A friend asked me this online on Christmas Day, as we were discussing Christianity.
The short answer: of course the Bible has errors. It was transcribed by humans, translated by humans, and compiled by humans. Humans err.
The long answer: The Bible doesn't have to be inerrant. It's a tiny piece of the entire eternal puzzle that reveals the Creator: "His Story".
The Bible is a collection of myths. (I can hear Christians gasping now.) The primary definition of myth is this:
"a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice, rite or phenomenon of nature."
Notice that this definition doesn't say it was made up. I believe all the things in the Bible actually happened and were perceived by humans who told it to other humans who wrote some of it down the way they remembered it. That doesn't mean it's not true, it just means it's probably somewhat in error to the linear factual evidence.
I have a twin sister. We experienced life nearly exactly the same until we were teens. Yet, when I remember (put an event back together in my memory) an event, our stories are often vastly different. Sometimes she'll remember something that happened but I will have no recollection of it. Together, whether demonstrably factual or not, we could tell the story of our past.
I'm a school librarian, but I'm also a story-teller. I tell stories from my own life that help students make connections to what they are learning in classrooms and in other areas of their lives. Are these stories factual? Not necessarily. Are they true? I hope so.
Because humans are not blank sheets of paper upon which to write objective biographies, even our own stories become mythologies. They reveal hidden truths through the telling. Even John acknowledges: "Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them was written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." Now, did he really call the Savior Jesus? No. If he called Him by name it would have been Yeshua. Does that make this verse invalid? No. In fact, I believe he was validating another verse: Colossians 1:17, which declares, "He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together." Do you know what else does those things? Protons and gluons. Protons are primary light particles, the basis of everything. Gluons are the particles that hold everything together. What?!! Jesus is in particle physics? Well, if He wasn't, he'd be a liar, wouldn't He? So, is quantum physics also a mythology? In my mind it is. Its purpose is to tell a bigger Truth; eternal Truth. One we're not supposed to comprehend in this earthly existence.
Just like everything in creation, our purpose is to reveal the Creator. He's complicated. So are our stories, like the Bible. This explains why the Gospels have inconsistencies as told from the different perspectives of the four apostles.
Does errancy invalidate scripture? What? Do you really think the God of all Creation doesn't know how to use mistakes and misinterpretations to tell HisStory? It's all True. All of it. If everything isn't true, then God is a liar.
The discussion my friend and I began centered on the pagan nature of today's "Christian" holidays. I do not celebrate them because they are a distraction and deception from the simpler Truth. Not that paganism isn't true.
OMG. Did she just say that paganism is true?
Well, it's either all true or it's not. It's either all part of History or we're all just wasting our time here.
From studying theoretical quantum physics, I learned that every living thing is part of God's consciousness. A Creator, by definition, defines himself through his creation. Do artists make just one piece of art; one painting, and say, "There! That defines me!" Nope.
Why did God create everything? Because it will take everything for all time to define Him. He uses eternal energy, revealed in various ways to define Himself. That includes consciousness. This also proves that our consciousnesses are eternal. Human consciousnesses throughout eternity define God. Even pagans.
So, if you are a Christian and you want to incorporate paganism into your holy day traditions, go ahead. I don't advise it because it's a huge distraction and deception from the finished work of Christ. God knows were simple creatures. For a people, for a time, all mythologies point to Him. To entangle them unnecessarily is, to my mind, dangerous for Christians who want to portray God's finished work of redemption.
Believers, saved by Grace alone through the work of our Savior, have no need to demonstrate mythologies unless we are mere children in the faith. Because we are human, the Bible does command that we "remember Him until he comes" by sharing bread and wine - a meal, in other words.
So, eat together, tell your histories together. And praise a Creator who considers this to be enough to acknowledge Him.
For a more comprehensive investigation of this topic, please read: Superstring Theory
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