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The bible survived. Alot. How?
In short, the Old Testament, a religious document, had a lot of competition from religious documents of more powerful neighboring countries; but it was kept in tact and copies of it were more available for longer than, for example, the Epic of Gilgamesh. The New Testament survived for years while Christianity was outlawed in Rome. Not only did it survive, but there are far more manuscripts left from the first, second, and third centuries than most other literature. Then Rome endorsed a defiled version of Christianity, and Catholicism outlawed owning a bible. They burned people alive for trying to translate them. The protestants, and movements since then have generally removed faith from the bible by claiming it has errors etc.
I find it remarkable that the bible is still easily accessible and even found in many atheist homes (perhaps alongside "Thus Spake Zarathustra" or their Guy Fawkes mask or God delusion or Iliad/Odyssey, but generally there nevertheless). In fact, many people still respect and believe in the bible.
In summary, how do you think that a book -which according to some should have been discarded along with mythology and animism long ago- is in many cases still respected?
I believe in the bible for a number of reasons, not necessarily just it's ability to endure thousands of years. If you happent to be a teenager about my age (15) and believe the bible is outdated, or you have your doubts about Christianity, please send me an e-mail. I am always interested in knowing opinions that differ from my own.
Michael, my point is that other literature didn't go through as much turmoil, and if you would have lived back then you would have bet your money on other documents outliving the bible. The bible was persecuted while other religious documents were not. On the other hand, if you ask anyone about the bible, most people know about it. But ask them about the Epic of Gilgamesh and you will see that they probably don't know much about it. The bible is readily available to almost anyone today.
Example:
If some one writes a book against world governments, and even foretells that these governments will be destroyed by a Eutopia in the future, realistically, you would think that book isn't going to get too famous. Specially when you consider that in order to become part of the Eutopia you have to meet several difficult personal requirements.
On the other hand, a book by barack obama (just to give an example) would be expected to do much better.
Yet the Eutopia book is still around
thousands of years from now, but barack obama's book falls out of existance until some archeologists find a copy of the book - and no one really cares about it. But there is a copy of the Eutopia book in every household...
What a lucky book...
PaulCyp, perhaps the Catholics should have put more faith in God's ability to protect the bible, and put more effort in putting in practice what the bible says.
Jesus said to love thy neighbor and specially if he was a brother in the faith. The Catholics would slow-roast anyone that comitted the crime of owning a bible. Does that sound Christian-like?
No, but it does give a bad name to Christianity, which reminds me of a bible verse:
"But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute." (2 Peter 2:1,2)
The Catholic church put the truth into disrepute.
jormungandr17, if they were worried about bad bible translations, maybe they should have given the public free copies of well translated bibles, instead of keeping the bible in a dead language. That way people could compare. Of course doing so would allow people to read the bible and find out that Catholicism was working agianst the will of God.
The Catholic church was like the pharisees in Jesus times. They were "blind" hypocritical liars that would not practice what Jesus taught (Remember Jesus saying that other would recognize Christians because they had love among each other, and they loved their enemies? Roasting people is very loving, isn't it?). Jesus said his government was "not of this world", but the Catholics participated in crusades to gain more land, and the Pope was closely associated with the governments of the world.
Catholicism is an apostasy of the original bible truth. They are the bible's frenemy.
The Catholic church worked well without the bible, because it was never based on what Jesus said in the bible.
The definition of Catholic (from Greek katholikós) is something general, universal, of interest to all. Want to know why?
Because it was Constantine's religion, which mixed pagan doctrines with Christian doctrines to create a religion that could be universally followed, and make his Roman Empire more united.
So Catholicism was never Christian, it was an effort to make a political system stronger. Jesus would have never approved of such a religion.
Dreamstuff, I don't remember Vedas being heavily persecuted for many thousands of years. Please refresh my memory.
14 Answers
- knyteflyerLv 51 decade agoFavorite Answer
The Bible has survived, intact, because of God' power.A simple thing for Him to do. And, since it carries important info for us, it makes sense that He would preserve it.
- jormungandr17Lv 51 decade ago
If I were to publish a Bible that had say, added the Gospel of Peter or the Gospel of Thomas or changed a verse or saying that one should only forgive 5 times and no more or completely removed the Old Testament, what would you say? These were the types Bibles that were prohibited by the Catholic Church. They protected the Bible. You latch on to anyone who published an erroneous Bible and think of him as noble without knowing his error.
Also, don't forget how the Church functioned 3 centuries without a Bible. Lest one get too focused on the Roman Empire, other churches survvived even longer without it. The Church in India had only the Gospel of Matthew and the Old Testament for almost 400 years
- PaulCypLv 71 decade ago
The Bible, after it was compiled by the Catholic Church, was safeguarded through the centuries by that same Catholic Church, which protected its Holy Book against all those who would destroy or pervert it. Until the invention of the printing press in the 16th Century, the only copies of the Bible were the laboriously hand-lettered copies made by Catholic monks in monasteries. When the printing press was finally invented, the Bible was the first book printed on the new machine by its inventor, Guttenberg, a Catholic. The Catholic Church continued to preserve the purity of God's Holy Word by gathering up copies of various "Bibles" with heretical changes that were produced by rebellious Protestants. Through the efforts of the Catholic Church, and in spite of the efforts of its enemies, the 73 divinely inspired books of the Holy Bible remain complete and unchanged today, exactly as they were when first compiled at the end of the 4th Century.
- 1 decade ago
There were a lot of believers that made it survive. ITs not that rare in history. As long as their is someone who truly thinks that the something must survive, they will do anything for it to survive.. It also worked for the Koran, freedom, democracy, wiccan, any minority religion, ms. pacman arcade, pong arcade, The dead sea scrolls.
There are more books similar to the bible that have survived the ages. We just dont see people shouting "Look, I have a Koran!"
- aviator147Lv 41 decade ago
It is a miracle of God. The Qur'an mimics the Holy scriptures of the Jews in many ways, but don't forget, Islam has only been around about 1,400 odd years. The Torah, 5,000+ years. The New Testament is 2,000 years old.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Fictitious books that are written by bigoted males who want to control the masses generally survive longer in backward societies compared to controversial non-fiction that express new ways of thinking or the harsh reality, because the bigoted books appealed more to those in power and made it easier to exploit the general public.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Hey, no one is questioning that Christians have went to extremes to keep their beliefs alive. The ones who wouldn't convert were wiped out. Also MOST don't respect or believe the Bible.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
The people with the power(the church)made it very difficult for any other point of view to be held openly,if you did speak out you would be tortured and burned.Look at Iraq,when Saddam was in power if you did not like him you kept your mouth shut because you would be tortured and killed.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Old books are not necessarily more accurate than newer books. Homer's Odyssey is quite old but it's still a fable.
