mountainman

The educated should be free to choose their own reading material. The Bible and the Koran and the Vedas and the Gita and "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Enigma of Lithargoel" should be treated on equal terms and a level playing field. We are built for an organic diversity not an intellectual cloning. Would you be suggesting music that was to be a must-heard, or a food that was to be a must-eaten or a drink to be a must-drunk?

mountainman

Good point DCHindley,

However I dont think its the bible that is as important here as is [the civilisation of] the language in which it was written.

"Save for the wild forces of Nature
nothing moves in this world
that is not Greek in its origin."

--- Acton

Best wishes,



Pete

Saramago

Oh, ye of little faith.

All things must pass, and a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, so before you give up the ghost when you’re as old as Metuselah or as old as the hills, you really should bite the dust and read the Bible.

Maybe it won’t be a labor of love, more like a thorn in the flesh or a cross you will have to bear, but for everything there is a season.

Reading the Bible is really just a drop in the bucket and a sign of the times.

A leopard can’t change its spots, so don’t worry that by sticking your hand in the viper’s nest by the skin of your teeth you’ll be committing a multitude of sins.

Did you think that Aesop came up with “A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing”, Shakespeare coined “Eat, drink, and be merry”, Lincoln invented “A house divided against itself cannot stand”, and Stephan Pastis came up with “Pearls before Swine” on their own?

Out of the mouths of babes! While each work of theirs was a labor of love, and Pastis is a man after my own heart, I’m not sure Shakespeare was ever flesh and blood.

Ah, well, do what you want; am I my brother’s keeper? There’s no rest for the wicked, and you can’t be all things to all men, besides which, as they say, as you shall sow so shall you reap. So - I'm off now. Many are called but few are chosen, and my cup runneth over.

(recollected in part from my own past Bible reading, refreshed with the helpful list here)

Doug Shaver

You mean, they believe that if more people read the Bible, more people would go to college (and thus colleges would get more tuition money)?

I don't think so.

pinkvoy

More students within college will take more courses that they happen to teach.

dockeen

I took a course in college, many years ago that looked at the bible in wake of earlier
literature - it was interesting to count how many times it was said that the bible
stole this idea from here, ripped of this one from somewhere else - the instuctor told
us that if we remembered nothing else from the course, remember that "there is
nothing new under the sun"

DCHindley

Hmmm,

Sounds like the opposite of what I was saying. Was this "nothing new" thingy about the entire bible (OT & NT), or just about Jesus' teachings in the NT?

There's plenty of evidence that several aspects of Jesus' teachings weren't original to him.

I'm talking on the other hand about how the bible (both OT & NT) was used as the basis of common law, ethics, social consciousness as well as justification for all sorts of debates and conflicts relating to rule of nations and the proper manner of worship. The Protestant reformation was entirely about the latter, involving all manner of new interpretations of the Bible as it was translated into German and English, etc.

There's also the matter of the influence of the KJV on English literature and culture, including turns of phrase, idioms, etc.

DCH

Saramago

Agreed. Nothing completely original (cf. Ecclesiastes 1:9) yet permeates western culture, esp in US.

dockeen

Both OT and NT m- there are many examples in the OT, the classic being the flood story.

Doug Shaver

Whether that was good or bad would depend on the professors. There is no better way to become skeptical about the Bible than to learn the truth about its origins. That was the main thing that got me out of fundamentalism.