problematic as it is a matter of
interpretations of the Bible being problematic. It is because people
use different exegetical techniques and tools that they arrive at
diverse conclusions.
I say, the Koran has stood the test of time, and history will show
that the Book of Mormon will also survive just as long. Even
Nostradamus is still popular, and I suspect the reason is that this
way of writing is vague enough to lead to myriads of interpretations,
thereby proving its uselessness. If a book can produce thousands of
splinter groups, many of which claim to be wholly based on said book,
the book must be errant.
There is no place in the Bible itself where the Scriptures are called the “Word of God.” Thus if we are to respect the Scriptures—the Holy Writings—I think we should stick to biblical language and not cause others to develop ideas that are simply wrong, especially like the nonsense that is so evident in much of fundamentalism and many other religions such as the LDS and Jehovah’s Witnesses to name a few. There are real, apparent contradictions in the Scriptures which we must deal with rationally. After all, apologetics are the art of trying to give a defense for our faith; they attempt to deal with issues that frequently cause many to lose their faith. The flat plain approach to the Scriptures, which has often been connected with the expression that the Bible is “the Word of God,” is both unscriptural and spiritually dangerous.
There are doctrines taught in the Bible, and there are doctrines taught by men. Many of the doctrines taught by men are said to be taught in the Bible. The Trinity is one example, hellfire is another, and the doctrine of the immortal soul is another. These teachings are not found in the Bible, but many people try to make the Bible say it.
The doctrine of the inerrancy of the Bible is one of these doctrines of men. There is no scripture to be found that says the Bible is inerrant. People try to make the Bible say it, but it is another one of these inventions that the writers of the Bible never believed or claimed.
I believe the purpose of the bible is to lead people to a relationship with God through Jesus. The bible is not an object of worship nor the unique salvation instrument. It is a means to an end.
Scorpion
@Sebastian – You can’t think of any other books that have been around for 200 years? Let’s see… ancient Greek, Chinese or Mesopotamian writings. And the age of a book makes it more valid? There are biographies on the shelved today, that were written last year with more facts in them.
Then you claim that you are good because the Bible tells to you. How sad. I am good because I care for my fellow man. Not because I am looking for reward or hoping to avoid punishment.
Sorry Sebastian. Your arguments are as narrow as your world view.