Please tell me this bible verse does not mean what I think it does!, page 3

reply to post by badmedia

Very true, much of the confusion in the Bible is indeed just that the words are not heard correctly by the reader. Though as I see it, no one is really hiding it in many cases, people just cant hear the underlying truth.

Jesus often said, "let he who has ears hear," not because the people in that land were frequently born without ears,

but because even he knew that most would focus in the specific words and not the underlying message. He spoke in parable purposely.

All of that said however, some things in the Bible were simply added by humans and have no "Divine" connection at all other than they share a book.

For instance the much loved "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" story simply is not in ANY of the earliest versions of the Bible.

en.wikipedia.org...

Although in line with many stories in the Gospels and probably primitive (Didascalia Apostolorum refers to it, possibly Papias also), most scholars agree that it was not part of the original text of John's Gospel.[2] The standard Greek texts of John, and almost all modern translations, mark it off with double brackets—[[...]]—indicating this opinion.

And Deuteronomy is also in serious question;

en.wikipedia.org...

The majority scholarly opinion is that the bulk of the book appears to have been composed in the late 7th century BC, during the religious reforms carried out under king Josiah, with later additions from the period after the fall of Judah to the Neo-Babylonian empire in 586 BC; a minority view holds that the book is largely a creation of the post-Exilic, Persian period, i.e. the 4th century BC and even later. Its essential concerns mirror the thrust of Josiah's reforms: Yahweh is to be accepted as the sole God of Israel, and worshiped only in one place.

Not to mention that there are parts of the Bible that are shared with other, older, religions such as the flood myth.

From a non-dogmatic point of view, clearly the Bible is a compilation from a pretty wide variety of sources. I have no doubt at all there are parts that are reflective of Divine inspiration. However, I also have no doubt that there are parts added by men, to serve men needs, not Gods will.

I think if you have ears to hear, and eyes to see, as Jesus would say, you can pretty much hear the words that are Divine ring in your heart as you read them, in my opinion of course. I am sure there are many who are equally sure I am a heretic and going straight to hell. Lol.

I also like to understand the history of the document itself so that I can understand to some degree the motivation behind the additions and changes.