Single best book on biblical errancy?

[B.S. Lewis]

I've asked this once before and got a really disappointing set of replies.

Does anyone know of a great book demonstrating biblical errancy? A little reliance on archaeological/historical/scientific flaws would be fine, but I'd like it to mostly focus on textual evidence such as internal contradictions.

Any ideas?

[XKV8R]

try the following:

bart ehrman's 'misquoting jesus (http://secweb.infidels.org/?kiosk=books&id=947)'
bruce m. metzger's "the text of the new testament: its transmission, corruption, and restoration"

[thedistillers]

Ehrman book does not show that the Bible in its original form is without error. (I think)

[XKV8R]

misread the question. these books are on biblical transmission errors.

[Solitary Man]

Check out William Dever's stuff on the Jewish scriptures.

[mrunicycler]

There's a book called, "The encyclopedia of biblical errancy." It lists, by bible chapter, the places wherein the bible talks about killing babies, stoning children, raping people, etc.

It aslo does a good job of pointing out where one verse contradicts a later/earlier verse in the book.

I'll see if I can't find my copy (might be boxed up somewhere), and then come back and post my favorite quote ever.

[Deus Ex]

There's a book called, "The encyclopedia of biblical errancy." It lists, by bible chapter, the places wherein the bible talks about killing babies, stoning children, raping people, etc.

It aslo does a good job of pointing out where one verse contradicts a later/earlier verse in the book.

I'll see if I can't find my copy (might be boxed up somewhere), and then come back and post my favorite quote ever.

Here is a link to Amazon for this book.

[mrunicycler]

Here we go. "The encyclopedia of biblical errancy" C. Dennis McKinsey, Prometheus books, 1995.

Best quote ever. It's a bit long, is on page 171 of my copy:

God created evil. Evil came from the Lord.He deceived and told people to lie. He rewarded liars. He ordered men to become drunk. He rewarded the fool and the transgressor. He delivered a man, Job, into Satan’s hands. He caused indecency. He spread dung on people’s faces. He caused adultery. He ordered the taking of a harlot. He killed people. He ordered the killing of people. He has a temper. He’s often jealous. He practiced injustice. He repented. He played favorites. He sanctioned slavery. He degraded deformed people. He punished bastards for being illegitimate. He punished many for the acts of one. He punished children for their father’s sins. He punished a man for following orders. He prevented people from hearing his words. He supported human sacrifice. He ordered cannibalism. He demanded virgins as a part of war plunder. He ordered gambling. He required an unbetrothed virgin to marry her seducer. He ordered horses to be hamstrung. He sanctioned the violation of the enemy’s women. He sanctioned the beating of slaves to death. He required a woman to marry her rapist. He taught war. He ordered the cooking of food with human feces. He killed the righteous and the wicked. He intentionally gave out bad laws. He excused the sins of prostitutes and adulterers. He excused a murderer and promised him protection. He killed a man who refused to impregnate his sister-in-law. He aided rather than punished a swindler. He doesn’t see all. He’s indecisive. He discovered a woman’s secret parts. He broke up families. He ordered the killing of women and children. He killed over fifty thousand people because a few merely looked into an ark. He gives unlimited, eternal punishment for limited sins. He violated his own laws (such as those against killing, drawing the sword, and tempting). And scripture clearly shows that he operated on a philosophy of, “Do as I say, not as I do.” Now can you imagine anyone, any being, saying, “Yes, that’s my book; that represents me; that’s the way I am,” especially a supposedly perfect being? One would be challenged to think of any historical figure with a worse record, including Adolf Hitler and Genghis Khan. The Devil comes out of the Bible looking much better than God. You would almost think that the Bible was written by the Devil about God.

It goes on, but that pretty well sums up all the things in the bible that I don’t like :)

[mrunicycler]

Also, Isaac Asimov has a decent book...called something like "Asimov's guide to the bible."

It does a decent job of going through many of the books in the bible and talking about the historocity of it, though it's a bit dated now, IMO.

[B.S. Lewis]

Thanks everyone. Transmission errors aren't exactly what I was looking for but they do count - transmission is part and parcel with authorship in the "Godunnit" theory of the Bible's origin.

Proving that the Bible records God doing evil things isn't exactly helpful, however, when you're probably going to be talking to believe who believe that morality is subject to God and not the other way around.

[John Kesler]

Does anyone know of a great book demonstrating biblical errancy?


The best books on Bible errancy aren't those with the stated goal of debunking some aspect of the Bible. It's better to read books by real Bible scholars, most of whom are not Bible inerrantists. I highly recomend James L. Kugel's How To Read The Bible (not to be confused with Marc Zvi Brettler's book of the same title, also a good read). Kugel discusses many Bible stories, and gives the traditional interpretation as well as what many scholars believe was actually the case. Though not intended to undermine the Bible, any honest appraisal of the text leads to the inevitable conclusion that it contains errors.

[Toto]

Reminder - How to construct Amazon links to benefit II (http://iidb.infidels.org/vbb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=69776)

[mrunicycler]

I'd like it to mostly focus on textual evidence such as internal contradictions.




Proving that the Bible records God doing evil things isn't exactly helpful, however, when you're probably going to be talking to believe who believe that morality is subject to God and not the other way around.

FYI, don't mistake my one quote for meaning that the entire book (the encyclopedia of biblical errancy) spends its time 'proving that the bible records god doing evil things'. I just happen to think that one bit is worth remembering (or at least being able to look up)

Much of the book is dedicated to picking out pieces that contradict each other, which is what you said you were looking for in the OP. For instance, on page 92 he lists at least ten contradictions the bible has regarding the resurection in this manner:

1. At what time did the women visit the tomb? Mark 16:2 says at the rising of the sun; John 20:1 says when it was yet dark.

Maybe not the most dramatic bit of prose, but it seems to fit the bill of what you asked for perfectly.

The author then goes into some discussion, before pointing out Eccle. 3:19-21, Job 7:9, Eccl 9:5, etc, which he claims refute the idea of anyone being able to resurrect, as they say things like, "he that goeth to the grave shall come up no more," etc.

I turn the page twice and find this among a couple of pages of a similar list:


The text of 1Cor. 15:50 declares that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven, while Heb 11:5 says that Enoch went to heaven without dying. So his flesh and blood did enter heaven as did Elijah in the chariot

Which, again, seems to fit exactly into what you were asking for when you said you wanted a book that 'focus(es) on textual evidence such as internal contradictions.'

[B.S. Lewis]

Thanks mruni.

[mrunicycler]

No prob. Hope you get as much use from the book as I did.

[fatpie42]

Okay, I'm actually looking for something similar to this. I've recently read E.P. Sander's "The Historical Figure of Jesus" and to be quite honest, while I know some people don't think it goes far enough, I found it to be absolutely full of just the sort of thing you are looking for. It's one of the main reasons why I started my "Christian Urban Legends" (http://iidb.infidels.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=243425) thread.

However, the real reason why I ended up getting that book was firstly because it was readily available in my local book shop and secondly because it was highly recommended by a reviewer on Amazon while I was looking at some other books. Those other books I was looking into were both recommended by the iidb member 'Vorkosigan' (http://iidb.infidels.org/vbb/member.php?u=1957):

- Theissen et all "The Historical Jesus"
- Crossan "The Birth of Christianity"

I intend to read both of these when I'm not quite so thoroughly skint, but I have no idea what to expect.

[jjramsey]

I'd recommend Robin Lane Fox's Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679744061/InternetInfidels/). It's an older book, and Fox rather oddly concludes that gJohn was written by an eyewitness, but for the most part, it's a critical treatment of the Bible that neither pulls punches nor falls into dumb traps like "teh Bibble sez pi=3."

[yalla]

I was halfway through Robert M. Price's "The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man" before I got sidetracked by real life. Seems to fit the debunking descriptor reasonably well and its interestingly written. I intend to get back to it shortly.
And "The Bible Unearthed" by Finkelstien and Silberman [I prefer John Laughlin's "Bible and Archeology"] does a fair job on deconstructing the Jewish bible as does Thomas Thompson's "The Mythic Past".

[Kelly]

There is a fairly good online copy of most bible contradictions, written by William Burr in 1860 and found at scacred-texts.com. It's not a book of course, but on the other hand it's free. It's a very straightforward text and lacks any philosophical or apologist narrative. The text is quite lengthy and the author just points out all the contradictions in a very matter of fact manner.

http://63.249.123.11/bib/cv/scb/scb01.htm