is there any mystery behind it? is it significant for the faith of those who believe in the Holy Bible?
211731
shortest chapter Psalm 117\nlongest chapter Psalm 119\nmiddle chapter/verse is debated, but a common answer is Psalm 118:8-9 about taking refuge in the Lord.\n\nPerhaps a coincidence, yet kind of cool.  BUT I wouldn't say that it elevates these texts any more that the other verses of the precious inspired Word of God.  They are all important!
628244
I try not to think and according to wikipedia its authenticity is questioned, but you got me to learn something new, thankyou. :)\n\nThe fact that the Zohar was found by one lone individual, Moses de Leon, and that it refers to historical events of the post-Talmudical period, caused the authenticity of the work to be questioned from the outset.
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Perhaps not.  But is it okay to ram your personal interpretation (of that which you have learned as dogma) down the throats of others if you never listen to informed critism?\nIf you have never read the old testiment in Hebrew, how do you really know what is says?  If you do not know Aramaic or Greek, do you really have an informed opinion yourself?\nDo you know the exact reasoning made by the men who decided what should be included in the Holy Bible and what should be left out?  Do you know that all of them did not agree with all of the books included?\nA good computer program can be written to look up an answer (or several rated answers) in the text of the King James Version of the Bible for just about any question, but that does not make the program holy.\nJudgment of others based upon whether or not they interpret scriptures in the same manner as you do may be a sin and certainly has lead to the disruption of the Christian religion into smaller factions.\nNo, it is never okay to critize anything that has not been studied.  Sure people do it, but that does not make it okay.
262519
it's a work of fiction. if you are interested in Mary and the holy grail find a bible
217327
Look at it from all perspectives, not just the Holy blood holy Grail side of it. Get Holy Blood Holy Grail. Based on the Dead Sea Scrolls. \n\nThis website has a weath of information of the other perspective, disproving that it isnt true.(against the Di Vincicode and The Dead Sea Scrolls)
271382
The Bible is a mythological tale. Do you actually believe that the red seas parted or that stone became bread? Perhaps there was a saint and he had many followers, Also perhaps some of the incidents described did happen, but the truth has been exxagerated to become a description of a super-human. And therefore, take the Bible, or for that matter most of the Holy Books with a pinch of salt. It is meant to evoke faith and thankfulness that there is a superpower above us who can do things that we can't(simply translated to hope!) Again, many versions of The Bible exist. Popular ones do not refer to Mary or his descendents.
559937
This is very difficult to answer. Knowledge effects you on many levels. Whether something is true or factual is not relevant to a believer of faith. If you have been told something all your life and even if new evidence presents itself - you will tend to support the former idea. You have to understand the Christian mind. Most Christians see the world as black and white: no shades of grey. Either you are or are not a Christian. There is no other way to look at it. If you are not a Christian you are lost. Part of every Christian’s salvation and “Ticket to Heaven” is inextricably linked to several essential factors and one of which is to “Spread the Good News.” This is known as Evangelism. Yes. You have to endure the Christian’s witty incite filled pejorative analysis with cut downs and invidious diminutive behavior. It is their duty to explain to you what a looser you are for not being a Christian and what winners they are for being on the winning side. Although it seems like insecurity at first glance I feel it somehow reenforces some need to show they are superior. Wait, that's the same thing. . .right? Typical Christian comments are, “Are you still practicing that Witchcraft. . .come BACK to Christ.” “Hinduism is just a bunch of Pagans. . .FIND the Lord.” “You KNOW you are lost without Christ.” “The Bible SAYS. . .” They assume you should agree with them because they assume what they are saying is the ONLY way to look at it.
181548
Here is the answer....\n\nCall to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand).  (Jer 3:33 AMP)\n\nSOme thing, brother, are shown us by God.  Seek out Him for what it means.  The you will have the treasure.\n\nI cannot understand it either...but there has been many things in scripture I did not understand that He revealed to me as I sought Him.  Just be patient. Maybe do a little digging.
4267
No one knows the answer.  The bible thumpers try to blame it on God but it doesn't answer the basic question of "Why?".  There is not yet a satisfying answer that I know of.
194269
Contrary to what a lot of Englightened people on here will have you think, the Bible isn't just for scholars or spinners. If it is true, the Bible is God's Word to man, then I think it is safe to take the book at face value assuming that most people were quite illiterate at the time of its first use. \n\nGod would not make his only word to man undicipherable to all, save the rich intellects of the world. This seems like the biggest, most obvious trap, out there! The rich have the key to salvation, but of course they do! The rich Europeans, to take it even further and make it better! Give me a flippin break. This is getting stupid.\n\nThis is one of the major "flaws" in the entire idea of the Bible being God's Word. Does God not know that most people on Earth are hardly literate, can't understand Hebrew or Aramic, and by inspiring a 3,000 plus page text, he has put the salvation of nearly everyone on earth in the hands of a very few who can actually READ who came from Europe and were bent on ruling the world at all cost??! Impossible for God to do such a thing to 90% of the rest of his own creation!\n\nSo, read the Bible just as it comes to you. Yes, God asked God why he forsakened himself. That is the surface interpretation, no spin. Unless your parents could afford to send you to private school, where they teach you how to spin, I mean interpret the Bible, or unless you were born into Christianity where there are churches all around you that teach these spin techniques, you would never know that when you read page 2,198 in the Bible, that it is ACTUALLY refering to page 1,328 which REALLY means what page 498 said in the third paragraph referring to page 20.\n\nThe logical or face understanding of the text, is that God called out to himself(strange indeed), in a manner that seemed  much like begging of himself to help himself. It's ridiculous.
3576
I think most people would admit that there are at least discrepancies in the Bible. Even between one version to another certain verses can mean totally different things. Really a lot has been lost from the Bible, however the LDS still believe it to be truth as far as it has been translated correctly. \n\nLDS people 'switch to their scriptures' when explaining their religion because they believe that the scriptures, particularly the Book of Mormon is the keystone of their religion. \n\nIt still doesn't 'prove' anything. Nothing can 'prove' the LDS religion except for faith. The Book of Mormon is often the path that people follow in developing that faith. \n\nIf you want to learn more about the Book of Mormon and why the LDS care so much about it, then by all means read it. It's an interesting read, often complex in it's story and plot, but simple in the gospel principals it bears testimony of. \n\nYou can find out more about the LDS faith and get a Book of Mormon by visiting www.mormon.org.
34979
One passage deserves consideration. Second Peter 1:21 [KJV/NIV] states that the Old Testament writers spoke "as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." In its context this verse suggests the uniqueness of Scriptures when compared to humanly inspired statements. The men who wrote the Scriptures were moved, or carried along, by the Holy Ghost. The uniform witness of the Scriptures themselves is clear: God spoke the concept (revelation) to the mind of the writer; the Holy Spirit guided the transmission (inspiration) of that concept into the objective form of words; and, through the continual guidance of the Holy Spirit (illumination), we receive the original revelation as we read the Scriptures.\nFirst, the science of textual criticism has assured us, by the estimates of competent scholars, that our present texts (Greek and Hebrew) are without errors of significance. The text we work with is therefore trustworthy and deserving of the most careful and detailed study.Second, to reject the doctrine of inerrancy transfers the question of truth from the objective into the realm of the subjective. Who is to decide what part of the Scripture is true and what part of it is false? What part is trustworthy and what part is untrustworthy? The Scriptures' claim to divine authority is lost when we subject them to the rationalistic, subjective appraisals of men.
272672
There probably is missing Gospel. What relevance? It would have the same message, no?
39587
Even for the books we do know for sure who wrote it, such as some of the letters of Paul, you still have to ask this question.  Just knowing who wrote it does not mean that you automatically know if it is true teaching.\nAnd if you don't know who wrote it, this does not mean it is not true teaching.  Knowing the name of a human author really has little bearing on whether their writing is true.\n\nYou have to look at the content.  Is it accurate with what we know from other accurate sources?  Is it self-contradictory?  Does it contain false prophecy?  Does it contain questionable moral teachings?  You just have to examine it with these types of questions in mind.
300619
You want to know the answers to why the Bible is historically accurate and reliable? Well this is going to be long but it will answer your question. This writing discusses common myths held by most people concerning the Bible and analyzes the evidence that points to the Bible’s authenticity.\n\nMyth #1: The Bible’s been copied, translated, and handed down for so long it looks nothing like the original and cannot be reliable anymore.\n\n    This is undeniably a misconception and misinterpretation that’s been around for over a century. It is probably the most common and told myth of the Bible. It has no doubt hindered many people from ever reading and even considering the Word of God.\n\nThe Facts\n    In the early nineteen hundreds scholars started to seriously question the Word of God particularly the Old Testament. Since the earliest copies we had dated to around 900 AD, they started to question how reliable are copies really were. Since we didn’t have the original and since they’ve been copied so many times, we had no idea how accurate our version was. Critics mocked believers of the Bible claiming that the prophecies (particularly about Jesus) could have easily been altered to fit history.\n\n    Enter a small Bedouin boy. In 1947 in an effort to recapture a lost goat he accidentally stumbled upon a cave with hundreds of clay jars found near the Dead Sea in Israel. Further investigation revealed that inside those clay jars lay ancient copies of the Bible written over a century before Jesus. Here were copies of the Old Testament dated around 130 BC written a thousand years earlier than our oldest copies!\n \n    When compared to our version of the Old Testament it was analyzed that the two versions were 95% identical. The 5% variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling. Not a single teaching or main passage of the Bible was in question or in error.  So now we can rest assured that our current Old Testament is completely and utterly reliable because it has not changed in over 2,000 years!\n\nMyth #2 of the Bible: It’s contradictory.\nThe Bible is unbelievably and completely harmonious with itself. In simpler terms the Bible addresses hundreds of controversial topics (i.e., marriage, divorce, salvation, morality) yet from Genesis to Revelation (the first and last books) the Bible is in complete agreement with all of these topics. \n\n    Let me just put this into perspective for you. How often do two people agree on anything? How often do three people agree on the same issue? How about 30? The point is that given the hundreds of books out there hardly any of them agree on any one issue. They are all horribly contradictory with each other. One book says to eat eggs, another says to not eat eggs, yet another one says to eat only the whites of eggs. Which one is right? \n\n    Yet when it comes to the Bible every single topic is completely in agreement with each of the 40+ authors. “But what about the contradictions in the Bible?” you ask. Well, show me them, or simply show me one. Every contradiction that people claim are never actually checked up on. People just believe what other people say and they believe because someone else said it, so on, and so forth. If they actually read the passage they might see that there is no contradiction. In any event saying that there are contradictions in the Bible is just an excuse to keep people from reading the Bible which might contain the very thing people are looking for.\n\nThe Facts\n    Most if not all contradictions are due to interpretation error. There are several tests or principles you must use to determine the meaning of any given passage in the Bible. Some include: 1. You must understand the context of the passage, 2. Interpret difficult passages in the light of clear ones, 3. The Bible uses non-technical, everyday language, 4. Note when the Bible uses different literary devices, 5. Don’t base teaching on obscure passages.
657647
I think no one will ever fully understand its significance including me. Some say that it is because He has to do it to save mankind from the bondage of sin. Some say that the supreme sacrifice has to be done so that mankind will be able to see the essence of life by conquering death. Some interpret it as a total expression of God for his total love of mankind, some don't even believe that it happened and some don't give a damn at all. \n\nBut what does it reallt mean? I am a Christian but am not an authority in interpreting such Biblical phenomenon.  I myself was at a loss when I was younger, so restless and careless that I didn't care so much about what Jesus did and knew about it only because my parents told me so. I was free and never understood that I was commiting sin left and right because I thought that I can do anything I like being a free man living in a democratic society where no one can tell or dictate to me what should be done. I solely depended on my limited knowledge, proud enough to think that I can overcome any obstacle. Then something went wrong along the way, so wrong that I couldn't find a way to fix some crisis I was in. Suddenly, I was facing the wall and couldn't get through, everything went blank and there was no answer. I was about to give up and say, that's it, for this world then out of I don't know where, I felt like someone's calling me saying, "look at me, look at me, is the heaviness of your heart more than what I have done for you in that you have to fall so hard"? I did this so that you may live. \n\nI was not fond of reading and I don't know why I just picked up the Holy Bible and started reading. As a Catholic I was not raised to be a Bible reader but later found out that no book can equal the wisdom that it contains. I started to realign my crooked life and started to make sense. I became a sensible person and wise in my own right but not judgemental in a way that I would show people that they are sinners but that they too have been saved and should lead a straight path. \n\nNow, all the troubles are gone and I can see only light even in my darkest hours. I gain strength in every challenge that I face and face it squarely with Christ to follow. That was the time when I knew the reason why He was crucified.
574576
I believe in God just not the bible, how dare anyone claim to know what God thinks, I have more respect for God, there are hundreds of archaeological finds proving that the bible that exists was put into place by church hierarchy that had ulterior motives for including and not including what THEY wanted in the bible, only someone who had ALL the original texts and could read them in the original language that they were written in would have a good understanding of what the ancient religious leaders had in mind, and who's to say they were God inspired, insane asylums are full of people who hear God