Why such poor writers?

[Zzyzx]

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If the Bible was "God breathed" (or inspired or whatever is claimed) and if God is taken to be all-wise, why wouldn't "he" have chosen better writers – people with ability to convey information clearly without ambiguities, contradictions, errors, and need for "interpretation"?

Compared to some of the world's great writers, Bible writers "come in third in a two-horse race." There may be some kernels of wisdom (or "diamonds among the dung" as Thomas Paine said). However, the vast bulk of the 800,000 words or so of the bible are intelligible, inapplicable, incredible, fluff that convey no wisdom or guidance to modern people.

Here is a list of the top twenty best writers of all time (from a list of the top one hundred).

William Shakespeare
Charles Dickens
Fyodor Dostoevsky
J.R.R. Tolkien
Leo Tolstoy
Ernest Hemingway
Jane Austen
George Orwell
John Steinbeck
Mark Twain
James Joyce
C.S. Lewis
Alexandre Dumas
Edgar Allan Poe
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Oscar Wilde
Kurt Vonnegut
Franz Kafka
J.K. Rowling
William Faulkner
http://www.thebest100lists.com/best100authors/

A supposedly omniscient God would have (by definition) known that the Bible would be variously transcribed, translated, edited, revised, altered, etc since it is so poorly written -- and choose (or "inspire") some of the likes of the above to produce a better product.

[Willum]

[Replying to post 30 by Zzyzx]

But men will just corrupt anything even a being of perfect wisdom says.

In fact, the more perfect, the more likely it is to be sequestered, mutilated and perverted by human beings.

[Saint_of_Me]

[Replying to post 23 by Zzyzx]

Nope. God does not work that way.

What I mean is that He would not "make sure" that all those fellows who did the myriad biblical translations and transcriptions kept things perfectly accurate.

To do so would interfere with Free Will. To eradicate our Free Will would make us less than human. To make us less than human would eradicate our reason He created us. And that is to learn, struggle, prevail, and through His Grace come into his Enlightenment. With now Free Will we are organic automatons.

Automatons do not love. Nor "endure." Nor are able to accept Grace.

Kind of defeats the whole purpose we're here, eh?

You would do better to look at the Bible as a "Book of Questions" than as a history book. Or as a totally factual collection of Answers.

In asking those questions, and praying for the Insight (again, through Grace) you will arrive a bigger and more important Universal Truths. Which will be much more enriching to you than they would be had you simply read the facts in the first place.

This sort of dove-tails with the old adage of how "If it were easy anybody could do it." Or that anything of true and lasting value must be worked for.

God Bless.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-los ... 19345.html

[marco]

[quote="Willum"]

"In another OP that went nowhere, no one could handle the idea that when God put Jesus on Earth all the might of Omnipotence, and all All-Seeingness was put on equal footing with stupid human stupidity"

I think you misread the plot. This Nativity play involves Christ wearing human garments and experiencing in toto what humans experience, else the play is badly written. He is even tempted, and resists. In one of the most appealing scenes Christ asks, in his human agony, why God has forsaken him.
Were we not reminded in the Garden of Gethsemane that had Christ wanted the play to be written otherwise, his Father would have sent a host of angels to assist him? There's nothing wrong with the plot, nor the main actor - it's the Director we have to quarrel with.

And consistently - to return to our topic - Christ chose ordinary people to spread his message. And off they went to spread what they had learned in a way that impressed, not least because it came from humble tongues.

[marco]

“Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas� (*). After all, it has been nearly sixty years. Or is that six hundred?
* Translation: The pony would sing but he is a little hoarse today.

That is a very funny translation. Relative to Methuselah you're still a young lad. The beauty of ancient texts is (as Keats might say) a joy forever, not least because of their venerable age. It is such a pity that God intrudes with calls for sacrifice upon such poems as David's lament for his lover Jonathan -

The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places:
how are the mighty fallen!
Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon .... Go well, Ancient

[Ancient of Years]

“Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas� (*). After all, it has been nearly sixty years. Or is that six hundred?
* Translation: The pony would sing but he is a little hoarse today.

That is a very funny translation. Relative to Methuselah you're still a young lad. The beauty of ancient texts is (as Keats might say) a joy forever, not least because of their venerable age. It is such a pity that God intrudes with calls for sacrifice upon such poems as David's lament for his lover Jonathan -

The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places:
how are the mighty fallen!
Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon .... Go well, Ancient

“How the mighty have fallen in battle!
Jonathan lies slain on your heights.
I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother;
you were very dear to me.
Your love for me was wonderful,
more wonderful than that of women.
“How the mighty have fallen!
The weapons of war have perished!�

[marco]

[Replying to post 35 by Ancient of Years]

And reading that, who can say that God chose poor writers? [/quote]

[Ancient of Years]

[Replying to marco]

Exactly why I posted it. Quite a few popular phrases came out of the Bible as well.

[Zzyzx]

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[Replying to post 37 by Ancient of Years]

Would it be fair to say that of 800,000 words some are well written?

[Willum]

[Replying to post 35 by Ancient of Years]

And reading that, who can say that God chose poor writers?

[/quote]
Well, please see below.

[Ancient of Years]

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[Replying to post 37 by Ancient of Years]

Would it be fair to say that of 800,000 words some are well written?

Since I cannot read Hebrew or Greek fluently it is hard to say what was written well unless it stands out as such in English. Likewise not being a product of the culture of the original audiences or brought up in their literary conventions. What would Shakespeare make of Ulysses? I have been told that a passage in the Iliad that describes a train of mules walking (real exciting, right?) is absolute poetry in Ancient Greek. Qui legit cave.

But what you want is essentially an all or nothing answer. If the Bible is not absolutely wonderful it must be total garbage. What it is, is a window on other times and places, how people thought and acted then. Of special interest to me is how Christianity came to be, a really fascinating story buried in the NT. Not to everyone's taste. How well written individual parts may or may not be is not terribly relevant to that approach. But well written passages found along the way are worthy of note.

If the Bible is not at all to your taste, why bother taking about it? Unless of course you are just trying to get a rise out of the "the Bible was written by God and is therefore perfect" crowd. Not me, as I am sure you know. I prefer talking about the different parts of the Bible, what they were intended to mean and why, But to each his own. (Suum cuique as marco would put it)