Xref: utzoo soc.singles:13182 talk.religion.misc:4171 alt.flame:1447
Path: utzoo!mnetor!cxsea!ssc-vax!uw-beaver!tektronix!orca!tekecs!wayneco
From: wayneco@tekecs.TEK.COM (Wayne Cook)
Newsgroups: soc.singles,talk.religion.misc,alt.flame
Subject: Re: Christmas parties
Message-ID: <9652@tekecs.TEK.COM>
Date: 24 Jan 88 07:42:26 GMT
References: <8712231623.AA24882@decwrl.dec.com> <1340@vaxwaller.UUCP> <6442@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> <212@sp7040.UUCP> <6565@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> <1923@celtics.UUCP>
Reply-To: wayneco@tekecs.UUCP (Wayne Cook)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Wilsonville, OR
Lines: 31
Keywords: Jesus, history, blindness

In article <1923@celtics.UUCP> roger@celtics.UUCP (Roger B.A. Klorese) writes:
>In article <6565@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> markxx@garnet.berkeley.edu (,,,,MG59) writes:
>>Take for instance the Genesis account of creation in 6 days.  IF you go back
>>to the original language, and compare that passage to other secular texts
>>written at the same time, it becomes clear that the passage is written as
>>allegorical poetry. 
>
>This is an absurd cop-out... trying to use the Bible both as a work of
>divine information AND, when that fails, as a work of human literature.
>
>Get ON the bandwagon, or get OFF it.

It is interesting on how much controversy the "creation" passages cause.
The fascinating thing is that the Hebrew word that is translated as "day"
in the King James Version of the Bible could be translated as "1000 years"
or "time it takes to complete a task" as well.  Any of those three
translations would fit the word.  Unfortunately, I do not have a Hebrew
text with me at the present time, so I cannot share the Hebrew word with
you.

Another thought on this is that God gave us all free will.  The thoughts
and concepts in the Bible are devinely espired, but the words were the best
the "prophet" could find to describe those ideas.  So all writing in the
Bible reflects the time in which it was written as well as the will of God.
So having a book, like Genesis, where the thoughts are God's but the
languages is man's is not that unusual and does not make the Bible any
less valuable as a source of inspiration.

Borrowing a quote from Mike Andrews "May God Bless"

Wayne Cook