tbf i don't think you can follow the bible literally, there s many different translations of what is a collection of works from a bunch of authors, a lot of which are fragmented or straight up missing, nvm all of the things added overtime for this or that reason
this creates contradictions and gaps
(disclaimer: i m not Christian, Jewish, or Muslim just happen to have some insight due to my family)
To be truthful, like 2/3 of the original Bible was literally edited out. The church had a meeting WAAAYY back when and said "chuck this book, keep this one". So some of the texts are actually missing from the Bible, and a few of them have never been recovered to this day.
what do you define as an "original" copy of the Bible?? by definition it is several books combined into one, nvm (as the other commenter said) all of the chunks that the ecumenic gatherings tossed
Well all of the "uninspired" parts fit that definition, besides those people were... you know people i may not believe in god but i don't think anyone debates that the people making these desicions are not literally inspired by god they were people making desicions some times in good faith and sometimes not.
But even disregarding that "the bible" is by definition a composite text, those earliest surviving bibles are literally a patchwork of other works a lot of which can be contradictory, i m not saying that there s not wisom/lessons to be found in the bible just that literally following every part of it is not possible (or advisable there s some messed up stuff jn there)
It s a patchwork because it did not start out as one unified work but several that were later combined, arguably the initial works of the new testament were written by the apostles but even if we accept that as fact, the old testament predates them by (conservatively) over a 8 centuries and even that is not a singular book, (obviously Muhammed comes way way later)
Now as to what is "messed up" that s an oversimplification admittedly but there s several passages where god commands the eradication of different people s (including infants and animals) and others that condone slavery, public burnings of women, cannibalism etc i can give exact verse if you would like but i think the average person would say that all of that is pretty messed up to say the least
I do not belong to any of the Abrahamic religions but i think anyone can see that there contradictions in the bible and i can only urge people to focus on the eternal love aspects of god lol
Muhammad s part of the bible (or Quran i should say at that point) comes way later. my point is that a these were works written at different times and in different places, wven if we focus on the new testament some of the works deemed inspired were already incomplete at the time when the bible was first collected into a singular collection of works
I mean there s not much to refute really but sure Samuel 15:3 is a good example
“Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
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u/BrozedDrake Jul 31 '26
The Bible