Subject: So when did "evil" start? |
Bible Note: Lisa, You write: "Different 'authorities' on the bible have extremely different views." As a general statement, this may be true, especially when those authorities are secular humanists teaching the "Bible as Literature." I had the dubious benefit of such a course when I was in college. But I am not aware that among conservative evangelicals (of whom there are multitudes) there are many extremely different views regarding what books do and do not make up the canon of the Bible. Among this large group of Bible readers, students, scholars and teachers there is a consensus, if not universal agreement, that the 66 books of the Bible constitute the entire Bible. There are no more divinely inspired books -- no more and no less. I'm not trying to be rude or dogmatic here. I merely state an observation. (I won't call it a fact and risk an interminable argument over it. Since I have not actually polled every last conservative evangelical denomination, then I do not know it to be a fact. Yet I am confident that my observation is not mistaken.) You write: "Hence the "Eloheim" writings and the "Yahweh" writings." I do know what you are talking about, having been exposed to a course in Bible as Literature. The muddled theology inherent in Bible as Literature courses is usually espoused by people (both university professors and liberal clergymen) who are NOT unbiased, people who do not necessarily believe the Bible to be the divinely inspired word of God, some of whom, for all I know, don't even believe in God. I have no doubt that you want to know everything you can about your Lord. Nor do I doubt that you love Him and don't want to miss a single word of text. You write: "I have several different versions just to make sure I get it all in." I, too, have several different versions. I have in my home 17 different translations in print. On the net, I can find 26 different versions either of the NT or of both the OT and NT. Yet not one of those 26 versions (with the possible exception of the Douay-Rheims) has any more or any less than 66 books of the Bible. Thank you for hearing me out. Grace to you, kalos |