by mentallyfree31 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I started reading the book "Who Wrote The Bible" by Richard Elliot Friedman this week. I'm a little over halfway through it today, and have found it to be quite informative and enlightening. With every page I read, I realize again what a tiny JW bubble I have spent my life inside.
Have you read this book? What did you think?
-mentallyfree31-
Yes. It is excellent. It really shows how limited JW's so-called scholarship is.
Reading it now, albeit slowly. It's eye-opening.
It really is an eye opener, Sherah. It has about 250 pages, excluding the appendix and stuff, and I'm on page 180. So I've almost got it finished.
-mentallyfree31-
I'll put it on my list of things to read...
Apparently it is only the first 5 books of the OT is that true?
I have the book, it belongs to my boss, but I have never read it.
Apparently it is only the first 5 books of the OT is that true?
As far as I recall, it is not limited to that. But yes, its focus is on the OT. It's a very well done book, and as PrimateDave said, books with real scholarship behind them really put WT publications to shame.
Learning new things makes life so much fun. It's so funny to think that I was running up to people's doors pioneering for years and telling them I have the only true religion and they need to come join, and I knew basically nothing about the bible or religion. Every day i realize just how ridiculous I was as a dub. LOL
-mentallyfree31-
mentallyfree...You also may enjoy "Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why." by Bart Ehrman.
Amazon can say it better than I can:
The popular perception of the Bible as a divinely perfect book receives scant support from Ehrman, who sees in Holy Writ ample evidence of human fallibility and ecclesiastical politics. Though himself schooled in evangelical literalism, Ehrman has come to regard his earlier faith in the inerrant inspiration of the Bible as misguided, given that the original texts have disappeared and that the extant texts available do not agree with one another. Most of the textual discrepancies, Ehrman acknowledges, matter little, but some do profoundly affect religious doctrine. To assess how ignorant or theologically manipulative scribes may have changed the biblical text, modern scholars have developed procedures for comparing diverging texts. And in language accessible to nonspecialists, Ehrman explains these procedures and their results. He further explains why textual criticism has frequently sparked intense controversy, especially among scripture-alone Protestants. In discounting not only the authenticity of existing manuscripts but also the inspiration of the original writers, Ehrman will deeply divide his readers. Although he addresses a popular audience, he undercuts the very religious attitudes that have made the Bible a popular book. Still, this is a useful overview for biblical history collections. Bryce Christensen
