The Bible is literally true!
The Bible is myths and fairy tales!
The Bible is contradictory; it contradicts itself!
The Bible is hard to read; it is confusing; and it is too long!
Do these comments sound familiar? A lot of people have trouble with the bible. Some have given up on their religious heritage because of it; some continue, but with serious doubts and confusion; some are carrying on with beliefs based in flawed interpretations.
The most obvious source of some problems is in the translation from Hebrew and Greek. Translators sometimes are trying to provide a meaning in a language that simply does not have words to go with the original. Sometimes whole meanings get shifted; other times shades of meaning get lost.
Then there is the challenge of connections. There are patterns in the Bible that only become evident when the reader connects passages and events from different books to each other. There are references from later books to earlier ones. There is also the need to remember that the Bible writings have a background in their times; Jewish law and practices come into play.
That is the impetus behind this effort. Here we will attempt to examine what the Bible says (what we know from the words) and what it means (what we need to understand). Those two things may turn out to be quite different.
“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
— Albert Einstein
OR
Care To
Enter a Comment?