What is the most commonly read version of the Bible in the United States?

[Gokul43201]

No study of the Bible is complete unless you've read the Nag Hammadi Texts.

 

[Astronuc]

No study of the Bible is complete unless you've read the Nag Hammadi Texts.

Excellent point.

http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html

http://www.nag-hammadi.com/

 

[meteor]

2.Who the hell is king James...?

Don't worry about that, he didn't write the bible, he only commisioned it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_James_Version

What is the fascination of most Americans with bible stuff ? In Europe if I told my friends that I intend to read bible I would be laughing stock.

Very true. One of the few correct things that you have said since you are at PF

 

[the number 42]

What is the fascination of most Americans with bible stuff ? In Europe if I told my friends that I intend to read bible I would be laughing stock.Is America so naive as to take serriously this gibberish and utter nonsense.For me old testament is complete BS (simply waste of paper and ink),new testament also but has some slight improvements...

Wonderful. What part of Europe are you in?

 

[GCT]

out of all the places, WHY are you trying to find a Bible here? There's something very fishy about your first post, moreover, an aura of intellectual stupor about this whole thread. I think that the OP's original intentions may have been altered by the remarks that were made by some of you-express yourself somewhere else.

Honestly, reading a Bible will not lower your IQ and it does not reflect stupidity on your part. Common sense should tell you what offends, otherwise you can discuss your interests here. Frequently what happens however, is that such discussions have proved to be very unproductive here at PF. I for one don't understand the utility of discussing such spiritual matters in an intellectual sense; in fact Atheist should never take part with Christians, both should just ignore each other (which brings me to an interesting sidetrack: what would atheists even discuss together without Christians, lol, how do you discuss the non-existence of God for its own sake?).

I found a better place for you to discuss such a topic, if your intention is to get a Bible try searching for a "christian forum" on google.

 

[franznietzsche]

OK just so all you bible-bashers know, the OPs intent was for understanding literary reference's to the bible. You may be too uncultured, or too busy bashing americans and religion, but shakespeare is full of biblical references. Nietzsche, THE atheist philosopher, made many biblical allusions. Almost all worthwhile literature out of europe between 1600 and 1900 has biblical allusions. It was not until this century than biblical allusions seem to have passed out of style among the literary elite, although they are still made.

The bible is often alluded to because for centuries it was the common culture of the western world. If you wanted to make a metaphor everyone would understand, you put it in terms of the bible. Just because it is no longer the common culture does not mean that reading it to understand those metaphors is a bad idea. Ridicule it all you want, but it IS literature, if nothing else. And it is important to the literary tradition of the western world from the past 500 years.

Whether or not the religion is valid is absolutely irrelevant in this context. IT DOES NOT MATTER.

 

[mattmns]

Find a bible in what sense? Find a bible in the sense of a free one: No I am not trying to find a free bible here (from a pf member, if that is what you mean). Find a bible in the sense of which one to read: I posted here because I thought I would get many points of view; there are obviously a lot of different people, cultures, beliefs, here. I did not post at a christian forum because I do not plan on reading the bible to be a christian, and I thought that a christian forum would have been more biased.

As far as I am concerned this thread can be locked, or deleted.

 

[Integral]

What is the fascination of most Americans with bible stuff ? In Europe if I told my friends that I intend to read bible I would be laughing stock.Is America so naive as to take serriously this gibberish and utter nonsense.For me old testament is complete BS (simply waste of paper and ink),new testament also but has some slight improvements and parables still valid in our modern world.

I thought that France, Italy and Spain were all pretty strong Catholic populations. Perhaps, the difference is that the US is much more Protestant oriented. It is my understanding that one of the major differences between Protestant and Catholic is the personal access to the Bible, which is encouraged by one and discouraged by the other. So perhaps your disdain for reading the bible is fundamentally a religious stance.

I guess Americans are simply more independent thinkers, they prefer to analyze the original source and come to their own conclusions then to be instructed as in the thought controlled Catholic populations of the world.

See, I can make generalizations every bit as bad as yours.

 

[franznietzsche]

See, I can make generalizations every bit as bad as yours.

Except i have a hunch he's not catholic. Atheist socialist europeans. PAH-TOOEY!

I'm all for atheism (though I'm definitely not all for socialism, but that's moot), but the bible bashing is just stupid. Its a book. To be honest, its literature. Is it scripture(in the metaphorical, not literal sense)? Not for me. Obviously not for you. But it still has value as a book. It'd be like me refusing to read Marx because those dappy socialists are destroying everything good on this earth. No, Marx has his value, and so does the Bible.

 

[dextercioby]

It would be okay if it had,let's say 200 pages,but 1500...?? :

Daniel.

P.S.I think it would make a better sale,of one was to write:"The shortest version of Bible".

 

[Astronuc]

One could buy just the new testament portion.

And the 4 gospels are available on-line. One of the websites I posted let's one choose which version to read.

 

[franznietzsche]

It would be okay if it had,let's say 200 pages,but 1500...?? :

Daniel.

P.S.I think it would make a better sale,of one was to write:"The shortest version of Bible".

Which defeats the entire point.

And the bible is not a full 1500 pages. I've seen michener books thicker than bibles at the same page and font size, and those were only 1200.

 

[mattmns]

I bet there is a translation of the bible that is 200 pages. However, the point is to read a nice long poetic story, there is no need to rush it. I remember reading a translation of The Iliad that was 600-700 pages, yes there was a 200-300 page version, but if you are going to read the book for youself you might as well enjoy it.

 

[franznietzsche]

However, the point is to read a nice long poetic story, there is no need to rush

Something that is lost completely on these epistemophobes.

 

[Bartholomew]

Welll, a 200 page bible takes less time to read... and if you read a 200 page bible and a 300 page Iliad then you can read 700 pages of something else.

 

[franznietzsche]

Welll, a 200 page bible takes less time to read... and if you read a 200 page bible and a 300 page Iliad then you can read 700 pages of something else.

I weep for the plight of humanity.

 

[Bartholomew]

Myth like the Bible has a great attraction to it... the sifting images of strange and fundamental cultures... but eventually you realize that your own thoughts are as unique as the thoughts of whatever some great mythologist wrote, and you stop caring. Myth study is just a hobby.

 

[franznietzsche]

Myth like the Bible has a great attraction to it... the sifting images of strange and fundamental cultures... but eventually you realize that your own thoughts are as unique as the thoughts of whatever some great mythologist wrote, and you stop caring. Myth study is just a hobby.

You miss the point entirely.

 

[Bartholomew]

what point might that be?

 

[franznietzsche]

what point might that be?

If you haven't gotten it yet, you're not going to, and i know better than to waste my time forcing intellectualism into people that just don't get it.

 

[Integral]

Welll, a 200 page bible takes less time to read... and if you read a 200 page bible and a 300 page Iliad then you can read 700 pages of something else.

Like 30 comic books?

 

[Astronuc]

Like 30 comic books?

Like the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers - Freewheelin' Frank, Phineas Freek and Fat Freddy.

Also, try Freaknet

 

[Integral]

Like the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers - Freewheelin' Frank, Phineas Freek and Fat Freddy.

Also, try Freaknet

Humm... is this the hooka thread? Or am I lost?

Looks like some good reading though...As soon as I get finished with the bible and Gibbon I'll get to it.

 

[GCT]

I don't believe that anyone, including Christians themselves, read the Bible for fun...for most, it has a spiritual significance, especially in the US such "significance" pertains to the position an individual takes in society-God or no God-a sociological significance. The simple fact is that for the most part, this strange issue contributes to social cohesion of society as a whole. It really has no seriousness to it outside of its own realm, yet everyone takes it personally (really, what can one say when asked the question? There are not many options-yes,no, don't want to talk about it-but why does one even give a concrete answer to such a question...as if the question made sense in the first place), it seems to have a paradoxical element to it. There also seems to be a 'humorous' aspect to it all. It's quite a phenomena to me.
I never favored to discuss the Bible as a theologian would, or as a literary text, never liked theologians.

 

[Gokul43201]

I don't believe that anyone, including Christians themselves, read the Bible for fun...

I read the Bible for fun...not that I read all of it. But I did read the entire OT (skipping a couple of the begats here and there) and about 60% of the NT.

 

[Moonbear]

I read the Bible for fun...not that I read all of it. But I did read the entire OT (skipping a couple of the begats here and there) and about 60% of the NT.

Well, I haven't read the whole thing yet, but I've read about 1/3 of it so far, along with some skipping around the New Testament. I consider it an interesting historical document; essentially a set of laws written down for ancient people to follow. The threat of God's wrath was just embellishment to get the unruly masses to listen to their kings. The New Testament turns more into religious propaganda, but the Old Testament includes rules that made a lot of sense for the time they were written. A lot of it really dealt with simple hygiene issues.

I also find many parts of it interesting because of my perspective as a scientist. You can see how the people at the time it was written viewed the world around them. There are descriptions of things that, for example, sound a lot like tornados and water spouts, but instead are described as the water funneling up to the heavens, or something like that. I find it amusing that it's almost like they made the first, even if misguided, attempt at biological classification systems too. For example, things with wings all seem to get lumped together (birds and flying insects), things that creep (including non-flying insects) get lumped together. They distinguish between animals with and without cloven hooves, etc. I actually think you'd miss that level of information and detail if you read it from a purely religious standpoint.

 

[Bartholomew]

If you haven't gotten it yet, you're not going to, and i know better than to waste my time forcing intellectualism into people that just don't get it.

I already consider myself an intellectual, because of what I, personally, can think. There is no intrinsic intellectual value to reading literature, and particularly not in reading thousands of pages of the same book. All philosophical ideas can be summarized in a few pages.

 

[Wardw]

Are the books that never made it into the bible available?. Although not a christian, I know that there are many that were not included by Constantine that the Vatican still hold but I don't know if they were ever released or remain firmly hidden away in the vaults of the Vatican.

 

[spender]

I already consider myself an intellectual, because of what I, personally, can think.

There is nothing intellectual in reading bible, it just takes time, your nerves(big time) and clenched fists while you say to yourself- **** ! how I'm going to make it thru all this garbage ?
This happened to me when I started reading Illiad, but with every page turned I found story interesting and intriguing.Idon't think bible has the same value it only teaches greed and shows human corruption while pretending to be the word of God !?

 

[Janitor]

... A lot of it really dealt with simple hygiene issues...

Indeed, one of the O.T. books (Leviticus?) deals extensively with how to recognize leprosy and also what to do if mold (?) appears on the walls of one's house.

Given the primitive state of sewerage in Biblical times, I am a little surprised that there doesn't seem to be commandments dealing with that particular issue. "Thou shall not squat within five and fifty cubits of the stream from which mine people drink the waters which refreshest." That sort of thing.