Scholium Biblia: foundations of the Bible

Submitted by diaskeaus on Thu, 05/25/2006 - 09:46
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  1. Scholium Biblia
  2. (Or, how the Scriptures should be understood)

  3. It should be noted I wrote this in 2001. My feelings have changed somewhat since I wrote this. I no longer feel that putting the OT and NT together makes it irrelevant. I understand that much of the power of the Bible comes from subjective interpretation, and it is a good thing. I understand more about why certain books were not put into the canon, although I am still disappointed they are not in print. And finally, since doing a bit of traveling, I have discovered that miracles do exist in reality, outside academia.

  5. The Judeo God is the source and inspiration of the Bible.
  6. The God who begot the world in the pages of Genesis and consecrated Abraham to his breast is the foundation of the works of the Judeo-Christian Bible. This same God worked through the Prophets, and inspired the Gospels and the latter works of the New Testament.

  8. The established Bible is not a perfect unity.
  9. God is too large to be contained in merely one set of circumstances. Therefore, works unknown and works in the future may also be inspired by God, and therefore, be included in the works of the Bible. Any Bible claimed to be a perfection of works is interpretive, and founded upon tradition and subjective thought.

  11. The works of the Bible are spiritual literature.
  12. The works of the Bible should be placed in the same herald as other spiritual literature, such as the Quran, the Talmud, the Hadith, the Mishnah, and other works that attempt to spiritually enlighten and show the path to righteousness. All spiritual literature is different and contains a different message. Therefore, every work of the Bible is spiritual literature in this same understanding, and every work of the Bible has intention and message.

  14. Every work of the Bible is separate and distinguished.
  15. The works of the Bible are separate and written for an intention and purpose of the author. Each work was written for the specific meaning of addressing a community and a concern, and therefore, each work is different by way of message and history. All works of the Bible have history, intention, purpose, and a community that marks difference.

  17. Unless the author is stated directly or proven historically, the author remains anonymous or community-written.
  18. In some cases, the author of a work is explicitly stated somewhere in the footnotes or text of a work. In some cases, there is historical evidence to support the validity of an author over a text. However, if within the text or outside the text no mention of an author is given, then no author is received. The author is the work is either an anonymous writer, or the community for which the work was written.

  20. The intention of the work is the final authority.
  21. Every work had a specific intention - to address a concern, problem, weakness, strength, or mention in a community. God inspired the intention of the work, for that specific intention and none other.

  23. The only perfect translation is the text in original text language.
  24. By the art of translation, words are altered and sentence structure is changed. By even the smallest amount of change within a sentence, the purpose is altered, even more so for divine inspiration. Therefore, the only perfect translation of the text is the original language for which the text was written. Other translations are interpretations of the text. All copies of the translated Bible are interpretations of a traditional community, based from the works in Hebrew and Greek.

  26. Magic and Miracles are understood in the light of intention.
  27. Magic and Miracles are literary devices, used to propagate the intention of an author. Whether or not these miracles truly happened is not addressed, because as the Bible is spiritual literature, the works of the Bible have intention and purpose and message. (Magic and Miracles very well could be true - even today we find many of the miracles in the Gospels are proven, yet many are not proven. Time shall tell whether or not the miracles truly could have happened, but for the purposes of the author, this information is not needed.)

  29. Objective truth is gained by the intention - all other truth is subjective.
  30. The only 'true truth' is the message of the intention by the author of the work. Other truth inspired by the work is subjective, for every person has an opinion of the work in his or her own way. To understand the absolute and ultimate truth a work gives, the author and intention of the work must be given precedence.

  32. All spiritual works inspired by God are members of the Bible.
  33. There are works expelled by tradition-formed churches because the works are not understood in light of the tradition. The Bible is the whole of works inspired by God, and therefore, every book is included in the Bible. Therefore, works like the Gospel of Thomas and the Book of Enoch are part of the Bible. Interpretations of the Bible form alternate viewpoints, but the whole Bible is compiled by all the works of spiritual significance in the light of God-inspired.

  35. The Old and New Testament systems are tradition inspired.
  36. The Old and New Testament systems were formed by the traditional church, to place certain works of the Bible into a coherent pattern of thought applicable to that specific tradition. Therefore, the Old and New Testament are testaments to interpretation, and should be amended.