ucbmonet.arnold@ucbcad.UUCP (06/23/83)
#N:ucbmonet:22400015:000:1806 ucbmonet!arnold Jun 20 19:14:00 1983 Can someone tell me what we are all doing when we discuss whether the Bible is literally correct? I certainly have no business in such a discussion, and I suspect (correct me if I'm wrong) that most of the rest of you don't, either. Do you understand classical Greek and Hebrew? If you do, have you read the original texts? The King James translation has notorious errors, and some questionable interpretations. As an example of the former, the word translated as "camel" (as in "sooner shall a camel pass through the eye of a needle...") is really the word for "rope" (which makes more sense). As an example of the later, my grandfather (who had the above qualifications) informed me that the word used to describe Mary was not the word "Virgin", but a word with connotations similar to our label "Miss", i.e., an unmarried woman. In those days (as in ours until recently) this expected virginity, but did not require it. Since a word for "virgin" did exist in Greek and it wasn't used, one can question whether that was the intended interpretation. All this detail aside, I ask again: why are we discussing the meaning of various translations of the Bible? Does anyone claim that THEY are divinely inspired? Ken P.S. Before anyone thinks so, this is not an argument that we should pack up the bags and go home. Obviously there are some very interesting religious arguments (dare I even suggest discussion and exchange of information?) left to us. The debate on omniscience is an example of one. Another would be the one on what God is doing today. Let's just not debate over the precise words of translations. Now, if more than one person out there does meet the qualifications I listed above, I would be fascinated to have them publicly discuss the literal meanings of the Bible....