A humble hello to you secweb denizens...
I apologize if this has been covered before, but if so I have not found the thread (yet).

While reviewing some NT verses after reading some of the threads here (and many of the papers in the II library), I ran across

John 7:38 - "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.."

and I stopped in mild bemusement when I read the cross reference remark in the skeptics annotated bible asking rhetorically what scripture he was referring to? Apparently, Jesus was quoting non-existent scripture!

Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but for me (a relative neophyte in the art of really READING the bible) this is a MAJOR problem. As my limited thought processes conclude, either
a) There is scripture floating around which is not in the current collection of books blessed by the popes of old...
b) Jesus made a mistake (gasp!)...
c) The human who scribed the verse screwed up.
(I suppose I could include a 'd' where everyone is lying to everyone else to ensure everyone else burns in everyone else's lake of fire du jure, but no, that would be WRONG!)

What's my point? Well, it seems to me that even folks who allow for some, erm, 'clerical' mistakes in the OT/NT would at least have to draw the line somewhere and declare they believe the directly-quoted words of the saviour himself to be "correct". Otherwise, if John 7:38 stands as written, then I submit we have some very ironic irony.... The inviolable words of the MAN, are indisputably, wrong. Otherwise we could find the OT scripture he quotes.

Could someone tell me if I'm off base here? Or maybe I'm just crabby tonight. Does Jesus get special artistic license in his scripture quoting? "well, he doesn't have to hit it right on, you know, after all there ARE references to water in Ezekiel and Zecharia, even thought they do come out from under doors or Jerusalem itself, but hey! it's erm, the THOUGHT that counts!"

To be not-entirely pythonian in my logic, if Jesus, the finest of all Rabbis, can't quote scripture correctly, then he must not be the infallible, all-knowing one. What other conclusion can I draw? Have any fundamentalist-types addressed this small problem? Should I just shut up and go away? I would appreciate anyone's thoughts...
Cheers!

Good point Bobzilla, I will also just tag on a question of asking why does a God waste valuable verse space quoting his own words again, did he error in not making himself clear the first time?

I would think including the following words in that space would have been better..."many cures shall come from the mold of bread". We might have save a lot more lives along the way.

so true! Of course, right after I hit submit, I wandered to the SAB forum and read a comment from an inerrantist (I assume) on this very verse, who actually stated that it was perfectly ok to paraphrase, mix and match any OT scripture you wanted, and it still counted as a good quote in the NT. sigh. with rules like that I suppose omar should pack up the tent and go home...
Cheers!

If Jesus had that much freedom to quote, he should have quoted from a book not yet written, now that would have been Godly. Let's see... He is hanging on the cross after a really bad hair day and says... "Frado, it was you Frado, that betrayed me" (from the God Father). Now that would have made me a believer.

Bobzilla,

You wouldn't by any chance teach in Colorado, would you? If I'm right it's an incredibly small world.

LOL! I thought it would have been truly inspired for the big HIM to actually hand out a classic curse or two to a few of his, erm, 'opponents', like maybe emerods or even the dreaded mildew. Take that, Pharisee! Maybe that's why Pilate washed his hands - mildew.

Earl,
Nope, I hail from PA at the moment. Even so,it is a very small planet.
Cheers.

Bobzilla,

That's good news. I almost had a religious experience thinking I had determined your identity from a few clues in your writing. I must have been bitten by the Sherlock Holmes bug. Please excuse the intrusion.

Earl,
No problem. I would certainly not wish to be responsible for anyone having a religions experience on my account.... It might give me some type of diety-complex. Not a good thing for a mere mortal, I mean that sort of thing could get one executed by the local authorities.

Or worse... have your feet washed with purfume by a fag hag then publicized forever. I figure she had to by his fag hag because my wife would never wash my feet no matter how much water I could turn into wine and have her drink. I'll take the local lynching.