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Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on May 5, 2010 at 10:21am

According to the man who wrote Misquoting Jesus, even Paul may have had a scribe that dictated for him. In fact, it was not uncommon for people to write under his pseudonym because of the "authority" his name carried, or they wrote under the pseudonyms of other "authoritative" authors... hence the instructions in Revelations 22: 18 & 19 not to "add to or take away from God's word", and other similar instructions throughout the NT. They were trying to safeguard against "posers" (if you will) who were trying to spread their own version of the Gospel. It was hard to keep track of what was and was not "inspired by God", and the false documents could have been copied and copied and copied, and eventually included in the canon.

Also, Paul never laid eyes on Jesus. He didn't write about him until at least 70 years after his death and alleged resurrection, and it may have been as much as 100 years after. Jesus left The Church to his brother, James, but somehow James' branch never took hold. Who is Paul? Just some random guy that took up the gauntlet even though he actually had no connections with Jesus, aside from Jesus supposedly appearing to him on the road. And, IMHO, Paul was a sexist, racist asshole.

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Permalink Reply by Skycomet the Fallen Angel on May 13, 2010 at 10:49am

David said:

I dont see the book cited as credible, the author's ideas are not widely accepted. Here is a refutation of the book
\
http://www.dovidgottlieb.com/comments/Who_Wrote_The_Bible.htm

First of all David, that site doesn't even mention the author of "Rescuing the bible from Fundamentalism." That author's name is Rev. John Shelby SPONG!! The article is critiquing a book by a man named "Friedman." That's not the same person.

Secondly... the critic of this UNKNOWN book makes the claim that "God inspired Moses to write the Bible" and yet makes NO attempt to site his source or provide ANY evidence for that claim. Furthermore... that is not a legitimate argument against the historical fact [which is accepted by many Jews today] that Moses DID NOT write the Bible. The reason? Any claim that "god did something" is an assumption that is unfalsifiable and merely a shot in the dark at the actions of an unknown, inadequately specified supernatural being.

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Permalink Reply by Skycomet the Fallen Angel on May 13, 2010 at 11:30am

Actually this reminds me of a joke I absolutely LOVE. [I will edit the genres of the people involved because the original version may be offensive to some people]
Anyhow...
There was a magic cliff that if you jumped off of it you would fall into a pile of whatever you said while jumping.
A scientist came along and jumped off the cliff saying "Gold," and he fell into a pile of gold.
A historian came along and jumped off the cliff saying "Silver" and she fell into a pile of silver.
A high school drop-out came along and accidently walked off the edge of the cliff and yelled, "CRAP!!"

Cara Coleen said:

Did you know that, in Hebrew, the word for Hell is Gehenna... and that it is a physical place in Jerusalem? In Jesus' day, it was basically a town dump. There is the smell of sulfur in that area; that explains the fact there are lava flows underground which, subsequently, warm the springs of Tiberias. If Wikipedia doesn't satisfy your curiosity, try this Jewish website.

The reality is, there was a lot of superstition surrounding this plot of land. It is easy to imagine that early-man would have a loose grasp on the phenomena of volcanic activity; without that scientific information, of course they would assume the place was cursed and a gateway to the underworld.

If you want to talk about knowledge of ancient languages, maybe you should study up yourself a bit. Western Christianity has jumped to conclusions about Hell because it has so little knowledge of Middle Eastern geography and the history of Jerusalem.

I'm sure this doesn't sway your confidence in the existence of Hell though; it's sooo much more rational to believe there's a place that resides in another dimension than admit the very concept of Hell was born out of superstition and lack of understanding. Do you know that even Jews don't necessarily believe in Hell the way Christians do? It's noteworthy to me anyway.

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Permalink Reply by elaine kilshaw on May 14, 2010 at 5:15am

I just wonder how conversations by two people on their own could have been overheard many years after knowing exactly what was said, and then written in a book.
Convenient isnt it that people who believe in the bible absolutely read only the bits they like.
If Jesus returned I wonder what he would say about Muslim fundies.
Forgive them for they do not know what they have done? Repent and they will go to heaven.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Heim on August 6, 2010 at 1:46pm

if thats the case, then God would come and speak to a lot more people...
he would have answered my prayers when I asked him to show himself to me...

on another note, the bible comes from Pagan roots, originally written in Hebrew by mankind, then was translated into English, then was translated from that translation unknown amounts of time by people who believed that the earth was the center of the universe, the earth was flat and that there was nothing west of Europe.

and you wonder why it is misinterpretation?

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