How Holy is the Holy Book?

 Holy Bible: Inspiration or Idolatry?

“The Bible is a collection of religious texts or scriptures sacred to Christians, Jews, Samaritans, Rastafari and others. It appears in the form of an anthology, a compilation of texts of a variety of forms that are all linked by the belief that they are collectively revelations of God.” (Wikipedia)

Over one hundred million copies of the Bible are sold annually.

The full Bible has been translated into 683 languages.

The bible is a remarkable book and one of the most popular books ever written. But is it really all it says it is? Some people say that it is inspired. Some elevate it to such a high level of authority that it is above God to the point that it seems to be worshiped. Some say it is inerrant and inspired, the perfect word of God. sometimes we forget that we don’t have any originals even though we know that copies and translations are man made and not inspired. Everything we have is based on human handwritten, scribed, translated, “corrected”, and even interpreted copies to make it easier to understand or more clear. It was common practice for scribes to rewrite it with their own expertise to correct things and make them what the scribe thinks it should have been. But I have questions that go beyond all of these human factors to much greater issues that are anchored in the way the universe is, or as some would say, anchored in how things were created.

Christian Bibles range from the 73 books of the Catholic Church canon, the 66 books of the canon of some denominations or the 80 books of the canon of other denominations of the Protestant Church, to the 81 books of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church canon. The first part of Christian Bibles is the Greek Old Testament, which contains, at minimum, the above 24 books of the Tanakh but divided into 39 (Protestant) or 46 (Catholic) books and ordered differently. The second part is the Greek New Testament, containing 27 books; the four canonical gospels, Acts of the Apostles, 21 Epistles or letters and the Book of Revelation. For example, the King James Bible contains 80 books: 39 in its Old Testament, 14 in its Apocrypha, and 27 in its New Testament.

The Catholic Church and Eastern Christian churches hold that certain deuterocanonical books and passages are part of the Old Testament canon. The Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Assyrian Christian churches may have minor differences in their lists of accepted books. The list given here for these churches is the most inclusive: if at least one Eastern church accepts the book it is included here: Biblical canon 

 

Beyond Christian churches there are holy books for almost all of the different religions in the world. “Religious texts are texts related to a religious tradition. They differ from literary texts by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual practices, commandments or laws, ethical conduct, spiritual aspirations, and for creating or fostering a religious community.[1][2][3] The relative authority of religious texts develops over time and is derived from the ratification, enforcement, and its use across generations. Some religious texts are accepted or categorized as canonical, some non-canonical, and others extracanonical, semi-canonical, deutero-canonical, pre-canonical or post-canonical.” Religious text 

There are some 4,300 religions of the world. This is according to Adherents, an independent, non-religiously affiliated organisation that monitors the number and size of the world's religions. List of religions and spiritual traditions 

“When it was published in 2001, the World Christian Encyclopedia counted 33,830 denominations worldwide; with the amount of debate and division over theology and orthodoxy since then, that number is undoubtedly higher.” Denominations | Topics 

Here, I’m focusing on the Christian Bible and the wide variety of officially inspired books across denominations. Some consider the canon of the bible to be “closed” and others believe in continuous revelation and see their holy book as being open to new revelations to be added. Just like the number of variations and sects of churches, there are a wide variety of holy books.

Inspiration

1. the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.
   "Helen had one of her flashes of inspiration"

2. a sudden brilliant, creative, or timely idea.
   "then I had an inspiration"

3. Inspiration of the Bible is used in a very specific way in Christian Evangelical theology. It is believed that God himself wrote the Bible. “Inspired” is the reference to the actual words of the Bible being “God breathed” or spoken directly from God's mouth using the hand of the writer to write down exactly and precisely the word of god. There are some Christians that see inspiration as metaphorical. There is no mention of inerrancy in the bible.

Inerrancy

Incapable of being wrong.

Biblical inerrancy is the belief that the Bible "is without error or fault in all its teaching"; or, at least, that "Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact". Some equate inerrancy with biblical infallibility; others do not.

Idolatry

1. the worship of idols or graven images.

2. extreme admiration, love, or reverence for something or someone.
   "we must not allow our idolatry of art to obscure issues of political significance"

3. The worship of a sacred artifact like a holy book instead of the intended object of worship. I was raised in a fundamentalist church that seemed to me like interaction with the bible was more important than with god himself with the authority of the bible being above all else.

 

There are many issues related to inspiration and inerrancy that have caused me much cognitive dissonance.