Have you read the Bible?

[Strat]

EDIT: Thread and poll has changed from "Do you read/study the Bible" to "Have you read the Bible" The poll may be flawed, currently at 7 for no.

I've been curious for a while how many folks here read or study the Bible. It's actually a 2 part question:

Do you read and or study the Bible?
Have you ever read the Bible cover to cover?


I read and study it from time to time even though I'm not a Christian. It's a good book, it just has a bad rap because sometimes it has been wielded in a way that is harmful. But as is often said with tools, you can't throw out a tool because some folks use it for evil.

My perception of the Bible seems to evolve as I grow older. When I was younger I started out as knowing that it was a fountain of answers for all the questions in life. As a kid I said time travel was impossible because it would mess with the events of the Bible. When in my 20s, if someone questioned what I think of the Bible, I'd have replied, "It's a bunch of bull****."

Now that I'm in my 30s, my reply to that question is to place my palms over my eyes, rub my face and say, "I don't know." Bill Maher put it best, "I'm in the church of 'I don't know'".

The Bible's not a bunch of bull****. It's partially bs, but not all. It reads like a fantasy novel but certain books have wisdom and practical, down to Earth advice.

What do you think?

[Wind]

I was baptized as a "Christian" like most kids were, as that is part of the operating system of the culture here and I never decided to leave the church, but I've never really gotten myself into reading the Bible although I've been taught many of the stories from it. My parents have been more into the religion and my mother has said that she never liked the Old Testament. I can see why. My intention is to watch Jordan Peterson's lectures about the Bible (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-wWBGo6a2w) some time as they seem to contain nuggets of gold.

From the holy books I'd rather prefer the Bhagavad Gita or Tao te Ching. My quest is to read most of the holy books within this life time though. However, I have to say that Christ and his teachings are very close to my heart. They are the essence of everything.

[Axman]

I have read it used to study it.i was raised Lutheran and confirmed.
As I got old I new from a young age there was more to the stories.Being a repair person electronics mech. Ect. I new the miracle parts had to function some how by the creator. So that started me searching till this day. I could talk on this for a long long time so if you ever want look me up. I would love to share what I have found.

The Axman man

[Deborah (ahamkara)]

Read it cover to cover once in college. Did not resonate with me.

[greybeard]

I have read it but now realize that while the teaching attributed to Jesus is profound -- the old testament speaks of a different god from Jesus who spoke of a loving God.
Jesus said the same things as Enlightened sages say today.
The Father and I are one--- for example.
A non duality teacher will say "One without a second" or similar.
Jesus said "Of myself I do nothing it is the Father within."
A non duality Self Realized teacher will say it is the Self that is the doer.

"Events happen
Deeds are done
There is no individual doer there of"
Thats in line with the teaching of Jesus -- as I understand it.
as is "The Kingdom of heaven is within"

Appreciate some will disagree with my understanding,

Chris

[raregem]

Christian churches were my family of choice growing up. Mainly, Nazarenes and Baptist. I ignored the feelings I got from the contradictions of behaviors from the parish and their kids. For instance, I did not have many clothing choices and wore the same items every Sunday. My church had a double decker bus pick us up for Sunday school. That was exciting in itself! I was there for the loving messages (by choice) and endured looks of "poor you" and kids taunting. I did not care as I felt love from above so to speak. Around my teenage years I would take a specific passage from the bible and ask different Elders of each church denomination what it meant. Add Mormons, Pentacostal. I invariably walked away from each and every one of them feeling a sense of guilt or wrong if I believed anything other than their view point. And, they differed from each other. So, I questioned myself if this was the truth of Spirit. At some point I became aware there was a different "god" in the old testament. It was the "Thou shalt not have no other gods before me" passage. I finally came to realize the possibilities of manipulation of the Soul through religion and the Bible through Man. From the initial Genesis writing to the last verse of Revelation regarding changing any words of these books created a thought process of feeling duped and controlled. I wondered why the loving God I strongly believed in would was thirsty for blood. Who were the other gods mentioned? Why so many differences in understanding the same verses? Why guilt? Why believe I am worthless at birth when I am of God?
Side note: I won best camper out of 1000 kids at church camp when 10 years old. I remember feeling so alone in a midst of church goers at that age. But I could repeat passages as required.lol.
These were my thoughts for a very long time. I also had realized my child's view and my adult view were different when absorbing meaning of the bible verses.
I had been ridiculed for not speaking in tongues , attacked as having demons, humiliated and yet welcomed in these churches. So confusing at the time.
For simplicity sake -the bottom line (for me)is being a loving Soul and try to be compassionate yet have boundaries when being attacked.

[East Sun]

I read it and studied it cover to cover Old and New testaments.
Old testaments were for then and New for the time of Jesus.

Its two thousands years later. Its time we awoke to the reality of
our time.

We are in denial of extra terrestrial entities and controlled by forces most
don't know even exist. Some "Humans" are in a position of power but are satanic
and the worst examples of what we really are.

I'm not talking about gvts. per se, but only some who are in that profession.

A lot of people still are devoted to the "teachings" of the Bible and that's fine for them.
I would like to tell them that it is not the only thing that any god would want them to
stay latched on to.

We need to look outward and inward and think for ourselves an a wide spectrum.
Really go beyond what we have been conditioned to see as a closed reality.

We need to expand our horizons, so to speak.

This a crucial time right now and things , are about to change dramatically.

Forget about TV, sports, etc. and take notice of what is going on.

[DeDukshyn]

My views are similar to Greybeard's. I have read a fair bit, and while there a few great tidbits here and there in the old testament that are excellent relatable metaphors in our lives today, I see the true value is in what Jesus taught. Even though I feel the meanings of his words have been somewhat obscured or twisted by the religion, objectively, his teachings are sound, as tools to help not be controlled by the ego.

I do believe there is a lot of misunderstandings though, about what a lot of his words actually meant. But from my view, from my interpretations, his teachings are sound ... its obvious to me he understood the human mind and the experiences of the physical plane, and our experience of ego as "self", quite well.

[norman]

I read the bible from cover to cover ( I skipped Psalms ) after a Jehova's witness told me there is absolutely no spirituality in the bible.

I was astonished to find he was right, except, maybe, in the case of Daniel. Otherwise, it's wall to wall cerebral without ever stopping to take a breath of spirituality.

[ralfy]

Reading it from cover to cover is not enough because the commentaries are critical, and when one focuses on that as well, history and philology books about it.

[shaberon]

It is nothing I do regularly and certainly not cover-to-cover.

I have studied Genesis and Exodus, and Gospel and Revelations a bit, to deconstruct them. I believe originally these things were scriptures but are all modified, particularly by Ezra in the Second Temple period and the issue of Masoretics.

In the broader scope, it appears to me there was an original Central Asian Fire Philosophy which in the East starts in the Vedas, and in the West, original Zoroastrianism was a complete copy, and this reaches through to the Greek pagan myths; I can find many direct cognates of Greek to Sanskrit. On the Eastern side, this split into many sects, but has never stopped. However the Western side shows a degradation to Manicheanism, which seems to me blended into a conflation of the Elohim and Demiurge in the Hebrew. This reversal then mixed with the school of Aristotle. So there was a Latin version based from that, prosecution of Mysteries and Gnostics, Simon Magus, Apollonius, until killing Hypatia and wrecking them all, and then, moving to English dirties it again, finally wrapping it in the Scofield Concordance.

One of the main Western counter-points is Johannite which was discovered by Rosencreuz, the Templars, and Hositallers, and continues to exist among Mandeans (Gnostics)--although a papal bull from 1879 tries to stamp this out. The historical Jesus as it seems to me was an Ebionite and Theraputae who mostly spoke of Abba or Father. The Roman church is not even Christian, so Protestantism cannot possibly be. The Christian church, per se, is Byzantine.

If I was aware of a praxis based in the Elohim, I would look into it, but the scriptures in their current condition and widespread usage creep me out. I have visited several denominations, and I would say the Orthodox service actually is uplifting, much better than the rest, except the way I participate would be considered heresy.

The next part that might interest me is Ezekiel which might be in the Apocrypha where he has the Four Living Creatures, because this points us to a time when the Equinox was in Taurus and the Pole Star was Thuban in Draco, when the "wishbone" of East and West had not yet broken.

If the people who are into scripture can come up with something coherent about the Elohim and the Fixed Cross, then, there could be something to work with. In my heretical rendition those are much more real than the Demi-urge which is Animal Soul.

[O Donna]

I have read the Bible.

In short, it has its moments.

[Sadieblue]

Yes I have read the Bible from front to end, when I was in my early twenties.
I have studied the Bible, did an in depth study of all the disciples, the old testament has
a lot of warring in it, as well as some examples of good morals to live by. The new Testament
teaches us how to live morally, compassionately, and love others as ourselves. I believe in ONE GOD, and Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit (The trinity....God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit) it has taught me to live a fulfilled life trying my best to be service to others instead of service to myself. We each have to go with what resonates with us, I don't doubt others views, I just go with what I feel is right for me.

[Bluegreen]

One reason I do is for the answers to crossword puzzles

:pray:

[Denise/Dizi]

I was taken to church as a young girl, Sunday school and all. But I don't remember much of that. I read some here and there, but everything seemed more like a story about et coming down and mating with humans. Trying to make something in their image. Religious art with ufo's in it doesn't help to disspell this idea either.

Sounds like a space war and someone trying to "Save us".. Them telling someone how to build an "Ark".. a flood is coming... sounds more like, "Here are the plans to our ufo's, you better get off of this rock before they come back!"

As a result of this view, I can read the Bible all I want, and it seems to support this viewpoint more than chase it away..

[Billy]

My Father was a committed atheist, growing up as children we were not allowed to even mention God or Jesus in our household.
The result if I did mention it was a slap across the face. All that did was make me even more curious as to why my father hated God, Jesus and religion in general so much.

Then at the age of 11 years old (around 1966) I witnessed a UFO hovering over a hill for around two hours. Of course no one believed me at the time until it was in the newspaper two days after the event.

My curiosity was awakened as to who the heck was in that UFO and if there was any mention of other worlds being in the Bible.
I asked my grandmother as she was a church goer, she did not know but gave me a Bible to read in secret in my home.
I read it as a book from start to finish, then I read it again taking notes this time. I found what I was looking for. Many Mentions of flying crafts so called gods that used them. After reading the Bible many times I conclude at a very early age that there was a connection between the crafts that were seen in our sky's and the Bible, I then went on to read ancient scriptures from most other religions. The Vedic Scriptures fascinated me the most. The book of Enoch also, all before I was 20 yrs old.

66 yrs old now and I am glad I studied those scriptures.

[Lone Eagle]

The current version of the bible was put together by Freemasons King James 1st of England (started lodge system) 33rd degree in 1611. Editor was Freemason Sir Francis Bacon one of greatest story tellers that ever lived. Much of it being metaphors that tell the same story as many myths. Moses serpent on the pole refers to kundalini awakening (krestos fire, Shakti energy) with pole being human spine. Jesus trek up to Golgatha's Hill (the hill being human spine of 33 vertebrae) again refers to the serpent rising up through the seven chakras (seven seals, seven churches) awakening them to reach the promised land pineal gland (3rd eye awakening) and crown chakra. Jesus riding the ass is a symbol for overcoming our lower animal (ego) nature. Same as the sphinx was showing Egyptian initiates with the head of a man and body of a lion. A centaur telling same thing half human half horse. Other parts I think are about fear and mind control like maybe the original writings were altered by those into dark arts.

[Wind]

Jesus riding the ass is a symbol for overcoming our lower animal (ego) nature.

Also the literal interpretation for Jesus' crucifixion is the crucifixion of the ego and the lower self in order for the Higher Self to become truly realized in this mind-body complex. Jesus also went to India for studies. Eventually in the Great Pyramid in the sarcophagus he received his initiation into Christ consciousness. He "died" when he was supposedly 33 years old and that is a holy number.

[Tobor Knot]

I have read the Bible and studied it throughout my Christian life. Yes I am a Christian, in fact I have just attended two online services one from the church where my wife and I are members and another from my daughter's church which I must say was rather better. I try to keep an open mind hence being a member of this forum.

The Bible is not just one book it is a book of books, that is what bible means. It is a combination of history, Law, prophesy, poetry, wisdom, letters, first hand accounts from numerous authors in different languages over hundreds of years. It's history has and is still being found remarkably accurate from archeological evidence. The Old Testament is Christ concealed and the New Testament is Christ revealed.

I love this little story by Issac Asimov which goes a little way as to explain why not everything is not included in the Bible.

How it Happened

My brother began to dictate in his best oratorical style, the one which has the tribes hanging on his words.

"In the beginning," he said, "exactly fifteen point two billion years ago, there was a big bang and the Universe--"

But I had stopped writing. "Fifteen billion years ago?" I said incredulously.

"Absolutely," he said. "I'm inspired."

"I don't question your inspiration," I said. (I had better not. He's three years younger than I am, but I don't try questioning his inspiration. Neither does anyone else or there's hell to pay.) "But are you going to tell the story of the Creation over a period of fifteen billion years?"

"I have to," said my brother. "That's how long it took. I have it all in here," he tapped his forehead, "and it's on the very highest authority."

By now I had put down my stylus. "Do you know the price of papyrus?" I said.

"What?" (He may be inspired but I frequently noticed that the inspiration didn't include such sordid matters as the price of papyrus.)

I said, "Suppose you describe one million years of events to each roll of papyrus. That means you'll have to fill fifteen thousand rolls. You'll have to talk long enough to fill them and you know that you begin to stammer after a while. I'll have to write enough to fill them and my fingers will fall off. And even if we can afford all that papyrus and you have the voice and I have the strength, who's going to copy it? We've got to have a guarantee of a hundred copies before we can publish and without that where will we get royalties from?"

My brother thought awhile. He said, "You think I ought to cut it down?"

"Way down," I said, "if you expect to reach the public."

"How about a hundred years?" he said.

"How about six days?" I said.

He said horrified, "You can't squeeze Creation into six days."

I said, "This is all the papyrus I have. What do you think?"

"Oh, well," he said, and began to dictate again, "In the beginning-- Does it have to be six days, Aaron?"

I said, firmly, "Six days, Moses."

Just to explain, the first five book of the Bible, which includes Genesis and the creation story, are attributes to Moses and Arron was his brother.

[ralfy]

For Catholics, consider the ff.

The Catholic Study Bible (NABRE) for short commentaries

The Catholic Prayer Bible (NRSV-CE) for reflections

For additional commentaries, The Catholic Catechism.

For additional reflection, the Daily Roman Missal.

[ZenBaller]

It's obviously a highly distorted and manipulated book to serve the control of religion through the ages, but the words of Jesus, if taken as an esoteric symbolism, are a treasure for humanity.

I read it in my teenage years when my existential pains started to appear.

[Lone Eagle]

Jesus riding the ass is a symbol for overcoming our lower animal (ego) nature.

Also the literal interpretation for Jesus' crucifixion is the crucifixion of the ego and the lower self in order for the Higher Self to become truly realized in this mind-body complex. Jesus also went to India for studies. Eventually in the Great Pyramid in the sarcophagus he received his initiation into Christ consciousness. He "died" when he was supposedly 33 years old and that is a holy number.

The biblical metaphor about Jesus is referring to the krestos fire (kundalini) cosmic force within. He, in my opinion never existed. That same story was basically told many times before with different names like Horus etc. When that life force rises up the human spine of 33 vertebrae at the top or 33 vertebrae is where we die to self. Every one of us IS Christ in waiting.

[Matthew]

I read The King James (with Apocrypha), bits of the Quran (typically bits about Jesus and Mary), Nag Hammadi library and Bill Hicks.

I'm just rambling on here, but its nice to express myself somewhere more appropriate than talking to the toaster. Rob Skiba made a good point about cannon: in the King James bible, at times. it's exulted characters reference books which are outside the 'authorised' King James version... didn't they get King James' email? The KJ is only a cohesive subset of the chaos before it. Also, different editions of the King James can have their own subtle, but profound, variations (*morning star). And, lent aside, mentions of fasting combined with prayer are removed in the authorised edition, be it lost in translation or whatever. I want to believe but its a total mess. No way am I able to swallow anything with a pinch of dogma. Sodom and Gomorrah has given us the derived word "Sodomy", yet this word should be a derogatory word to describe rapey-type-sexual-dominance-culture, like we see in Hollywood, rather than simply homosexuality when looking at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. What a total ***ing mess. Sorry about the rant everyone!! :)

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