Things the Bible Doesn’t Say (But You Thought It Did)

[cbayer]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/03/15/things-the-bible-doesn-t-say-but-you-thought-it-did.html

03.15.15

Candida Moss

Apples, unicorns and Jesus’ childhood are all missing from the Bible. Why?

The Bible is the most hotly debated and influential book of all time. Christians vehemently disagree with one another about what the Bible says and doesn’t say; which Biblical laws are eternally proscriptive and which are defeasible; and what the Bible actually means and who gets to decide. But even apart from these debates there’s a lot of blank space in the Bible—places where a lack of information has led readers and interpreters to supply extraneous information. Add to that all the things people think are in the Bible but aren’t and you have a whole different book.

To start off, there’s the insertion of mammals and botanicals in places where they shouldn’t be. Most people grow up learning that Eve took an apple from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, gave it to Adam, leading to the ejection of humanity from the Garden of Eden. But there’s no apple in the Garden—there’s only a piece of fruit. The interpretation that it’s an apple sneaks in in the King James Version of the Bible.

And there isn’t any mention of unicorns processing twosies by twosies, hooves–a-clattering onto Noah’s Ark. Once again we have fearless band of translators to thank. The English “unicorn” is a translation of a Latin rendering of a Greek word that sounds unicornish (monokeros—one-horned). The Greek is itself a translation of the Hebrew word for wild ox (re’em). From wild ox to unicorn in three easy steps—that’s one heck of a makeover.

more at link

[Warren Stupidity]

1. but then again...

Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him,“Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the LORD. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.

2 Kings.

[guillaumeb]

2. a very interesting title

The Christian Bible was first assembled at the Council of Nicaea in 325. The Bible has had many books over 2000 plus years. Some, called the Gnostic books, were eliminated at the Council to produce the accepted version of the Bible. I would guess that many Christians do not know this.

Many US Christians are also not aware that their brand of fundamentalist, millennial Christianity is of 19th Century origin.

But many people obviously feel that whatever they believe is supported by the Bible because they identify as Christian.

So the tricky part comes up. How are the uneducated to be changed/educated/enlightened?

When you wrote:
And there isn’t any mention of unicorns processing twosies by twosies, hooves–a-clattering onto Noah’s Ark. Once again we have fearless band of translators to thank. The English “unicorn” is a translation of a Latin rendering of a Greek word that sounds unicornish (monokeros—one-horned). The Greek is itself a translation of the Hebrew word for wild ox (re’em). From wild ox to unicorn in three easy steps—that’s one heck of a makeover.

I am glad you did not mention dinosaurs. My Bible has Barney and Mrs. Barney walking onto the Ark. I would hate to think it was not true.

Nice, non-judgmental post. I have come to expect that from you and have not been disappointed.

Signed,
a rational believer

[struggle4progress]

3. The "apple" enters the Garden of Eden story through Latin word-play

Latin has a word "malum" meaning "evil"

It has another word "malum" meaning "apple"

This generally causes no confusion

The Genesis 2:17 text (taken here from Latin Vulgate)

de ligno autem scientiae boni et mali ne comedas in quocumque enim die comederis ex eo morte morieris

isn't about "the tree of the knowlege of good and of apple"

[goldent]

4. Interesting.

But wouldn't Latin versions of Genesis be relatively new?

[struggle4progress]

5. The Hebrew text is believed to have been compiled around 500 BCE, with the Greek Septuagint

version dating from around 300 BCE, and the Latin Vulgate version from sometime after 400 CE.

The Septuagint probably wasn't the first Greek translation nor the Latin Vulgate the first Latin translation. There were Jewish communities established in Greece and Rome before 100 BCE.

That the gospels were written in Greek might suggest that Christianity first spread through the Greek-speaking diaspora; and the earliest Latin translations of the Hebrew texts seem to have be retranslations from the Septuagint. These seem to have become more common after 100 CE as Christianity spread through the Roman empire