“The Bible?”

There has been some controversy concerning the Bible and its relevance to religion. From our lectures in class, it has been concluded that there is no such thing as “the Bible”. To some, this may seem like a bold statement to make, but to those who have spent any time studying religion it is an accurate statement. The most simplistic way to clear up this theory is to say that the Bible has different meanings to different religions and adapts to the specifications of each one of these religions. The Bible that is commonly used today under the Christian domination is the King James edition. The King James Bible was written in approximately 1611 AD. The King James Bible is a translation of the original Hebrew biblical texts. King James I saw the need for an English translation of the Bible that had some sort of uniform translation. When using the King James version of the Bible for modern university studies, there arises some debate since there seem to be some negative and positive aspects of using this translation. On the positive side, as stated earlier, the King James Bible includes some translations from the original context written in the Hebrew language. It is written in English, which allows for a broader audience of readers to have access to the text to read themselves. On the negative side, the biggest problem seems to be evidence of man influence in the Bible. Here I am referring to the possibility that the translations were changed over time and it is even rumored that the famous playwright William Shakespeare tampered with Psalm 46 to leave his mark in biblical history.
Theories such as this one have come about through vigorous study of the Bible. The people that come up with these theories are known as biblical scholars and dedicate their lives to studying every aspect of the Bible. They ask and try to find answers to such questions as “Where did the events of the Bible occur?”, “When and where was Jesus born?” , “What did he look like?”, etc. Theology in general is the study of religion. On the other hand, biblical studies refers to the study of the Bible and since the Bible is used in many dominations. So, it is safe to say that biblical studies and theology are directly related.
Personally, I feel that religion is a complex and profound subject that I enjoy learning about. I do not see myself as someone who would become a biblical scholar simply because sometimes ignorance is bliss and knowing too much could become a curse.
Being able to study the Bible in modern times is directly related to literacy or the ability to read and write. This brings me to the history of writing. The beginning: Writing began in Sumar and Egypt . these early writings were about were about economics and they served as a type of hand receipt. Cuneiform writing came about in 3200 BCE by the Sumerians and their writing was described as “wedge-like”. Around 500 BCE in Phoenicia, it is believed that the first sound of a picture to represent a word was first introduced. This led to the beginning of what we now know as the alphabet. A man by the name of Cadmus is credited with its invention. With the invention of writing, as it was, it brought about change in these historical societies. For example, the alphabet gave more class to society. Those that could write were given access to different ideals. The Greeks were able to develop Philosophy, logic and skepticism and through writing these ideas reached a broader audience.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2006 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Class Comments, Week 02: 3 Big Problems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.