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Q & A
May 1, 2008 21:29:18 GMT -5
Post by gashouse(jay) on May 1, 2008 21:29:18 GMT -5
In the days we are living in, there is alot of false teachings going around, so I'd like to open this thread to allow anyone with questions on spiritual things to be placed and answered. I only ask that if you place an answer, you be prepaired to back it up by the only truth on earth, the bible. No question too stupid, except the one not asked. And if the question is personal, please feel free to pm me. All pm's will be confidential.
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Q & A
Apr 28, 2009 20:43:39 GMT -5
Post by Old Timer on Apr 28, 2009 20:43:39 GMT -5
You know, I think this would be a great topic for discussion.
So does anyone have any questions that we can maybe help in answering for you?
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Q & A
May 16, 2009 23:15:26 GMT -5
Post by lowkey on May 16, 2009 23:15:26 GMT -5
From where does the bible come? It is a collection of many books. Brought together many years after the death of Christ and the apostles. When, who, and where were these books sorted through and decided to either contain the fountain of truth or error?
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Q & A
May 23, 2009 14:15:26 GMT -5
Post by Old Timer on May 23, 2009 14:15:26 GMT -5
This is going to be a long reply, But I want to make sure I cover everything in as much detail as I can.
I guess I will start at the start, The word bible comes from the Greek word of biblos which means a book. The bible is a revelation of the will of God to the human family meaning us as humans. About 40 people were involved in writing the bible, The first person was Moses and the final person was John, All total about 1500 years were consumed in writing the bible.
The bible like you know consists of the Old testament and The New Testament, Testament when you get it's definition means will or agreement. Hence why we as Christians today are under the New Testament (or agreement) with the Lord, You need to have both books and boy does the Old Testament have some valuable information in it when you read it.
But to get back on track and continue with the bible, There are three dispensations in the bible.
The first is the Patriarchal age, Which covers from Adam to Moses.
The second is the jewish age, Which starts with Moses and ends with the death of Christ.
And the third is the Christian age, Which starts with Pentecost and finishes with the end of the world (Also known as the second coming of Christ).
The old Testament was written, Most of it in Hebrew, Though some was written in a language called Chaldaic.
The New Testament was written in Greek, And has been translated into the prominent languages of earth.
The King James Version of the bible which is one of the most widely used versions of the bible and has been for some time was originally translated starting in 1606 and ended in 1611, Then a revised version was created in 1885.
Now The Old Testament consists of 39 books on it's own, And it was written by not fewer than thirty people. And everyone except Job were Israelites, Job was a sage of Idumea.
The Old Testament is arranged into four departments.
First is the Pentateuch, Then is is followed by History, Third is poetry and then the fourth is prophecy.
Now Pentateuch is from two words, First is Pente meaning five and Teuchos meaning volume and the word Pentateuch means the five fold volume, And they are Gen, Ex,Lev,Num and Deut. The first 5 books are also called The book of the law of Moses and you can find this in the bible if you look at Nehemiah 8:1 and then if you look in Nehemiah 9:3 you can see where it is referred to as The book of the law of Jehovah.
Now Moses is the author of the Pentateuch and I will try and explain as best as I can the significance of the names of the Pentateuch.
Genesis is from the Greek word genesis which means origin or beginning, Which is why it is the Book of The Beginning.
Exodus is from the Greek word exodus and means exit or departure, Which is why it is the book of departure. It contains the history of the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt.
Leviticus is from Levi who was a son of Jacob, The priests were his descendants and thats why Leviticus is the book of priesthood.
Numbers is called that because it contains the history of the numbering of the children of Israel at two different times.
Deuteronomy is from the word deuteros (Second) and nomos (Law) and it signifies "Second Law". Now something to remember is this doesn't mean a second law or a new law, But it stand for the restating of the law given at Sinai.
In Pentateuch you find the history of the creation, the destruction of the wicked by flood, the choosing of a special people, the schooling of them in Egypt and the wilderness, the giving of the law from Sinai and the system of worship for Patriarchal and Jewish age.
Now lets move onto the Historical books.
Lets start with Joshua, This book is so called from it's author Joshua, Who was the successor of Moses. It contains a history of the crossing of Jordan, Taking of the land of Canaan and giving each of the tribes their part of the land.
Judges, It is widely believed Samuel is the author of this book and I feel that this is correct as well. But this book contains the history of the Israelites after the death od Joshua, And history through the reign of thirteen judges.
Ruth is a supplement to the book of judges and it is thought to also be written by Samuel.
1 and 2 Samuel, This is where you will find the history of Samuel, The anointing of Saul and David, And the death of Saul.
1 and 2 Kings contains the history of the reign of Solomon and the division of Israel.
1 and 2 Chronicles contains the history of the reign of Solomon and the captivity of Judah and it was written by Ezra.
Ezra was named after it's author, and it contains the history of the return from captivity and the rebuilding of the temple.
Nehemiah contains the history of the building of the walls of Jerusalem against the opposition of the heathen.
Esther was named after the principal character mentioned in it, It tells of God protecting the Jews, Though scattered among the heathens. It has been said the Mordecai is the author of this book.
Well I think I am going to stop there for now and let you soak this in and see if you have any questions. And I am also losing my train of thought and I do not want to put the wrong kind of information down for people to read. Feel free to ask any questions you might have about this and if you want to you can always send me a private message if you don't want your questions out there for everyone to see if you feel it is private.
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Q & A
May 23, 2009 20:01:45 GMT -5
Post by lowkey on May 23, 2009 20:01:45 GMT -5
:)Thanks Old Timer! Alot of good information in that post! Dispensationalism is a literalistic interpretive framework for understanding the bible derived from John Darby. This is one of many traditions used, not untill the 1800s, to understand the bible and christian teachings. There are also other books, not mentioned. Such as the deuterocanonical books like Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Sirach, Baruch, Maccabees, Esdaras, and Odes. These are all books found in the septuagint but not the tanakh.
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Q & A
May 23, 2009 22:01:00 GMT -5
Post by Old Timer on May 23, 2009 22:01:00 GMT -5
Absolutely, There are lots of things to cover with the bible.
I bet we could just go on and on for a good long while talking about this, Might be good for folks who don't understand the bible though.
I would have put more down but I didn't want to confuse anyone and I lost my train of though which was making it hard for me to put the sentences together to get my point across the right way.
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Q & A
May 24, 2009 21:41:39 GMT -5
Post by lowkey on May 24, 2009 21:41:39 GMT -5
Sure is. Discussing these things and getting people interested in knowing more about their faith is a very good thing. I would like to also state that I am the first among sinners and that any of my posts in this thread should be understood as such.
Any info on my original questions? Who, what, when, where and how?
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Q & A
May 26, 2009 12:37:14 GMT -5
Post by Old Timer on May 26, 2009 12:37:14 GMT -5
From where does the bible come? It is a collection of many books. Brought together many years after the death of Christ and the apostles. When, who, and where were these books sorted through and decided to either contain the fountain of truth or error? Had to use the original question since I kept forgetting what it was when I was trying to answer,lol. Well on the simple end of it, There were about 40 people who wrote the bible and it took about 1500 years. The bible comes from the Lord and it is his guide for how we should live and also it is to show us the history of everything. Starting with the creation of the world and every thing on it, And ending with letting us know what will happen to his creation and what happens to those who believe and those who do not. The bible was divided into chapters by Hugo in the year of our Lord 1240. The Old Testament was divided into verses by Mordecai Nathan in the year of our Lord 1445. And The New Testament was divided into verses by Robert Steven in the year of our Lord 1551.
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Q & A
May 26, 2009 15:51:58 GMT -5
Post by lowkey on May 26, 2009 15:51:58 GMT -5
Thanks! I'd like to add a few things and I confess I did have to recheck myself more than once.
There are many different versions of the Bible circulating. Most are traced back to two very early translations of the Old Testament:
The Septuagint or LXX This is the version I am most familiar with. It is the oldest of several ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible. Septuagint means "seventy" in Latin and comes from the fact that seventy Jewish scholars translated the Pentateuch or Torah from Hebrew into Greek around 285–100 BC.
This translation includes those other books I mentioned (Deuterocanocial or Apocrypha) not found in the Hebrew Bible. The Christians took the Septuagint over so completely that the Jews decided to adopt their own version. This was done about 90 A.D. Many Protestant Bibles follow the Jewish canon and exclude the additional books. However, while not accepting those seven books as inspired, some are now including them at the end of the Old Testament, as did the 1611 King James Version.
Roman Catholics, however, include some of these books in their canon while Eastern Orthodox Churches use all the books of the Septuagint.
Throughout the New Testament there are more than 300 direct quotations or paraphrases from the Septuagint Bible out of some 350 Old Testament references.
The Council of Hippo (393), the Council of Carthage (397), and Pope Innocent I (405) listed the 46 books of the Septuagint as inspired.
The Vulgate The Vulgate is the Latin version of the Bible prepared by St. Jerome around 400, at the request of Pope St. Damasus. He translated the Old Testament directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, and revised the existing Latin text of the New Testament.
"Vulgate" means "common" or "popular", since Latin was the popular language in Europe at the time.
The Vulgate was used through the centuries and was declared the official Latin text of the Bible for Catholics by the Council of Trent.
It was from the Vulgate that almost all English Catholic translations were made until the middle of the 20th century, when scholars began to use original sources. It remained the official Latin text of the Bible for the Catholic Church until Pope John Paul II replaced it with the New Vulgate in 1979.
New Testament:
The New Testament consists of 27 books (or letters) which, for the most part, were written prior to the start of the second century (100 A.D.) Until about 50-60 A.D. there was no need for a written account of the Gospel because the eyewitnesses were still living who could pass on the information first-hand. However, it later became necessary to have written accounts of the life of Jesus so that the facts would not get distorted with the passage of time. As a result, certain of the apostles and their associates penned the accounts we now have included as the four gospels.
Towards the end of the first century, it appears the four gospel accounts were gathered together into a single collection called "The Gospel". At roughly the same time the letters written by the apostle Paul were also gathered together into a collection referred to as "The Apostle". While these collections represent the beginning of what eventually came to be regarded as the New Testament canon, they were not yet formally grouped together and designated as such.
In about 140 A.D., a man named Marcion arrived in Rome and began preaching a distorted version of the teachings included in The Gospel and The Apostle. This movement grew to such an extent that the Christian church leaders saw the necessity to more clearly formalize the distinction between what was and was not authoritative scripture. This led to the formalization of the list of writings considered authoritative by the Christian church (the New Testament canon).
Very early on, some of the New Testament books were being recognized:
Paul considered Luke’s writings to be as authoritative as the Old Testament (1 Timothy 5:18; Deuteronomy 25:4; Luke 10:7).
Peter recognized Paul’s writings as Scripture (2 Peter 3:15-16). Some of the books of the New Testament were being circulated among the churches (Colossians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:27)
Clement of Rome mentioned at least eight New Testament books (A.D. 95). Ignatius of Antioch acknowledged about seven books (A.D. 115). Polycarp, a disciple of John the apostle, acknowledged 15 books (A.D. 108). Irenaeus mentioned 21 books (A.D. 185). Hippolytus recognized 22 books (A.D. 170-235). The New Testament books receiving the most controversy were Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 John, and 3 John.
Factors which the early church used in deciding whether a book was to be regarded as canonical included:
Apostolic Authorship - Was the letter written by one of Jesus' apostles or one of their close associates?
Authoritative Recognition - Was the book generally regarded by the various congregations of the early church as authoritative?
Doctrinal Soundness - Were the teachings of the book in keeping with the apostolic faith?
In A.D. 363, the Council of Laodicea stated that only the Old Testament (along with the Apocrypha) and the 27 books of the New Testament were to be read in the churches. Pope Damasus in 382 A.D. prompted by the Council of Rome, wrote a decree listing the 73 Old and New Testament books of the Bible. At the Council of Hippo, in North Africa, 393 A.D. the same 73 Books of the Old and New Testament were approved or canonized. Again at the Council of Carthage, 397 A.D. approved the same 73 books of sacred scripture that the Catholic Church uses today. Finally, in 405 A.D. Pope St. Innocent I approved the same 73 books of the canon and closed the canon of the Bible.
Although, controversy still continued with the reformation. For instance, Martin Luther wanted to remove the Epistle of James, Esther, Hebrews, Jude and Revelation. Calvin and Zwingli also both had problems with the Book of Revelation...
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Q & A
Aug 15, 2009 19:43:08 GMT -5
Post by lowkey on Aug 15, 2009 19:43:08 GMT -5
The Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest known (complete) copy of the bible, has recently been digitized and is now available online. This is very cool. Thought some of you might be interested. www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/
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Q & A
Aug 15, 2009 23:56:07 GMT -5
Post by Old Timer on Aug 15, 2009 23:56:07 GMT -5
Very nice.
Thanks for posting this.
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Q & A
Aug 17, 2011 18:06:13 GMT -5
Post by wvvdiup1 on Aug 17, 2011 18:06:13 GMT -5
I was out getting a birthday present for a friend of mine and thought of getting him a Bible, since his was starting to fall apart. But when I got to the store, there were so many different versions! I know different Christian religions have somewhat different beliefs as far as their religion goes, but they all insist that they believe in the Bible as their source?
My question is: If we believe in the Bible, why are there so many different versions of them, when the source is the same?
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Q & A
Aug 20, 2011 0:43:44 GMT -5
Post by Old Timer on Aug 20, 2011 0:43:44 GMT -5
I was out getting a birthday present for a friend of mine and thought of getting him a Bible, since his was starting to fall apart. But when I got to the store, there were so many different versions! I know different Christian religions have somewhat different beliefs as far as their religion goes, but they all insist that they believe in the Bible as their source? My question is: If we believe in the Bible, why are there so many different versions of them, when the source is the same? Well to put is simple, The versions I recommend are either the KJV or the ASV, A lot of these versions take away or write to suit whomever is writing it. Which brings us to the second part of your question, Why we see so many versions are really to do with different denominations wording things to suit themselves. Hard to teach one thing to your members when the bible clearly says something else, They will often claim it is to make it easier to read or something along those lines though. The King James Version and the American Standard Version are the two bibles that are the most accurate. I don't like the offshoots like the NKJV or the NASB since we are getting back to them redoing things. And NIV is about one of the worst you can get when you really start reading it. I can go on forever but that is the simple of it.
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