Is Bible history fact or fiction?

[eMTee]

Now when it comes to the Creation story, it sounds so far fetched, that it can, and most likely be a made up story..and it is to most all people. no question about that...so I will not ask if anyone believes that or not.

I won't ask any questions about the flood either.

What about the story about the Jew's exit out of Egypt? considering that that story does not have anything to do with the creation( as far as I know), but it also has events that are also far fetched. and other stories like it (name if desired).

[WhitePhoenix]

The Bible..in my opinion has facts and ficticious stories. You have to remember that this is a story that is comprised of many different people passing the stories on to others. You know...like the telephone game.....some of it has to be exaggerated..right? Also people enterpret different meanings to what they read or hear.

[pgrmdave]

Some of the Bible is historic, but not in the sense that we think it. It is not true in the literal sense, but it is a story which was handed down generations to explain the culture. Similar to how we view the fifties as a golden age, when really, they were not at all. It is a cultural tool to look up to an ideal, to have something to strive for. The biblical account of the exodus was used to show why the Jewish people acted as they did. It explained why they were outcasts, and why they were where they were.

[orbsycli]

precisely. mythology.

[Turtle]

___Biblical archeology is a succesfull practice in some cases; I seem to recall the city of Jericho was located by following Biblical history.
___But as the others say, the Bible is a collection of stories from many sources, & so each must be taken on its own merit. I have studied the Bible as literature & in one class it took some time for the instructor to get through to a few students that the class had nothing to do with religion. Strictly the literary qualities & strucure & themes.
___Many sayings & stories in the Bible come from older texts including Homer & the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Others were left out like the Gospels of Thomas & James.
___The Bible is worth reading if for no other reason than to broaden one's knowledge & know what you're talking about when Bible enthusiast want to tell you what it says. I can read; I'll determine what it says for myself.

[Tormod]

Moved to Philosophy and Humanities section. We really need to get a history forum up...

[Biochemist]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

precisely. mythology.

Just thought I would point out that this is a statement of faith, not an observation.

[Qfwfq]

Originally Posted by Turtle

Biblical archeology is a succesfull practice in some cases; I seem to recall the city of Jericho was located by following Biblical history.

So did Schliemann find Troy with the help of the Illiad, but the reasons for the Acheans sieging it wasn't because Agamemnon wanted pretty Helen back. The reason was the same one for which the crusades were fought, and all other fighting over the Holy Lands.

The details are fictional but symbolic of many historical facts. Abraham is thought to have come from Ur in Mesopatomia, the "Garden of Eden" and perhaps he didn't live quite as long as Genesis says. The tribes were taken slaves in Egypt because the Pharaohs had waged a few wars against the areas from Sinai toward Lebanon and Syria, they eventually got free but some of the details are a bit fictious.

Originally Posted by Turtle

Many sayings & stories in the Bible come from older texts including Homer & the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Others were left out like the Gospels of Thomas & James.

Yeah, there are many different versions, from the Torah to the KJV and other more recent ones.

[Qfwfq]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

precisely. mythology.

Wrong term!!!

Fiction based on fact is legend. Myth is something totally fictious, based on no fact al all. Greek mythology is Zeus and co. up on mt. Olympus. The epics were thought to be basically fictional but only recently were there discoveries of factual origins of these stories. The Etruscans have been considered quite possibly the descendants of the surviving Trojans.

[orbsycli]

ahh well thanks for correcting me! you're right, that makes a lot more sense