Is the Bible incomplete?

Post by **Sushan Ekanayake** » 03 Jun 2020, 09:59

Dee_Robert wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 07:48
Sushan wrote: ↑02 Jun 2020, 09:00
Nerea wrote: ↑02 Jun 2020, 08:31

You mean the creation story has parts that are missing? I haven't noticed. I believe the creation account in the Bible is complete.
Sorry if I made you understand it wrong. The chronological story seems that it has left out some parts in the initial days, from creation, through Eve's sin, and what came next
I agree with Sushan, the chronology has many gaps in it. Peoples stories are picked up, left off and moved on to another's, as though their time of relevance had been exceeded.

Someone explained this to me, that the telling had a purpose, as though the finish line was Jesus' story and the stories are the peoples relevance to Gods plan in the end.

Reading the Bible with this in mind, clarified a lot of things for me.

Keeping that in mind will lead you to different possibilities of these stories, since there are some spaces in the chronology

Post by **Sushan Ekanayake** » 03 Jun 2020, 10:00

Dee_Robert wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 07:51
Sushan wrote: ↑02 Jun 2020, 19:58
Bhuvana Subramanyam wrote: ↑02 Jun 2020, 11:46 I'm not a Christian and never read the Bible. But, what I know is that, with ancient texts, we can't possibly debate on their completeness or incompleteness. It all depends on our belief and how we perceive it!
Debating on facts is useless. Yet we can logically think about something and try to imagine or propose possibilities
Haha
And live a happy life while at it, it really is like daydreaming about other possibilities of a book you just read and trying to understand the characters perspective. To maybe further strengthen your belief.

Yes, imagination will not weaken your faith, but it will strengthen your understanding

Post by **Sushan Ekanayake** » 03 Jun 2020, 10:02

Dee_Robert wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 07:55
Sushan wrote: ↑02 Jun 2020, 20:06
Dannyphery wrote: ↑02 Jun 2020, 16:57 Personally I think the Bible is an amazing book with great mysteries and wisdom naturally beyond the human mind. Although i don't think that it was complete as it would be hard to gather the detail of all the accounts as they happened and would be cumbersome.
That is possible. Maybe the details have been left out to compact the bible into a more reasonable size
Oh I agree with this. The pain of really desiring to finish the Bible at its current size is big enough, imagine it at twice its size.
Which is why this authors creativity is applauded and his selectiveness in the stories he chose.

For the sake of the reader as well as the printer, the authors might have reluctantly left out the parts which were okay to kept aside

Post by **Sushan Ekanayake** » 03 Jun 2020, 10:02

Dee_Robert wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 07:58
Lian wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 03:34 In the first place, the bible has never been exactly complete. It is a library of separate works that were told/written hundreds of years apart. In fact, a lot of the content was passed down through oral tradition, particularly by fishermen. As a result, the details and interpretation were always changing until Constantinople used Christianity as his political campaign. This led to the era of transcribing, finding, compiling the separate stories that make up the bible today.

This is true.
Debatable but true.

Yes, this fact is debatable. Yet I get it as a logical explanation

Post by **Sushan Ekanayake** » 03 Jun 2020, 10:06

slj3988 wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 08:21 As someone who isn't particularly religious but is interested in theology, I very much find fiction in the biblical world fascinating. Whether you believe or not, they are compelling stories which teach us lessons about human struggles.

I'd say there is no way to know what is or isn't missing from the Bible. When looking at any historical texts, we can only know what there is by what we find. As a compilation of stories, parables and prophesies gathered over millenia from many sources (some unnamed) that have been translated, edited and altered countless times, it's impossible to know.

What people forget is the only surviving translation of the Bible today, the one we all see as 'gospel truth' is known as the King James Bible because it was changed by order of the King. Certain parts, phrases and allegedly whole passages were not to his liking, so he ordered the old versions to be destroyed. This is something that has been done many times throughout history when men in power wished to use the word of God to control subjects. Dozens of other works draw from that source to give their own view, but everything we want to see as definitive is not.

There are also multiple conspiracies regarding excerpts that were lost or intentionally withdrawn, including the gospel of Mary, who was thought to be Jesus' wife. A real 5th century text that was found in the 1800s. The sexism of the time couldn't allow a woman to be praised and it was shunned by Catholics who were insulted that a mortal woman could possibly be loved more than anyone else. The Romans had a council who would decide what belonged in the Bible. The gospel of Peter was cut out too. Again, partly due to the allegation of favouritism, because some thought it was unkind for Jesus to appear to favour Peter over other apostles. Texts written by man, discovered and retold by man to inform and in some cases manipulate man.

My point is, there's so many things we don't know. I am comfortable with fictional interpretations filling in the gaps or offering another perspective, as long as it isn't totally changed. We must respect what's there because it's the source. Perhaps one day everything that survived the ages will be found and shared.

This explanation is more logical and knowledgeable. Christianity has been used in political agendas. So how could the bible have been excluded from such conspiracies?

Post by **Sushan Ekanayake** » 03 Jun 2020, 10:08

Fifizora wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 08:55
Officialboluwatife wrote: ↑01 Jun 2020, 16:04 Seeing the book is presented as fiction, I see no reason for the comparison. As Christians, I don't think our mind should be after the completeness of the bible. Rather it should be about the significance of the bible we have at hand in our life.
I agree. I think the message God intended to leave us with is full enclosed in the Bible as it is.

In that aspect, the bible can be considered as a complete text. Human can learn all of what is meant to be learnt by him

Post by **Sushan Ekanayake** » 03 Jun 2020, 10:09

Fifizora wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 09:06
slj3988 wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 08:21 As someone who isn't particularly religious but is interested in theology, I very much find fiction in the biblical world fascinating. Whether you believe or not, they are compelling stories which teach us lessons about human struggles.

I'd say there is no way to know what is or isn't missing from the Bible. When looking at any historical texts, we can only know what there is by what we find. As a compilation of stories, parables and prophesies gathered over millenia from many sources (some unnamed) that have been translated, edited and altered countless times, it's impossible to know.

What people forget is the only surviving translation of the Bible today, the one we all see as 'gospel truth' is known as the King James Bible because it was changed by order of the King. Certain parts, phrases and allegedly whole passages were not to his liking, so he ordered the old versions to be destroyed. This is something that has been done many times throughout history when men in power wished to use the word of God to control subjects. Dozens of other works draw from that source to give their own view, but everything we want to see as definitive is not.

There are also multiple conspiracies regarding excerpts that were lost or intentionally withdrawn, including the gospel of Mary, who was thought to be Jesus' wife. A real 5th century text that was found in the 1800s. The sexism of the time couldn't allow a woman to be praised and it was shunned by Catholics who were insulted that a mortal woman could possibly be loved more than anyone else. The Romans had a council who would decide what belonged in the Bible. The gospel of Peter was cut out too. Again, partly due to the allegation of favouritism, because some thought it was unkind for Jesus to appear to favour Peter over other apostles. Texts written by man, discovered and retold by man to inform and in some cases manipulate man.

My point is, there's so many things we don't know. I am comfortable with fictional interpretations filling in the gaps or offering another perspective, as long as it isn't totally changed. We must respect what's there because it's the source. Perhaps one day everything that survived the ages will be found and shared.
This has always interested me too. That why I find it so intriguing when people get caught up in arguments about very specific passages in the bible.

Arguing about passages in the bible is useless, since we know that many alterations have been done in the past years

Post by **Sushan Ekanayake** » 03 Jun 2020, 10:10

Abacus wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 09:18 The bible is based on a translation which some scholars question. If the original translation is inaccurate in any way, then, for example, the concept of the 30 pieces of silver paid to Judas Iscariot as a bribe may be hopelessly misunderstood or wrong.

That is an important point. Maybe it has been wrongly understood from the very beginning, starting from the translation

Post by **Sushan Ekanayake** » 03 Jun 2020, 10:12

FaithMO19 wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 09:36 I believe that there is a certain part of the bible that condemns adding to its contents. Also, I do not think that the Bible is incomplete; think about the books you have read, there are certain aspects that authors intentionally leave out probably for effect or because they didn't think it necessary to include it in the book. Does that mean that the book was incomplete? No, I do not think so. Every story in the bible is there for a particular reason, we cannot expect to be given details about everything that happened in the bible. Besides, the Bible is a historical book written from the point of view of different people through the help of the holy spirit, humans are limited in knowledge, it's not possible to have the full picture of every event.

Compared to the fictions we read, your point has a value. But if some parts are left out from a historical book, then that won't be very pleasing for the reader

Abigail Peake · Post by **Abigail Peake** » 03 Jun 2020, 11:10

The Bible has been translated and abbreviated many times since the first languages it was written in: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Translation can easily change the meaning or interpretation of the books within the Bible, making each perception different. Depending on the language and version of your Bible can affect whether you believe it to be finished or not. In addition to this, when the Bible was actually written it is very likely that bits of information was lost. The main transportation of information was through word of mouth. I believe it is very likely that the Bible is not finished but that information was lost during the time it was written.

Post by **Kirsi Cultrera** » 03 Jun 2020, 11:19

Sushan wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 09:53
Kirsi_78 wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 06:59 I believe the Bible is complete. Killing Abel is a fictional novel, and therefore I do not think that anything that was written out from someone's imagination would be able to make the Bible incomplete.
This fiction does not make it incomplete. But there are gaps in the chronological order

Yes, you are definitely right about that

who knows why?

J_odoyo · Post by **J_odoyo** » 03 Jun 2020, 13:12

I think this book is just one of the Bible commentaries outside there. It doesn't means that the Bible is incomplete. Personally, I know that the Bible is complete and a standalone Library of holy scriptures—complements one another.

Bookreviwer2020 · Post by **Bookreviwer2020** » 03 Jun 2020, 13:34

I think the writer is creative in imaging what may have happened between stories in the bible. However I think the bible covers what is relevant to its theme and stories. I don't think anyone would have the time to sit and read a book telling you absolutely everything in detail from the beginning of time and until now without leaving anything out, and who would be able to write all of it down anyway. So id course no such book, or any revelation would tell you absolutely everything about everything, but rather what is relevant and what you should know...I think anyway

Reubeney · Post by **Reubeney** » 03 Jun 2020, 18:06

AmyMarie2171 wrote: ↑01 Jun 2020, 16:12 I don't think the two are connected at all. If the Bible had included every detail about every story beyond what is absolutely critical, then we'd never be able to finish reading it. Since the Bible was put together by councils who chose what would be canon, we know that some of what was originally written was left out. Nevertheless, 2 Timothy 3:16 says that "All scripture is given by inspiration of God," so I tend to believe that what is in the Bible now is complete due to divine inspiration.

I agree. The Bible is complete in its teachings but it was a compilation of teachings drawn from a collection of manuscripts. Hence, there might be other details left out in writing the Bible that might not have been of much essence.

Post by **Sushan Ekanayake** » 03 Jun 2020, 19:52

Abigail Peake wrote: ↑03 Jun 2020, 11:10 The Bible has been translated and abbreviated many times since the first languages it was written in: Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. Translation can easily change the meaning or interpretation of the books within the Bible, making each perception different. Depending on the language and version of your Bible can affect whether you believe it to be finished or not. In addition to this, when the Bible was actually written it is very likely that bits of information was lost. The main transportation of information was through word of mouth. I believe it is very likely that the Bible is not finished but that information was lost during the time it was written.

When stories are passed through generations via mouth, they can be changed after several generations. That might have happened with the bible as well