A problem with the Bible is that the text is widely open to interpretation, and therefore cannot be the unchallengeable word of God. During the first two centuries of the Christian era, the beliefs of the various Christian groups varied wildly – they couldn’t all have been right. Also during the first few centuries of the Christian era, many different versions of the “word of God” were bouncing around the Mediterranean.
Four hundred years ago, a team of English scholars tried to bring order to the chaos, and worked endlessly to argue about interpretations and translations of the ancient texts. The purpose was to create a text that conformed to the views of the King of England. Forty-seven men argued and argued as to what the word of God meant. In the end they had to reach an agreement on what the word of God was. The result: the King James Bible, all a matter of opinion and interpretation. Since the King James Bible has passed out of copyright, anyone can print their own version – and alter it if they choose.
Keep in mind that the authors of the King James made little effort to study the original ancient manuscripts first-hand. The revered King James New Testament relies for 90 percent of its text on the Tyndale Bible, written by a man who didn’t even have access to the ancient texts. So essentially you have interpretations of interpretations.
Yet another problem: over the centuries the “unchallengeable” word of God has been loaded with errors. The ancient oral versions and the early handwritten manuscripts – errors everywhere. The early Bibles contained explanatory words, prefaces, pictures and other bits which clearly were not the “word of God”. In many cases, scribes from early periods wrote commentaries in the margins of their texts, which later scribes included in the actual text, because they weren’t sure whether they were text or just marginal notes; in this way, marginal scribbling became the “word of God”. During early printing efforts in the 16th and 17th centuries, texts were changed at whim, sometimes by printer and editors who wanted to remain anonymous. Quality control was notoriously bad, as typified by the 1631 “thou shalt commit adultery” Bible. 150 years after the King James version, there were so many corrupted versions that the English Church had to go back and clean it all up with new versions; thousands of changes were made.
And a key dealbreaker on this point is the many contradictions within the Bible itself: the same story told in different ways. The Gospels alone contradict themselves and each other on Jesus’ lineage, crucifixion and resurrection; Kings, Chronicles and Jeremiah pose the same problems. If the Book challenges itself, why can’t we challenge it too? Religious leaders will argue either that (a) the contradictions are God’s mystery, or (b) only a truly “inspired” reader can see the contradictions for what they really are, “counterpoints”. Oh, bull.
The Bible also collides with proven fact in many places as well, and not just in the fractured science of Genesis. Luke had the wrong governor of Syria for the time of Jesus’ birth; the records of Josephus and the Romans show that there was no census at that time, and that when they did conduct a census they did not require that families return to their birthplaces.
Glaring errors and crude edits occur throughout the Bible. Genesis gives two different accounts of the creation. Someone inserted allusions to Alexander into the book of Daniel which preceded Alexander by a long way. The book of Esther shows very crude changes: you can’t even read it coherently unless you read Addition A, then chapters 1 through 3, then Addition B, etc.
The written Torah is often incomprehensible without an oral tradition which divides texts into sentences and puts vowels on words, which can change the meaning in Hebrew. Jews are still arguing as to whether that is acceptable, and whether the result is actually the word of God. You could reasonably argue that the consonants are the word of God, but the vowels aren’t. By the same token, originally the New Testament didn’t even have punctuated sentences, leaving even more room for interpretation and error.
The next problem: teams of translators (and other interpreters) have been changing the meaning of the word of God for 2500 years. The Bible, or parts thereof, has been translated into hundreds of languages, and the word of God varies from language to language. Some translations cater to prejudice, like changing the “he’s” to “he/she’s” etc. Even today, religious leaders argue over whether literal or idiomatic translations are preferable.
Over the centuries, hundreds of people had a hand in creating or altering the alleged word of God, and we have almost no information on who these people were.
Human language has never been universal and has been constantly changing in meaning. How could a God possibly use it to express his will?
The first Biblical texts were written in Hebrew, but they were written for people who spoke Aramaic and didn’t understand Hebrew, so even in the early days, the Bible was in a language which its adherents couldn’t understand, just as Christians had to put up with a Latin Bible for hundreds of years, and a Latin mass for even longer. The word of God was overwhelmingly delivered in a foreign tongue to the locals. By the same token, the famous Douai Bible is based on translations of translations, which greatly increases the number of errors.
