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Did you ever open a topic because the question seemed interesting, but then you see who posted it and you turn around and just leave? :oops:

Let's say that we accept the proposition that the apostles and other New Testament authors do not quote the Old Testament according to our own modern accepted principles for interpreting the Bible. Shouldn't our next step be to re-think our modern principles for interpreting the Bible? Do we...

Have you considered the phenomenon of multiple fulfillment of prophecies? I find it reasonable that the prophets may have prophesied about events of their own day, and also that those same prophesies may have been re-fulfilled in the life and works of Jesus. It doesn't have to be one or the...

I believe in 3 genders - Male Female Confused edit: maybe that's just 2 after all

Called it. False. Ancient Hebrew uses more poetic forms and figurative language than virtually any modern language. The reason is simple - there's only about 8,000 words in ancient Hebrew. As a result, most words have multiple meanings, and that leads to double meanings, puns, intentional...

That accurately describes modern thinking. I think if we are trying to go back to 1st-2nd century Christianity, their view of hell is rather different from the modern one. The ancient idea of hades is not that of a forever-burning-pit-of-torture. New Testament hades is more of an...

Do we suppose that every prophecy was canonized? That's clearly not the case. Many books that were canonized quote from works that are unknown to us. That isn't a problem; it's expected.

It depends on your gender.

Here's a $3 word: Monaltrism - the belief that many gods exist, but the worship of only one deity

True, but not relevant here. When there's poetry, you have to take into account figurative language. In this case, the poetic form used (a sequence of 7 days, punctuated by repetitive statements) is meant to express ardor in an undertaking - that someone has persisted in their undertaking...

Any idea what it means? As a symbol in the Bible, water has several diverse meanings.

I think you are missing some literary context. The sequence of 7 days with repetitive phrases is a poetic form. We know this is true because archaeologists dug up a bunch of other poems from the same period and area that use the same exact poetic structure. If you'd like to read some, the...

History as a genre of literature wasn't invented til the 7th century BC. Anything earlier that 800BC belongs to some other genre, although some historical details can be gleaned from things like stelae commemorating battles, records of alliances/marriages, and recorded prophecies. Writing goes...

Perhaps we are reading the wrong bits of the Bible? We spend a lot of time on Moses, who mediated a covenant which was meant to be temporary and punitive. Jesus told the Pharisees that Moses was their accuser. We spend a lot of time arguing over Paul, because he's the hardest author to...

Emphatically no. The King James Bible was the standard textbook of the English language for 350 years - from the 17th to 20th centuries. The same time period is the zenith of English-speaking civilization. I can say something similar for the Vulgate Bible, Latin and the Roman Empire, and also...

I struggled with this. Ultimately, I did some studies that gave me a better understanding of the text. Comparing it to the OTHER creation story in the Bible was helpful. It's in Job, chapters 38-42. I also compared it to other creation stories from around the same period. Long story...

The Bible spends quite a bit of space on shepherding, but most of it doesn't have to do with feeding. David's Psalms talk about protecting the sheep from predators, and anointing sheep with oil. Sheep tend to have problems with sinus infection and infestation by insects, and using (often...

Blame the translator. The Greek word translated 'feed' actually means 'to be a shepherd.' I guess the translators thought that 'be a shepherd to my sheep' was a little redundant?

I'll never understand why this happened. Racism had basically been extinguished where I live by the late 90s, but for some reason the government decided to re-boot it.

That was the point. The Orthodox church wanted to stop having that discussion, because it was tearing the church apart.