Challenging the Bible
Religious Studies: KS3, topic 2.5.4
Challenging the Bible
For Christians, the Bible is their sacred text. They believe that in the Bible they can read about what God is like, and about what he has done and commanded. But, there have been challenges to the Bible throughout history.
Reading the Bible
- Most Christians believe that the Bible is inspired by God.
- This means that God has guided the writers to write what is true.
- But, a close reading of the Bible reveals some stories that seem like the myths of the Greek gods.
- E.g. God causes plagues
- E.g. God parts the Red Sea
- For hundreds of years most Christians didn't read the Bible themselves because it was in Latin.
- So, priests and teachers told them the stories and gave their own interpretation of what they meant.
Translating the Bible
- In the 16th Century, Martin Luther became one of the first people to translate the Bible. He translated it into German.
- Soon after, there were also translations into English.
- This allowed many more people to read the Bible for themselves and to ask questions about its meaning.
Doubts about the Bible
- Some would have been alarmed to read stories of God’s anger and how God helped the Israelites to slaughter their enemies.
- That did not fit with their belief in an all-loving God. They may have questioned whether it was right to worship a God like that.
- Some people read the account of creation in the Book of Genesis and they concluded that it was scientifically inaccurate.
- The world wasn’t created in 7 days and the Sun does not go round the earth.
Biblical criticism
- Biblical criticism refers to a new kind of study of the Bible that developed once it had been translated.
- Biblical criticism tried to decide which bits of the Bible were genuine history and which were parables or myths.
- For example, perhaps the Jews did escape from being slaves in Egypt, but the story of God parting the Red Sea may be a colourful way of saying that the Jews believed God helped them.
The challenge of biblical criticism
- Biblical criticism is now a very important field of study for Christian thinkers.
- But there is a problem for religions when their holy books are examined in this way.
- It points to the possibility that not everything they read is really true or really happened.
- It could be said that religious people were like the prisoners in Plato’s cave - believing that shadows were real.
Test yourself on Challenging the Bible
Why do some people doubt the Bible stories about how God helped the Israelites to slaughter their enemies?