I have read it several times, never straight through. I have a few versions and sometimes will read other translations and lexicons online.
It is to me a very advanced book of eternal wisdom. It can teach one how to control others, can teach one to be controlled, can teach one how to unleash enormous power to destroy and build up - as such the use of its wisdom can be used for good or bad. It teaches a way, for those who seek it - who have such a desire, that will lead to the freedom that we were always suppose to live in.
I’ll take the compliment but I am Canadian. If you can set me up with a 6-figure Software Support job in Atlanta, I could be convinced to start converting you Americans…
Do you know it well enough that you have read all the books in it?
I don’t think I’ll ever be bored enough to read the Book of Numbers. You realize that thing’s a census, right?
Do you know it well enough that you have several editions or variants of the Bible and compare the translations among each other?
WTF does the first part of this question have to do with knowing the Bible? I’ve got two NTs and three Bibles, but the NTs are from school (we were required different editions at different points) as is one of the Bibles; another Bible I bought because the first one, having gone through the hands of a dozen middle school students, is not fit for company; the third one is in English and from the same “translation school” as my newer Spanish copy. I don’t open two of them and start comparing translations, but I do compare translations occasionally yes; mostly when I’m looking for a cite for here.
Do you know it well enough that you have spent countless hours trying to learn koine Greek or Hebrew or Latin just so you can read the original text, or do you just read the nearest Bible in your given language?
I just read the nearest Bible (including webpages) in two or more languages I’m familiar with; sometimes I run into a passage which is very different in English and Spanish and I like to check how do the other languages I can read transcribe that detail. My Latin sucks and I know about a dozen words in modern Greek.
How well do you know each character and each story?
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH! Dude, I seriously doubt most biblical scholars will be able to tell you they know “each” character.
How do you treat the Bible – a sacred text, a piece of literature, a historical document?
All three.
How do you interpret passages from the Bible? Do you take passages from the Bible, find wisdom in it, and apply them to your lifestyle (i.e. living like how you think a “true Christian” should behave)?
I find it offensive that you are assuming everybody who reads the Bible is a Christian. You ever heard of Jews and Muslims?
Or do you read the Bible as a source of literary entertainment and amusement and really don’t treat the text very seriously? Or do you treat the work as an important historical document that has survived the test of time (a document has to be important enough for monks to actually copy it back in the day)?
…again, I fail to see what does its importance to monks (who were interested in it for its religious value) have to do with its historical value, which resides mostly in the least-religious parts (like that census, or the off-hand descriptions of people’s everyday lives).
Middlin’ well. I’ve read it, cover to cover, twice, and spot-read through it all the time. I can usually find the quote I’m thinking of. I have Bible Study software on my computer, and I have taken a class.
I’m still an atheist… But I do recognize the beauty and the wisdom in the Bible.
(Also the absurdity, low farce, and foolishness of some parts of it.)
(Now, I presume, sow-bears will be sent to kill my neighbors’ children…)
Go back to your psych prof and tell him/her that unless your study involves “conducting shitty research on an online forum” you have no business working in human services and you should probably change majors.
First of all, I am not conducting any research at all.
Second of all, I am not a Psychology major.
Third of all, I am only asking the set of questions for fun. It’s kind of amusing, seeing how people would respond to the set of questions.
Fourth of all, I don’t think you are really interested in answering the question in the OP. That’s OK. You don’t have to be interested. No one requires you to respond to this forum. Responding to this forum is entirely VOLUNTARY.
The pacing is slow, and the juicy sex and murder seems to seriously slow down about halfway through, when a whole new character gets introduced. And the ending’s a bit of a downer.
I mentioned to someone the other day that in Chronicles I gave up because of the begats. I doubt Chronicles was ever meant to be read like a book, just like you wouldn’t expect people to read the phone book. I doubt most Bishops, even, could recite Chronicles from memory and that’s not a judgment on them.
The rest of the Bible I’ve pretty much read (some of the other books have some chronicling sections too). KJV in full only. I’m an atheist and read it out of curiosity and literary interest. Reading the Bible did pretty much the opposite of convert me, TBH. I recommend anyone considering being a ‘true devout Christian’ to actually read the Bible.
It’s a very interesting text and my knowledge of it has come in useful now and then, though mostly because I know it and others don’t, even those who claim to be Christian.
I’d answer the rest of your questions if they weren’t all bunched up like you’re a small child breathlessly asking about why the sky’s blue. If you’re actually interested in communicating with people and hearing their answers to your questions, then it’s a good idea to make your questions readable. “Readable” would be (for a start) putting one big question per paragraph.
I know all the famous stories from growing up Catholic, and probably picked up more than the average US Catholic due to the fact that my mother has a master’s degree in theology. I’ve never really done what you would call “independent study” (picking up a Bible and reading it on my own) though.
In the past couple years I’ve become very familiar with the Pentateuch from doing the NY Times crossword puzzle daily. There are many short person and place names that apparently come in handy when constructing a puzzle. Enoch, Enos, Moab, Esau, Edom, etc come up pretty frequently. My personal feeling is that using google or wikipedia is “cheating,” but looking up answers from their original source is ok, so I find myself flipping through a Bible app on my iPhone almost daily.
