was pretty good for what it was, a textual criticism of the Bible, Sure it's a little repetitive at times, but I think this is the result of the author trying to simplify and explain a complex topic to an ignorant at least relatively ignorant audience.
Bart Ehrman attended Moody Bible College and finished his Bachelors degree at Wheaton College, He then received his PhD and M, Div from Princeton Theological Seminary,
A bornagain Christian, Ehrman's desire to understand the Bible led him to study ancient languages and develop the art and skill of textual criticism, a branch of text scholarship which concerns itself with the identification and removal of errors from text.
Through his studies he began to doubt that the Bible was indeed the inerrant word of God based on the fact that it suffered from centuries of editing problems.
In his opinion, how can we trust that the Bible is God's word if the words have been repeatedly either intentionally or unintentionally changed.
Aside from the obvious indication that the Bible is not the absolute perfect word of God, or if it is, then surely the words of an incompetent one as the Bible was manipulated throughout history, I found this to be an interesting read.
I now better understand the origin of the Christian religion and it's refinement,
Reading this, I was reminded of discussions that we have in the US over our constitution and the "original" intent and our present interpretation.
The fact that we've needed to amend our constitution speaks volume about the complications innate in trying to live by a document that was written in a different time and that's when we can verify and agree on the original wording.
Some things I learned:
Though this might seem obvious to others, the point that most if not all early Christians were unable to read had not been something I gave much thought to before.
Even many of the early translators could not read and were merely reproducing symbols, This would seem to encourage errors of all kinds,
I had heard that the Bible was an incomplete canon representing various literary works at the time, but did not realize how many were excluded or how many of those included were collections of letters, some written by the original speaker and others written by others using that person's name.
I learned that at the time of Christ, there were three distinct groups of believers, . . those who believed he was merely a man, those that believed he was both man and "god" simultaneously, and those who believed he was a man inhabited by Christ's spirit.
I also did not realize that a number of Christians believed that the God of the Old Testament was a different God from that of the New Testament.
Thus the Christianity we know today was not born in its "pure" form but evolved over time, This seems like a no brainer, but until reading this book and despite being brought up a Christian, I had never explored this idea thoroughly.
I had no idea, nor did I think about, how many copies of the Bible were made using the most antiquated form of publication.
I liked that Ehrman provided a number of examples of passages that were changed/added or taken away and the cultural context under which this was done.
He also provided examples of the unintentional/editing errors that a process of dictation and hand copying texts that used no punctuation or spacing would tend to produce under even the best circumstances.
I also have a better understanding of the rift between Christianity and Judaism,
I definitely learned what textual criticism is and how it was/is because we continue to fine new texts used to try and recreate the original texts of the Bible as well as all the complications that make it difficult to actually do.
Interestingly, I read a review this morning that said most Christians already know all about these "problems" and they don't care, but I don't find that to be the case.
I'm sure many Christians I know would find ways to rationalize the inconsistencies away, but the origin and possible errors in the Bible are not something that is openly discussed in most Churches and not something the masses are aware of.
I'm not sure whom I would recommend this to, Prior to reading this book, I did not view the Bible as the inerrant word of God though I know many who do, but still I appreciated the history.
I'm not sure how a believer would react to this, Yet whether a Christian or not, Christianity is a major player in the world we live in, and understanding it good and bad somehow seems worthwhile.
Ehrman is now an atheist, I would be interested in reading a book from a believer's perspective, It would be worthwhile, I think, to see how that person would deal with the issues Ehrman has brought up,
Great reading about the foundation of Christian religion
THAT HOLY BOOK
The Bible, one of the most read book in the world, it's curious and quite ingenious how in the early beginning of Christian religion was selected and manipulated the several
tons of scriptures that they were around and somebody needs to put them in some controlled order.
How the most "popular" scriptures were chosen to be the "official" ones, and how the Christian religion had to take over other popular celebrations to make its way to the people and becoming one of the most followed religious doctrines.
Also, how people often "quote" the Bible, when in many, MANY times, they are misquoting the Holy Book, but it's not anybody's fault in many cases, since even when a lot of the published stuff was put "in order", kings and scholars "changed" the canon, but not only from holy sources, but even from folk stories that comply with their wishes in how they wanted to conduct the collective mind.
Sometimes the reasons were well intended, sometimes don't, but at the end, it's the reader who decides how those scriptures helped to find spiritual help, mental guidance, or just a most needed relieve.
Amen.
A real eye opener,
I'm familiar with the point the author was trying to make in this book, For a couple of years now, I've known the Bible isn't as infallible as most Christians make it look, I've know that the book is littered with errors by its writers throughout history, But I haven't had time to do a proper research on the forms these errors took, Reading this book has saved me a lot of time,
It's a bit unfortunate most Christians aren't aware of Biblical textual criticism, It's almost like they've assumed God Himself personally penned the words of the Bible, And it's even more unfortunate that most Christians don't bother with getting information on how the Bible came about, Most are happy to swallow the dogmas of their religious sects hook, line and sinker, without bothering to filter and see if the Words still exist in their original sense.
While this book will definitely be branded as heretic by Christian fanatics, it's a must read for every truth seeking Christian.
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