Bible... word of God, or Word of man

[Southern Cross Nemesis]

My belief is that the bible is a collection of books, written by man inspired by God. That being said, just wondering your thoughts of the book. Is it written by God, there for flawless... or man and is flawed  

[PeachPunk]

I think it was written by man...others will tell you God told the authors what to write, but I'm a bit skeptic of that. I think God just picked them to tell their stories and mention His influence on them. The Bible's not perfect, but that figures, since it was written by regular people like you and me.  

[Shanna66]

i belive its a book written by men who either wrote god's laws to the best of their abilities or wrote what they wanted for their own reasons.

i think its good to read but also good to remember it was written by men a very long time ago and some things have probably changed since then  

[rmcdra]

That's my belief too. Written by men, inspired by God. Now just because it's inspired, doesn't make it perfect or free of biases. It'd be like trying to describe color to a blind person. You can't describe what it looks like to this person obviously, but you are able to about it, like when it's used, what creatures use particular colors, what impressions those colors leave on you.  

[Gjornia X]

I think "inspired" was the best term the apostles could have used back then, and IMO it's the most intellectually honest. I've recently started reading the OT, in light of the years spent in mind numbing philosophy courses that made me....tangent. As I was saying, The book of Genesis (well the creation narrative) is very similar to the Book of J (actually more than similar, it's clearly the source of it). And the flood story dates back to mesopotamia and isn't unique to judaism or even that region.

All these thing, however, were written by religious people of antiquity. (Though, for the record,I highly doubt their was an atheist/agnostic culture anywhere). While it'd be dangerous to base one's comprehension of science and natural process solely on the Bible or any religious manuscript, morally, it's solid and sound. If something seems false morally, I say try it out--try living the opposite way of whatever teaching you question. You can't deny the validity of your own experience.....Well, you could, but that's another tangent :p

EDIT: except for murdering people...do not attempt.

SECOND EDIT: Maybe it's the Word of God translated into the word of man, thus technically both!  

[Lord Alucard Ere Casanova]

At best the original text was written by God through man. It has since been translated, translated again, then re-translated to be modernized multiple times, and in each translation the interpretation changes. Things have been omitted over the years and other things have been added. So today the bible that we read from can, at best, be said to have been inspired by God, but not written by him. Our bibles are written by men who translated other texts written by men going back to the original text which might have been written by God through man.

Personally, I think "inspired by" is a better term regardless of details.  

[Prince Darialan]

I believe it was inspired. The bible even says who wrote each book. In which case since a man wrote the text, it is not free from their opinions and thoughts of what God wants out of them.

The destruction of cities. Were they really by God for punishment of their sins or were they meteor showers that God let happen (like he lets a lot of things) and then interpreted as punishment.

Did the authors write in "gay is wrong," because it seemed so wrong to them or did God really tell them to write that?

Did Adam and Eve doom us by eating of the fruit or is that a story written so we'd better understand the "hows" of creation and how we came to sin? Same with the story of Noah.

The writings in the Bible seem to be peoples thoughts of the world, morals, and man at the time. Most of it very well stands today and will tomorrow. But I think the text is imperfect, because man is imperfect.

Jesus words are the only things in the bible I truly trust, because they all relate to love of man and God and nothing he said could ever be wrong.  

[deadmanjay]

I think inspired sounds alright for the first few, but what the ******** is up with the King James one? Or that new one that is being written because Jesus just wasn't ******** conservative enough? And no, convservative is not a good lay, she doesnt want to do any of the work.  

[Victoria of Gallifrey]

Inspired as best I can tell. It's still heavily saturated with human influence.  

[Jos K Kitten]

Let us take a loot at John 1:1
"In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Basically the WORD is God. However, the bible is a book of events that happened 4000 years ago. Though God himself didn't write the Bible, he did create the Word, which is Jesus Christ.

Bible: Book that holds the Word
Word: God

So it's a book that explains the events and teachings of God. Back then people had to write down what was being said because of course the teachers aren't going to live around forever, that was the same for Jesus, the four who wrote the gospel weren't putting their own ideas into the bible, they were reenacting what Jesus was teaching... AND JESUS IS THE WORD!

So... if you say that the book was inspired... yes, it was. However there is no changes that man made in that book that wasn't inspired by God, or enriched in the Holy Spirit. Sure, each teacher had a different way of teaching. Take Paul for example. Although he was teaching the gospel, he was still using his own way of teaching. Yet it was still about Jesus... who is the Word. So I say; It is written by man, inspired by God. However man did not change the events that was directed by the Word...  

[Qyp]

Okay so... looked it up... there is about 188 languages that the Bible has been translated in.

Though, that could just be the "main dialect" language of a country, but there is different versions/dialects like in English, there is NIV, King James, etc...

Each translation in English claims they did it correctly, right? But that is a major problem... if each one claims they did it right, yet the grammar is changed slightly, or the sentence has a different word that means something different... how do we know which one is correct? Consistency in similarities of translations make certain ones correct right? Pfft, no. Since we all know here, that our lovely Captain has pointed out one word isn't translated correctly, that one mistranslated as homosexual... to the "modern" version. I mean, can we really trust how accurate the Bible is?  

[rmcdra]

Qyp

Okay so... looked it up... there is about 188 languages that the Bible has been translated in.

Though, that could just be the "main dialect" language of a country, but there is different versions/dialects like in English, there is NIV, King James, etc...

Each translation in English claims they did it correctly, right? But that is a major problem... if each one claims they did it right, yet the grammar is changed slightly, or the sentence has a different word that means something different... how do we know which one is correct? Consistency in similarities of translations make certain ones correct right? Pfft, no. Since we all know here, that our lovely Captain has pointed out one word isn't translated correctly, that one mistranslated as homosexual... to the "modern" version. I mean, can we really trust how accurate the Bible is?

Well the thing about the Bible is that it's not a legal document and shouldn't be read as if it were a legal document with every word being analyzed for it's legal nuance. They are stories that are meant to inspire us to become better people. Yes granted there is a few books dedicated to Hebrew Laws, we as Gentiles are not bound by them as we are under a new covenant. While there are many different translations, the main theme is still there. Help the poor, be kind to strangers, don't be arrogant and forget that there is always someone greater than yourself, and Christ will bring us salvation. The letter of the Law kills, but the spirit of the law brings life. Fortunately we've been learning to follow the spirit.  

[Qyp]

rmcdra

Qyp

Okay so... looked it up... there is about 188 languages that the Bible has been translated in.

Though, that could just be the "main dialect" language of a country, but there is different versions/dialects like in English, there is NIV, King James, etc...

Each translation in English claims they did it correctly, right? But that is a major problem... if each one claims they did it right, yet the grammar is changed slightly, or the sentence has a different word that means something different... how do we know which one is correct? Consistency in similarities of translations make certain ones correct right? Pfft, no. Since we all know here, that our lovely Captain has pointed out one word isn't translated correctly, that one mistranslated as homosexual... to the "modern" version. I mean, can we really trust how accurate the Bible is?

Well the thing about the Bible is that it's not a legal document and shouldn't be read as if it were a legal document with every word being analyzed for it's legal nuance. They are stories that are meant to inspire us to become better people. Yes granted there is a few books dedicated to Hebrew Laws, we as Gentiles are not bound by them as we are under a new covenant. While there are many different translations, the main theme is still there. Help the poor, be kind to strangers, don't be arrogant and forget that there is always someone greater than yourself, and Christ will bring us salvation. The letter of the Law kills, but the spirit of the law brings life. Fortunately we've been learning to follow the spirit.

Yep.  

[ObiWanKendrobi]

I say written by man, inspired by God.
It makes the most sense to me, anyhow.

 

[Thoron_Dread]

As everyone else has basicly already stated is that the Bible is written by man but inspired by god. Many people, even I at points took the bible in the wrong ways when first getting to know it. Many points in the bible are symbolic and not meant literally. Others are meant straight out and as one starting into the christian religion it was very hard for me to differenciate. I found things overdramatic, some appauling, but in later realization and context shift I was able to see it for what it really is, gods word. Even in life god is never straightforward with us. Many time the problem with the bible, and the reason for denominations are the interpretations of the bible and its meaning. Sometimes you have to wander who, if anyone, is actually right in the interpretations. It is also correct in how many times the bible has been translated and rewritten to better fit into the way we speak today. There are so many different versions of the bible it astonishes me, while each one contains basicly the same information it makes you wonder just how much was actually changed, added, or taken away. After all Proverbs 30: 5-6 states:
“Every word of God is flawless;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Do not add to his words,
or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.”
So the question is just what are we reading?