Religious text and authenticity

I've found that the Vedas hold up well with quantum physics, astrophysics, archaeology, history, astronomy, and a lot more sciences.

Proofs/evidences coming soon...ish...

 

What exactly do the various bibles say about Mary Magdalene?

I remember being taught that she was a prostitute, is this actually how she is betrayed in the Bible?
Or was the teaching just a continuation of the error perpetrated by Pope Gregory in the 6th century?

 

Why are there so many different versions of the Bible that say different things. What makes one superior to the other one eg Greek Orthodox vs King James?

 

There are many versions of the Bible. Nearly every major branch of Christianity has its own set of scriptures.

Mary Magdalene wasn't a prostitute as far as I'm aware, as there were a few different Marys...Miriam being a common Jewish name etc.

 

Mary Magdaline didn't start out as a prostitiute, although you are right that Pope Gregory depicted her as one. PG's portrayal basically became cannon for the next 1300 years, and it is only fairly recently where MM has had the prostitute tag removed. So to answer your question, not initially, yes for a long time, and not currently.

 

Aldeth has it on Mary.

There are many translations of the Bible into English, and many translations into other languages, because these languages change (just compare the original KJV to the modern NKJV), the cultures change, and many of the phrases and terms in the original language cannot be readily translated. Chair may have a 1-to-1 equivalent, but what about love? What about complex ideas like mercy, revenge, justification, etc. For example, there is no word that can accurately be translated as 'mercy' in the original versions of the Bible. Instead, the best translation for what is usually translated as mercy is actually loving kindness, which represents a somewhat different idea. Subtle, maybe, but significant.

Other languages, however, don't have as many problems. Ironically (and somewhat confusingly), there is only one translation of the Bible into German. The first language other than Latin to have the Bible, and the closest language to English (which has so many problems with it) never had to re-translate the Bible. The language hasn't changed significantly since Martin Luther, and apparently Luther did a good enough job that no-one has felt a need to improve on it.

Anyway, the original versions are still around in greek, arameic, and hebrew, and I strongly suggest that anyone who really wants to know what it says should think about learning these languages and reading it in the original.

 

No, NOG, there are actually many different Bibles. As in, they have different books included in them. There is no one set Bible.

Not only are books of the Bible sometimes in a different order, but Biblical canon is different too.

Commonly cited are the differences between the Protestant and Roman Catholic Bibles, with the latter including what is known as the Apocrypha and a few additions to OT books, and the former not including the Apocrypha.

However, even the Protestant and Roman Catholic Bibles differ from the Eastern Orthodox Bibles. The Greek Orthodox Bible has different books recognized as canon compared to the Western rite Bible, and if my memory is correct, a slightly different ordering of the books. Then the Coptic Orthodox church has its own set canon, and so too does the Assyrian Orthodox church, which differs from even the Eastern Catholic Bibles, which themselves may differ from Western Bibles (if my memory is right). Then there is the Ethiopian Orthodox church which has nearly 400 books recognized as canonical in their Bible, and their concept of the Bible is very broad in comparison to the Western belief.

Then on top of that there are at least 30 gospels that didn't make the cut, and even John was a bit iffy. There is a lot of pseudo books too that may or may not be reliable, and they weren't included in what you perceive to be the Bible. In fact, Jude quotes from the Book of Enoch, a notorious pseudopigripha (spelling??) book that is demed heretical by nearly every church besides the Coptic and Ethiopian Orthodox churches.

Then again on top of that, we have differing versions of texts used to translate modern English versions of the Bible, with the King James version using a non-majority Greek source for a lot of their books of the NT.

I have a couple of Greek NT's around and I am reasonably sufficient with Greek-English translations to show differences between Greek and English versions, slight word variations that change meanings quite significantly.

 

What does the bible have to say about dinosaurs?

 

Nothing. Not even how Noah managed to get all of them, along with all the other animals, into the Ark.

 

Were there any dinosaurs while Adam and Eve were alive?

 

According to Young Earth Creationism, yes, dinosaurs were around with Adam and Eve as God supposedly created them with the other animals etc.

 

What about woolly mammoths and sabre tooth tigers? Were they around at the same time as dinosaurs and Adam?

Surely this must count as a big difference of opinion between palaentologists and bible-ologists?

 

Of course. According to Young Earth Creationist, which take the Bible as being 100% literal when it comes to the Genesis creation stories (yes, there are 2 different narratives!), all animals were existing when God made Adam and Eve, and all animal species went into the Ark 2 by 2 if they were unclean, 7 by 7 if they were clean...male and female both. Which is quite impossible since there are species of lizard which exist only as female, and so on. God surely must have made these lesbian lizards into male and female pairs for this Ark voyage, and then made them lesbians again later eh?

 

What? Lesbian lizards? Now YOU'RE the one talking silly-talk!

 

Well, they're not real lesbians, just they lack males. They reproduce on their own, and so can female turkeys.

Here's some more silly talk...I used to be a hardcore fundie...that's right...I used to be ignorant. Then I went to university...so I've got the dirt on the fundie side of things. The more I learnt at university, the more I learnt that a lot of what I'd been taught as a fundie was just plain rubbish. And to think I was planning on being a Christian minister...

 

I'm pretty sure that Mary Magdeline was a prostitute. But she repented and was forgiven by Jesus Christ. Her prominent position in the New Testament and the Life of Jesus Christ speaks to the power of the Atonement of Christ, to cleanse us of our sins.

Assume that Genesis 1 is overly simplified. Can it thus stand up to questioning if I DON'T claim that each day was exactly 24 hours? This enables Geological evidence that the earth is much more than 6000 years old. It does not answer Dinosaurs, but Moses or any of the ancient prophets didn't know about them, and thus never asked God about them...

As for Noah and the Arc, I saw a site somewhere that did the math on the Arc. It was really huge, and did match the size to compare to a zoo.

The Female only Lizard race, that's a new one to me. I'm not a scientist, so I can't give you the detailed answers that some of you demand.

For those of us that aren't scientists, we have a simplified answer to creation so that we can get to the more important parts--like the wisdom God has shared with teh Prophets and the laws and ordinances required of us.

 

Yom means a day, as in a 24 hour day. That is the word used in Genesis for both creation accounts.

Also, a zoo could never have been large enough to have fit every animal species that has ever been on this earth. Eight people could not support all those animals.

And lastly, there is little evidence for a global flood of any sort. If you trace back the Mesopotamian flood myth to the Sumerians, the first civilization in lower Mesopotamia (if not the whole of Mesopotamia), you find where the flood story originated. As each successive peoples took over the area, they adopted the myths and religion of the previous people, and as the story evolved, so to did the reason for the original flood evolve with each successive civilization in the area. Then, take into account that Abram/Abraham was from Ur of the Chaldeans (a peoples who coincidentally hadn't arrived on the scene during the time in which he would have been in Ur), then it is easy to see how the myth came to be part of Hebrew mythology.

 

As to nataraja, several species of snails are either only one gender, or actually both genders.
regarding the lizard, while i havent heard of any race only containing females, several salamander and frog species are noted for being apple to reproduce, even if both animals are female. the same actually applies to some rabbits, but as far as i remember it only happened in an experiment.

as we have allready discussed the creation myth of the bible, where you have to stretch what the bible clearly call 7days, into creative period, or god days whatever. im not going to restart that.
As for dinosaurs, neanderthals, cro magnon men and so forth, if i was an all knowing god, i would have made sure such things where mentioned, so that people who found them, wouldn't start questioning my excistence.

as for the Arc. There is no scientific prove for any worldwide flod ever to have occured, the mass devastation such an event would have made, would leave traces. Secondly, an ark containing only two of each animal and 6 humans wouldn't be able to repopulate the earth, it would for the animals part end in incest in the second generation and would over time lead to degeneration and decline of any of the specieses. Same goes for us humans.
thirdly, the flood story, is a babylonian myth, most like stolen by the jews as they tried to convert people, which is normal practise for all religions.

So while religions might try to teach us some good, i think they are generaly outdated as to act like facts. that dosn't meen they aint good, its just fiction to me, like lord of the rings or somesuch.

 

Ha! Good timing Equester, and such a similar post too...