Monday, May 22, 2006

so back to biblical interpretation

so, I never did explain why I had posted that silly piece about "God's Word" when I was thinking of The DaVinci Code....

I'm afraid that too many average pew-sitting Christians think that somehow that Bible just appeared in its current form. Or at least, that it was translated from a very complete version in Hebrew and Greek. And many had no clue that there are "other" Gospels out there.

I know more about the New Testament than the Old, but I would assume that it is probably similar. When I took Greek, I was amazed to find out how many fragments of all of the New Testament books are out there.

Bart Ehrman, from the University of North Carolina Religious Studies Dept. has written a book called "Misquoting Jesus" (which I haven't read yet, but I have heard him speak about it on a couple of Radio Shows ). This book takes a look some of the "corruptions" to the text that have happened place as the Bible has been translated through the years. (Here is the link to Bart Ehrman's website that has more information about all the books that he has written).

Anyway, the point is that a lot of "average" Christians may not really understand how the Bible came to be what it is and so The DaVinci Code has opened this up to them and for some that creates a crisis of faith. How to believe the Bible when it was not what you thought? For others, it makes faith more "believable."

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