There is a remarkable unity and symmetry of the Bible that cannot be duplicated or imitated by...

ArishMell · 70-79, M

The explanation is far more prosaic and obvious than that!

It was all written, collated and edited by mere mortals who happened to share much the same religious ideas developed by the Hebrews from older faiths, especially Zorastrianism, from their views of their own history, assorted widespread but nebulous myths, and their own imaginations!

The Bible is of course an anthology of Hebrew / Jewish books, and the OT and Torah are from the same set of books written probably in the last 5 centuries BCE, though put in a different order. There are said to be other books that never made it into this Middle Eastern, fairly small, culture's best-seller list, but I don't know if that has ever been established.

The NT was written and compiled over a much shorter time.

Once Christianity developed from what started as a minor Jewish sect, its founders and later leaders started to choose, edit and collate the books in the order that suited them; with the consequence of later translation errors and deliberate warping creeping in.

It's quite possible that Christianity as a faith of its own would not have developed as widely as it has, if it not been taken up by the Romans, despite their Empire brutally suppressing it at first. It was thanks to them that it spread across much of Europe, thence it spread into Scandinavia and Russia. The nearest to its original form is claimed by the Coptic Church, in Egypt; but such claims are probably very difficult to verify or indeed disprove.

Zoroastrianism was a major Persian faith, with two Gods, one of Good, one of Bad; with everything balanced between them. It still exists, now very much a minority, though the Iranians (modern Persians, with a deep love of their ancient history) do respect it and even give it a voice in their Parliament. After all, Islam is from the same roots as Christianity and Judaism, though you might not think any of them are, at times.

Ceinwyn · 26-30, F

How can you explain this, given the fact that the Book was written by forty different authors over a period of 1,600 years on three different continents?

It’s exactly for that reason it’s unreliable

canusernamebemyusername · M

Why does someone with a mental illness have such concrete faith that they are right. You are mentally ill. You literally should not be trusting your own brain. Instead you doubt everything that is real and believe in everything that is NOT real. WTF

MistyCee

The only explanation for such a phenomenon is Someone sitting up in Eternity, past Revelation 22, who sees all history laid out from Genesis 1:1-Revelation 22:21 and reveals these things to His creation. in the order He wants.

I don't mean to disrespect your beliefs, but I'm not impressed with this rationalization.

LadyGrace · 70-79

I didn't see the rapture mentioned....right after the present Church Age.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

There was no need for the "so-called" adjective.

That looks like no more than an unprovoked and pointless attack on others' faiths and scriptures that are as true to their followers as yours is to you.

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Whether those others are unified or symmetrical is a literary judgement, I leave to those who have taken the trouble to study and understand religion generally to a sufficiently high level, including reading all those other texts and various works about them. Really, a field for the professional historian and theologian.

I am not one of those, but I do try to see other faiths and none as equally-valid. The problems only come when proselytisers insist without any shred of evidence or need beyond ego, that their own version of their own faiths is the only "correct" one and condemn all others.

However, on the matter simply of style, the Kings James Authorised Edition of the Bible is popular with many Christians for its learned but very lyrical 17C English; and many non-Arabic Moslems learn Arabic so they can read the Q'ran in its original language, which is said to be very poetic. Both faiths claim their books were inspired by God; though one is a carefully-selected and edited anthology of many books by many writers, while the other was the work of a single author.

Aliveshock

What is so awesome is that those that consider themselves so incredibly insightful will remain condemned in their sins. Jesus is the only answer.

KALIS · 41-45

I love reading the Gospels, but I don't read the Old Testament as literal. I think there are lots of metaphors in Genesis for instance

LeopoldBloom · M

Tendentious nonsense. Bullinger devised this system to reach the conclusion he wanted. The Bible authors wouldn’t recognize it.

LeopoldBloom · M

Sure, other than the thousands of errors and contradictions.

ViciDraco · 36-40, M

If I had the benefit of cherry picking holy writings to determine what gets included in the primary book and then further refine which writings getting included or excluded over the course of a thousand years I could probably create a pretty impressively balanced scripture too.

Actually, it's kind of embarrassing that it's the best they could do.

Fukfacewillie · 56-60, M

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LordShadowfire · 46-50, M

Yeah, that's because the authors of the newer books read the older books.

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There is a remarkable unity and symmetry of the Bible that cannot be duplicated or imitated by any other so-called "holy scriptures"