In Reply to: Re: Question from Thinker posted by Skep on December 20, 2009 at 21:58:44:
I used to think of the Bible as the inspired Word of God, infallible and to be taken literally – while in the Family!
Today, I look at it all a lot more relaxed and enlightened. Like with anything written by humans we have to learn to read between the lines and take the bias of the translators, skill in translating, Christian zealousness to be “right”, even, in case of the King James version, political motives of dear King James into consideration.
There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, examples as the one I’m about to quote. Here’s just one example of dear King James pushing an agenda: One verse that always bugged me from my earliest days in the Family, was “Obey them that have rule over you…” It just seemed wrong and contrary to progress and logic. The Family used this verse to demand in some cases unquestioning obedience to leadership. As I found out, King James used it apparently to keep his subjects in line.
Luther translated this as follows “Listen to your teachers…”
WHAT A DIFFERENCE!
There’s probably a lot of this in the Bible, so I can’t really subscribe to the infallibility of it anymore. It’s just a book written and rewritten, translated and interpreted by many very fallible humans.
There's probably some divinity left in it, but it has to be read and applied with caution.