holy bible 23 by Article Announcement
Published Date: 16/10/07
Holy Bible
There is a lot of debate on the interpretation of scripture from different cultures. It's all too easy to see the meaning that one wishes to see. The Holy Bible comes in many languages; Hebrew, Greek, English etc and it has been studied extensively. Some people read the text literally, supporting the idea of creationism and others view it as a series of allegories and symbolism. To complicate matters, it is actually made up of two very different parts; the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Most scholars agree that different people wrote the book at different times and over a long period of time. The New Testament was written long after Christ was crucified. The debate surrounding the Holy Bible is the question of whether it is an historical record or a piece of literature. Did God speak through human vessels to set his words down? Regardless of belief or non-belief in a deity or Christ as the son of God, the book has had an enormous amount of attention and influence over the years.
As literature, the passages are lyrical in places and tell us much about the times and people. Some copies of the Holy Bible are almost priceless and are magnificently illustrated. There are monks who devoted all their lives to copying the texts before the printing press was invented. It continues to be the best selling book today and many movies have been made to bring the stories to life. Charlton Heston was memorable as Moses in The Ten Commandments, parting the Red Sea and Christ was portrayed as a sympathetic man in the musical, Jesus Christ Superstar. The most controversial film is probably The Last Temptation of Christ in which the film speculates what would have happened if Christ had decided to get married and live a normal life.
This speculation on the life of Christ resulted in the best selling novel by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, in which he pursues the theory that Christ married and had a child. The story claims that this fact was suppressed from the Holy Bible and that the Holy Grail is in fact, the bloodline of Christ.
When Charles Darwin published his Origin of Species, outlining the theory of evolution, it rocked the Christian world. We still feel the ripples today as creationism, or Intelligent Design as it has become known is creeping into the education system. Teaching the worldview of Genesis contradicts any scientific textbook and the future for the school curriculum looks a confusing one.
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