05-24-2004, 11:44 AM
Interesting topic.<br>
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Lot's of religous discussion (what a surprise ). Anyways, my 2 cent:<br>
<br>
Some people seem to look at the bible as some kind of history book, which it is not. (sidenote: I don't want to insult anyone and I respect everyone's believes. I don't call myself a Christian, though I've been baptized when I was little)<br>
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ok back to the bible. There are many historical facts in it: Jesus existed and was crucified, he preached in Judea, and so on. but people shouldn't forget that the apostels wrote their books under different circumstances, serving different purposes:<br>
<br>
The Romans aren't blamed for the crucification, Pilatus is washing his hands. Now as a member of a small community called Christians in the 1st century in the Roman empire I wouldn't write a book blaming the Romans as well. 2nd reason was that many of them went to Rome and wanted to seperate themselves from the Jews because they didn't want to be a jewish sect so they kind of blamed them for it.<br>
<br>
Another thing is the Nazareth/Betlehem story: the prophecy said that the messiah would be born in Betlehem, so I think that's a good reason to change the story and invent a census as has been mentioned before.<br>
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There were many other things in the bible which obviously have been changed or invented just to match with some other stories and things. as I said don't forget that the bible is not only ment to report facts but to be a basis for the Christians and ppl who want to become Christians. There are many things in the story added to establish connections to the Old Testament ( Jesus' words before he dies for example).<br>
As I said before this has nothing to do with peoples believes and I don't want to say you shouldn't believe in the bible if you are a Christian, just don't use it as a source for accurate historical facts and such.<br>
<br>
There was a really nice issue of the German GEO magazine about Jesus in January or February adressing some of those things if I remember correctly. <p></p><i></i>
<br>
Lot's of religous discussion (what a surprise ). Anyways, my 2 cent:<br>
<br>
Some people seem to look at the bible as some kind of history book, which it is not. (sidenote: I don't want to insult anyone and I respect everyone's believes. I don't call myself a Christian, though I've been baptized when I was little)<br>
<br>
ok back to the bible. There are many historical facts in it: Jesus existed and was crucified, he preached in Judea, and so on. but people shouldn't forget that the apostels wrote their books under different circumstances, serving different purposes:<br>
<br>
The Romans aren't blamed for the crucification, Pilatus is washing his hands. Now as a member of a small community called Christians in the 1st century in the Roman empire I wouldn't write a book blaming the Romans as well. 2nd reason was that many of them went to Rome and wanted to seperate themselves from the Jews because they didn't want to be a jewish sect so they kind of blamed them for it.<br>
<br>
Another thing is the Nazareth/Betlehem story: the prophecy said that the messiah would be born in Betlehem, so I think that's a good reason to change the story and invent a census as has been mentioned before.<br>
<br>
There were many other things in the bible which obviously have been changed or invented just to match with some other stories and things. as I said don't forget that the bible is not only ment to report facts but to be a basis for the Christians and ppl who want to become Christians. There are many things in the story added to establish connections to the Old Testament ( Jesus' words before he dies for example).<br>
As I said before this has nothing to do with peoples believes and I don't want to say you shouldn't believe in the bible if you are a Christian, just don't use it as a source for accurate historical facts and such.<br>
<br>
There was a really nice issue of the German GEO magazine about Jesus in January or February adressing some of those things if I remember correctly. <p></p><i></i>
