In the Bible, it says clearly that no one should make a dare to edit or correct the Bible by any words. But many chapters and contents are extremely censored from the original Bible. How is this acceptable, and how do we know the truth and full story about the entire life?

(Finally, some of the replies and trolls I received made me more confused. But thanks a lot for the reference replies.)

  • anarchoilluminati [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    First of all, as others said, the Bible is a book composed of many books and letters written by many people over an incredibly vast span of time. Consistency is almost impossible. But, for what it’s worth, where does the Bible say “that no one should make a dare to edit or correct” it?

    I believe you are referring to Revelations which is, arguably, one of the oldest youngest if not the oldest youngest book in the canon (I don’t remember for sure but I believe it is) and also not universally appreciated. Luther famously criticized Revelations, and I think rightly so. There was also some contention at the time of canonization in Nicea around Revelations. So, just because one book says it, doesn’t mean it’s the final word on the issue. There are Christians that don’t see much weight or value in Revelations. I certainly don’t, I don’t believe it’s an eschatological text revealed by God. I think the only way Revelations makes sense is to read it as an historical text and critique of Nero that was written post hoc to rationalize and comfort Christians for what they suffered by explaining that they will soon be rewarded for their faith because they are in “end times”. Of course, we now know, thousands of years later, that they weren’t.

    Besides, I’m not entirely sure I know what you mean by “edited” or what “life” you’re referring to, although I’m assuming you’re talking about Jesus. Have you read the Scriptures in their original languages? I have at least read and translated the Christian Scriptures in and from Greek, and they need editing. It’s not possible to have a transliteration of it that reads well, it takes some finesse and art. Even the Scriptures in the Greek are compiled from different manuscripts and codices because there often are errors or damages in manuscripts so you can’t just find the one “Gospel of Marx” manuscript, for example, and use it to translate it perfectly. You need to find several to get the whole story of one gospel together and then translate them into a single text, so you’re using several sources to put the story together in Greek and then translate into a different language thousands of years later. Naturally, this creates issues and makes it so that the Bible isn’t an unaltered text in its final form. Unless you read it in its original language, this is unavoidable—and, as I said, even if you do read it in Greek, you will still have an “edited” text.

    Does it matter? I think it creates issues and one should be able to critically examine these textual criticisms in order to form a better picture of the origins of their belief and better parse what and how to believe, but I don’t think editing or inconsistencies inherently invalidate Christianity nor Judaism.

    • Alb087@lemmy.mlOP
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      4 months ago

      Thank you for replying…

      By edit i mean this verse in Revelation 22:18-19, which says:

      “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

      I believed that doing so can change the entire meaning on bible.

      And by life, in my personal opinion i believe the bible is a guide to live life and only god have the quality to guide us among life and no human should never try to manipulate his true words.

      Also i was very obsessed about thinking all of this censorship thing.

      Actually i didn’t readed the originally written bible, probably nobody could.

      Most of the things you said make sense and gives me a clear picture about the reality of my worry.

      • Of course.

        Well, if it helps, and I hope it will, the author of Revelations wrote Revelations before there was canonization into the Bible we know today. In other words, when Revelations was written it was a stand-alone “book”. The Bible didn’t exist at the time.

        So, when the author of Revelations says ‘don’t change anything in this book’, they mean and are talking about the Book of Revelations—not the Bible as a whole which didn’t exist.

        In terms of the ethical value of things like the Gospels, the value is still there. The teachings we have are the teachings we have, if they are valuable to you then that’s great and you should follow them! Jesus says a lot of things which are great to practice. But it’s ultimately up to you to decide whether to believe in the teachings, and then it is up to you to struggle to put them into practice. That doesn’t change.

        If you found out there were some changes to the Bible, would you stop believing in “love your neighbor as yourself”? No, because it still has value as an ethical teaching. If you want it to be the direct word of God, then that might be more difficult to prove as fact. But I choose to believe that what Jesus says sounds like what I would expect from a God anyway so I don’t personally have an issue. I hope it helps you though, it is ultimately your decision to choose what, how, and why to believe in something.