Tag: Stories
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Who Wrote the Bible’s first 5 Books? (ii)
There are still people who believe the Bible is “inerrant”. This would have astonished those editors for whom inconsistencies and even contradictions were such a non-issue they made little attempt to ‘iron them out’. They clearly didn’t imagine they were writing the ‘infallible word of God’, nor should we. For example, in Exodus 6 (P […]
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Who Wrote the Bible’s first 5 Books? (i)
It was long believed by Jews and Christians alike that the first 5 books (or scrolls) of the Hebrew Bible, (the Pentateuch), had been written by Moses, around the 15th century BCE. In the Middle Ages, however, attention was drawn to Gen.12:6 which says, “the Canaanites were then in the land”, meaning this was no […]
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Different Stories, Different Gods
The first eleven chapters of Genesis combine two different sources, each projecting a different picture of God, which undermines any view of the Bible as a homogeneous entity with a consistent message. It’s more like a tangle of different messages, and these chapters need careful literary and linguistic scrutiny to disentangle them. Repetitions, inconsistencies and […]
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The Language of Religion
Here’s one reason why I choose to regard the language of religion as metaphorical rather than literal. If we insist that all biblical stories must be regarded as ‘true’, we invite energetic but fruitless disputes with those who insist that they be regarded as ‘untrue’. If, however, we consider these stories to be metaphorical, such […]
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Rethinking Jesus (10) Oral Transmission and the Gospels
It’s sometimes claimed that the stories we’re told in the four Gospels are based on eyewitness testimony, which was carefully (or even ‘religiously’) passed on, initially by word of mouth, until eventually written down in ‘gospel’ form. This means, some tell us, that we can have every confidence that everything we read in the Gospels […]
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Rethinking Jesus (07) Healer and Exorciser
After his baptism and ‘time out’ in the wilderness, Jesus began his evangelistic mission. He’s said to have drawn crowds, but I think their size is over-rated. The Jewish historian Josephus tells us why Herod Antipas executed John the Baptist : “Now many people came in crowds to John, for they were greatly moved by […]
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A Glance at the Gospel of Mark
Around 70 CE, in a city somewhere in the Roman Empire outside of Palestine, a man composed a religious tract on a parchment scroll. He wrote in Greek, and was either a Jewish or Pagan convert to Christianity. He added no signature, but around 100 years later, he was called Mark, so let’s call him […]
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The Gospels (10) ‘Loaves and Fish, and Love’
We’ve reached the 4th ‘sign’ in John’s Gospel, and should recall that his primary concern isn’t simply to record historical events, but to tell stories illustrating his beliefs about Jesus. Jesus was also a story teller, and used humour and exaggeration to heighten their impact. There’s the man with a plank of wood in his […]
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The Gospels (8) ‘Jesus the man’
In the next “sign” in John’s Gospel, we’re dealing again, (in my view), with a further story designed to persuade us that Jesus is the divine, messianic saviour, who has ‘come down’ from God above, with a message and mission to his people. How much is factual and historical is for you to decide. […]
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The Gospels (4) ‘Religious Tracts’
Continuing to look at the Gospels as literature – as religious tracts designed to confirm and persuade, with their contents selected and shaped to meet that aim – authors can be tempted to stretch things a bit, and indulge a bit of ‘hype’. To ‘prove’ that Jesus is the promised Messiah, Matthew ransacks the Jewish […]
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