Your interpretation? The Bible is written in plain English these days. Unless you've taken a bottle of whiteout and a sharpie to your Bible I don't see how interpretation is an issue.
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I think Autumnleaf doesn't realize that the "plain English" versions of the Bible are different sects' own interpretations of the KJV, which is an interpretation of the Greek and Hebrew. So yes, interpretation is an issue.
"I don't see how interpretation is an issue."
Uh ... WHAT?!? Not an issue? On what world? WARS have been fought over biblical "interpretation"! (And they still are; take a good look at Ireland sometime.) Political and social standards have been established, challenged, and changed by it. Sects, cults, and congregations have been created, divided, and destroyed by it.
Interpretation is EVERYTHING regarding the power of the Bible, or of any other religious scripture. Whoever has an interpretation that most thoroughly controls the faithful gets the most power.
~David D.G.
Reminds me of the "What?! I didn't know I believed that..." response when someone discovers their denomination's position on an issue. We can fire most of the pastors, priests, etc. now, as obviously we just need to read the Bible to understand.
Well back in my day, we had no writing, so the Bible was passed down by senile old coots who couldn't keep track of it all! Anyone old enough to remember knows that the FIRST PART OF GENESIS, which was later chopped off and forgotten says: "And the Lord God, having suffereth from a massive hangover said: Let there be aspirin! And there was aspirin, and God saw that it was good. Then God decided to maketh the Heavens and the Earth, stopping to drink each night, and performing the day's Work the following morning with a severe hangover."
I'm forgetting now, but when I was a cub, one of the storytellers told me that God thought up the entire "heavens and Earth" concept whilst drunk the night before, and set to work the next morning. This was revealed when God pardoned Noah for lying drunk and naked in his tent: "And I, the Lord God, having chosen to make the Earth while lying drunken and bare, permit my righteous follower to do the same. Cursed be the man who is not smashed!"
Yeah, back in MY day, the only "interpretations" were involuntary, caused by the storytellers' poor memories and the occasional other incident, like the later-reverted Job 26:11: "The pillars of heaven tremble and UURK!" This was the end of that story, and of that storyteller, who had just impaled himself with his own sabre tooth. Nowadays, we NEVER get that much entertainment in church! Plus, the Bible has really been interpreted a lot since the Good Old Days of the Ice Age.
"A man with a clock knows what time is it. A man with two clocks is never sure."
Autumnleaf, try to put together two different bibles (yes, they exist), both true, and start interpreting.
What I´ve heard it is about 25 different (major) english translations of the Bible, but there could be more...
But far more important is that the translators of the ancient "original scriptures"(wich are copies of "missing" originals) cant agree between themselves how they should be interpreted!!!
And then there are the numerous translation and copying errors that has been passed down through the centuries...
And any version of the Bible (King James, NAS, NR, SI etc) is nothing more than the outcome of a popularity contest, in which conflicting manuscripts were reconciled with conflicting scholarly opinion.
Interpretation is a MAJOR issue when you consider these facts!!
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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