Topic: Martin Armstrong Discussion - page 190. (Read 647176 times)

if the Original was present - we wouldn't need 1000 diffferent versions / re-revised materials / editions etc etc

The Masoretic Text is widely used as the basis for translations of the Old Testament in Protestant Bibles, and in recent years (since 1943), for some versions of Catholic Bibles. In modern times the Dead Sea Scrolls have shown the Masoretic Text to be nearly identical to some texts of the Tanakh dating from 200 BCE.[4] In a recent finding, the Masoretic Text is discovered to be completely identical with text recovered from an ancient scroll. The approximately 1,700-year-old En-Gedi Scroll was found in 1970 but had not had its content reconstructed until 2016. Researchers were able to recover 35 complete and partial lines of text from the Book of Leviticus and the text deciphered is completely identical with the consonantal framework of the Masoretic Text.[5] The En-Gedi scroll is the first time a biblical scroll has been discovered in an ancient synagogue's holy ark, where it would have been stored for prayers, and not in desert caves like the Dead Sea Scrolls.[6] The Masoretic Text was primarily copied, edited and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 7th and 10th centuries CE.

Thank you CoinCube -

Appreciate the feedback.   Here are few facts / Questions to ponder

1) How many different versions of the Bible are circulating?
2) What does the word Version suggest
3) The Bible is not just a Book. It is a selection and compilation of many books
4) Its been re-written edited by MAN / WOMAN
5) copies of People's translations / editions -- meanings concepts edited

If you still feel my opinion doesn't meet the facts....I suggest you advise me which Bible you prefer out of the 100 different versions.
I will locate that specific bible - and present you more facts.

Having said all this...by no means do I suggest that Christianity is a false relgion.  What I do suggest is that its core teachings / original founding principals from the original bible - are no more...and the original founding principals have been broken. 

A bigger factor is that children from third world placed in first world generally excells when given similar opportunities because natives feel sense of entitlement while immigrants relish the chance to participate freely.

The problem is the Christian Text has been corrupted...big time.   Does anyone confirm to have original or even a have a "copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy" of anything from the original writings of any of the writers of the Old or the New Testament.

Lot of revisions, edited , mistranslations.    Lot of errors - but this not mean that there isn't good in it....just not much credibility.

The doctrine of inerrancy, as commonly understood, states: “Inerrancy is the view that when all the facts become known, they will demonstrate that the Bible in its original autographs and correctly interpreted is entirely true and never false in all it affirms, whether that relates to doctrines or ethics or to the social, physical, or life sciences.” This statement was articulated in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy 1974.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are universally proclaimed as the greatest archaeological find of the 20th century. The first scrolls were discovered quite by accident by a young Bedouin shepherd in the Qumran area near the Dead Sea in 1947. When tossing a rock into an open cave in the cliffs just above the Dead Sea, he heard the sound of a breaking pot.

Upon investigation, he and his fellow Bedouins discovered several clay jars that contained rolled-up scrolls. They took four of these scrolls to Bethlehem for testing. An antiquities dealer by the name of Kando confirmed their authenticity and purchased the original four scrolls for $150. He then sold them to Archbishop Samuel, head of the Syrian Orthodox Monastery of St. Mark in Jerusalem.

The Bedouins did not fully realize the value of their discovery and subsequently sold three additional scrolls to another antiquities dealer for an equivalent amount. This all took place in 1947.

Such a historic find could not be kept quiet for very long. When in 1948 Hebrew University Professor Eliezer Lipa Sukenik heard through an Armenian antiquities dealer of the scrolls’ discovery, he promptly looked into it.

He met secretly with the antiquities dealer in the British military zone near the Jerusalem border. The dealer provided a fragment for the professor to examine. Professor Sukenik realized that he was viewing an authentic ancient writing.

He wrote in his diary: “My hands shook as I started to unwrap one of them. I read a few sentences. It was written in beautiful biblical Hebrew. The language was like that of the Psalms, but the text was unknown to me. I looked and looked, and I suddenly had the feeling that I was privileged by destiny to gaze upon a Hebrew Scroll which had not been read for more than 2,000 years.”
...
The treasure trove, now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, includes a small number of near-complete scrolls and tens of thousands of fragments, representing more than 900 texts in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.

The scrolls consist of two general types: the biblical text (including partial or complete copies of all the books of the Hebrew Scriptures with the exception of the book of Esther) and nonbiblical texts (including letters, hymns, prayers, calendrical texts and legal documents).
...
What is so special about these scrolls, and how do they help us prove the Bible is true? Until the discovery of the scrolls, the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures dated from the 10th century, about 2,500 years after the time of Moses. How can we be assured of the integrity of a document after so much time?

Considering the carefulness of the copyists is one way to be assured of the accuracy of the preservation
...
The Dead Sea Scrolls are generally dated from around 200 B.C. to A.D. 68. This is more than 1,000 years older than any manuscripts of the Hebrew Old Testament that we had before their discovery. Because of their age and close similarity with the Masoretic Text, we now have an objective basis for determining that the biblical text used in our modern copies of the Old Testament is accurate.

Norman Geisler is the author of several books on the subject of inerrancy: Inerrancy, 1978; General Introduction to the Bible, 1986; and From God to Us, 2012. Dr. Geisler says the Dead Sea Scrolls provide the best external evidence showing the validity of the Masoretic Text, proving that this text type was in fact accurately preserved over a period of about 1,000 years from the first century to the 900s A.D.

He concludes that we can be confident that the texts used to copy the Dead Sea Scrolls were of the same tradition or family as used in the Masoretic Text. He provides evidence from comparative studies of the Isaiah scroll revealing that a word-for-word identity exists in 95 percent of the text. That is a very high rate of similarity for documents that were copied 1,000 years apart.

Other scholars have commented on the similarities between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Masoretic Text. Hebrew scholar Millar Burrows writes, “It is a matter of wonder that through something like one thousand years the text underwent so little alteration. As I said in my first article on the scroll, ‘Herein lies its chief importance, supporting the fidelity of the Masoretic tradition’” (The Dead Sea Scrolls, 1955).

The Dead Sea Scrolls provide an objective confirmation of the authenticity of the Masoretic Text, which is the basis for our modern copies of the Old Testament. Although we live in 2015, we can go back in time 2,000 years and read from the scroll of Isaiah discovered by a shepherd boy in a cave above the Dead Sea.

Anyone here - can share latest Market Projections by MA.

Are we expecting some serious corrections in the Market from DOW / NASDAQ / CRYPTs/ GOLD/ OIL etc. over next few months.
Or is everything is to continue as in current trend

I believe that the outperformance (by kids from poor countries like India, China, and perhaps Pakistan & Bangladesh) seen at US universities can be explained differently.

It is VERY hard to get into US universities on scholarship for poor kids from poor countries.  The ones who actually DO make it in are typically ONLY the very smartest and hard-working ones.

An example: I was studying statistics, had just started the second semester class at the Masters level.  The professor was from Bangladesh.  I had a health problem come up at the end (herniated disc at 48 years old), it was BAD, and I was unable to study for the Final Exam (50% of the grade).  I asked for a day or two longer to better study as I was on painkillers, it hurt (later I had to be operated on, ugh).  He said NO.

So, improperly prepared I took the Final, failed it, and got a "C" for the class (equivalent to an "F" in grad school).

At other earlier times I had heard stories about lots of whiny undergrads bugging their professors about papers or exams.  So, I have to believe that my professor was likely TIRED of hearing about student "problems" and just decided that I was a whiner too.  Naturally I was pissed-off...

Later on it occurred to me that this professor from BANGLADESH had probably busted his ass for many years to get trained up, learn English, then win a US scholarship to get a PhD, then land a hard-to-get position as a prestigious professor.  Perhaps clawed his way out of some shit-hole ghetto (perhaps not).

Almost surely that professor had to pay higher dues than I did.  He succeeded whereas I did not.  Of course, he would almost surely be a definite minority, "off the charts" guy from a dump like Bangladesh.

A bigger factor is that children from third world placed in first world generally excells when given similar opportunities because natives feel sense of entitlement while immigrants relish the chance to participate freely.

I dont understand why we have to go back to Christianity to survive.

Look at the east asians. They do fine without Christianity  (japan/korea) or religion (china).

I see no decline in productivity or creativity when i take a look at my atheist friends.


/edit

Btw. In the last few years german scientist researched the topic of why different ethnicities integrate better or worst in the german society.

Until then most scientist believed it has solely to do with wealth and education of the parents.
After several studies that showed poor vietnamese children are actually much more successful in education then their peers (migrants and native germans) scientist believe that there must be more.

One explanation is Pierre Bourdieu's theory of mutual transformation of social, cultural and economical forms of capital as resources which parents can invest in their children.


Religion plays no relevant part in it.

It's called...The Bell Curve...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve

And:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstream_Science_on_Intelligence

There's a saying/principle that two people with more than a 20 IQ difference are unable to communicate on any meaningful level.  It applies to things like marriage, but in building a civilization as well.  If two different groups lived apart and mud huts were the only thing one group could build while the other could build space stations, they aren't going to integrate.  In Australia they have Aboriginals which are literally modern day cavemen.  Their govt has bent over backwards to try and integrate them into society, but they have the lowest IQ on the planet (something like 60-70), so it always fails miserably.

Btw. In the last few years german scientist researched the topic of why different ethnicities integrate better or worst in the german society.