I agree that the Bible’s are a waste of resources but I also realize that most Christains are far better people than the left wing idiots on this website.

@Trajan61 You know by now that I definitely agree with you on that matter.

Here is an example:
New Life Version - John 1:1-5
"1 The Word (Christ) was in the beginning. The Word was with God. The Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 He made all things. Nothing was made without Him making it. 4 Life began by Him. His Life was the Light for men. 5 The Light shines in the darkness. The darkness has never been able to put out the Light."

King James Version - John 1:1-5
"1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

It is "dressed up" blasphemy??

@Mcflewster

You are totally upfront, direct and like the devil.

The faithful will believe in anything the church tells them to. But I am going to read more about what they have cleaned up. Thanks for the post.

@St-Sinner Best compliment in my memory. Hope I do not misuse the devilish bit.

Please tell us some results of your search.

People I deliver parts to told me that they are taking bible copies out of motel and hotel rooms and replacing them with something else. These people go to an Assembly of God church, they cannot tell me who "they" are, and they have no idea what the bibles are being replaced with. They got the info in their church.

We are winning?

I.e the privileged.

But even history is getting more critical. Ref Lucy Worsley on BBC player. Fine to read one person's account but only pick out those parts which are common to unconnected alternatives.

hmm well so you say, but i suggest that the inconsistencies are installed on purpose, to present a puzzle; the bad translations, not so much tho

@Gwendolyn2018
There's an angle from which I can see some truth in that perspective. In Biblical scholarship there is a long established thread of thought that such ancient texts are not to be understood by a literal interpretation, as would a history book, but as inspirational or symbolic poetry. When read this way, many of the points that would otherwise appear conflicted then start to make sense. I think many if not most religious people relate to their traditional texts in this more symbolic and intuitive way, even though they often also get caught up in some literal translation of selected parts.

I assume you mean IYO. If so it will be IMO too

@Mcflewster
Not just my opinion, but in the opinions of philosophers and scholars who spent their whole lives studying it. That doesn’t guarantee it’s true, but when people refuse to look at or consider such interpretations... I wonder why.

@Gwendolyn2018
A rock is always a rock, but stories don’t work like rocks. They are more like a piece of music that can be played different ways and still be enjoyable.without worrying why it was a different tempo this time. Or like a painting that means different things to different viewers. Religion is more like art than science or history. If a person doesn’t enjoy a particular art form that’s fine, but to say that no one else can either is just... well, not true.

@Gwendolyn2018
Why not? The fact that we can't get everyone to agree on a particular perspective is not proof that a legitimate perspective can't exist.

@Gwendolyn2018
Of course. But I haven't defended literalism - just the opposite. As far as I'm concerned, the people who take it literally and believe it's true are little different from those who take it literally and believe it's meaningless gibberish. It's neither. But mythology can be both deeply meaningful to individuals who have the capacity to apprehend it intuitively or aesthetically, and to scientists, philosophers, or anyone who studies it from an anthropological or psychological perspective. And even the literalist believer's experience can be made sense of from an evolutionary perspective. It is serving a need in that person that was bequeathed to them by biological and cultural evolution. it's not, as many here often claim, a sign of mental illness, incompetence, or criminality. It's human nature behaving exactly as evolution designed it.

just ignore those guys, maybe, and see what the bible says about itself, and it becomes obvious that the bible is not the Word, they heard the word and then searched the scriptures, to see if it was true etc

Good point

reading in the original via a lexicon def clears some things up

@Gwendolyn2018 Yes they also added the commandment about not making images, and an extra verse to the Song Of Solomon, the one which explains how it is really all metaphor and not sexual. They also added the resurrection story, to the gospel of Mark, since it seems that the earliest gospel did not originally include it, wonder why?

@Gwendolyn2018 interesting!

@Gwendolyn2018, @Fernapple interesting!

@Gwendolyn2018 I suspect that St Paul being educated was probably in the know, and what he knew was that the gospels were works of fiction. But no proof.

The King James editors though, only took the story of the resurection from the other three gospels, and in the seventeenth century they were probably long past having to worry about pagans at least at home.

Well they do like the covid it seems?!