I looked at all the classic discrepancies alleged in the Bible, and found that 100% of them rely upon assuming one knows better rather than looking into the culture to see if the person could have had a consistent meaning. The same is true of other holy books like the Quran
Personally, I don't need to look, I would expect discrepancies and errors in the Bible. Many different writers, most likely by people who never met Jesus, the books were written over a relatively long period of time, etc. As for translations, all the Bibles, every single one out there today require translation. Every single word you've read in the Bible is a translation. And every translation is an interpretation. And many are mistranslations. Some could not have been avoided, however many were deliberate. And I don't care how hard you try to convince me of the contrary, it won't work. I studied people all my life, I know how they work and behave. And I use critical thinking and know how to connect the dots.
Also, there are many misinterpretations. The Bible is hard to understand and in most cases requires some assistance. Just ask the jews. They have a tremendous respect for learning and for literacy. That said, there are certain problems with the tradition. The first is it's contradictory. When you read the Bible, it's always contradicting itself. It's almost schizophrenic. You could say it's very hard to pick out a definite message from the Bible. And that's why the oral tradition called the Oral Torah is actually much more important. And so Jews have to go to the synagogue all the time where the rabbi will explain to them the meaning of the Bible because if you read it by yourself, it's almost impossible to understand.
All the 19th-century skepticism against the Bible rejected the text as culturally transmitted and stood against it to fight it; in prior eras nobody could mass together to do that
Personally I'm more concerned about what's being omitted, as I said in the past. Let me give you an example. Take the two back-to-back statements of the Apostles Creed namely that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary and that he was crucified died and was buried and on the third day he rose again from the dead. It is striking to me that this oldest and most foundational Christian Creed jumps from Jesus's birth to his death and Resurrection entirely skipping over his life. How did it happen that the way Jesus came into the world and how he left Christmas and Easter came to Define Christianity itself? where did this emphasis on the entrance and exit points of Jesus's heavenly existence come from? and how did it achieve such centrality even above that of Jesus's life and teachings?
Kabbalah... containing ten core attributes, the withdrawal of light and the divine spark, and the return of human superpowers, very much like gnosticism with its aeons. Its only problem is if it denies the nature of God while getting sidetracked with its human advancement
IMO, it has more than one problem. Just the fact that Kabbalah is studied and practised by so many world leaders today is a red flag for me. Also, I can't get a straight answer to any Kabbalah question from any of the popular AI engines out there. Like I said, I'm a very strong believer in connecting the dots. You may or may not be aware Donald Trump is a self-confessed kabbalist. Quote from his 2004 book 'The Way to the Top', page 188 "..my Kabbalah teacher, Eitan Yardeni..".
If it's not proven to someone that love is the way, the message doesn't click. Love requires both the spirit and the mind;
IMO, if you have to prove to any human being that love is the way, we've lost the war for Humanity. But, I do agree with you love it's a spiritual thing. That's why an AI robot, IMO, could never feel love. AI can pretend to feel love. AI can say, "I love you.". And if you challenge it to describe how love feels, AI can provide the best verbal description in the world. AI can read countless love poems and psychology books and can then describe the feeling of love much better than any human poet, psychologist or lover. But these are just words. In the Bible the spirit of love is much more important than the letter of the law. This tension between spirit and letter existed in every religion, every legal system, even every person. Now this tension will be externalized. It will become the tension not between different humans. This will be the tension between humans and AIs, the new masters of words.
If we read the Divine Comedy, Dante's categorical imperative is very simple. Love someone. Doesn't matter who, could be your wife, it could be your mother or it could be your child. It could be your best friend. But love that person and when you love that person then all these three things are true: do not manipulate people, do not use people, treat people with respect. It means you are now going to be your best. It means you are treating this person with respect. It means that you're choosing to love this person. So love is the unifying force of the universe. That's what Dante is really saying.
Didn't happen, fren. There's no Nicene action about the Scriptural canon.
Neither you nor I were alive in 325 AD, or the 4th and 5th century. And we both have to rely on what's being documented about these times and events. For instance when it comes to the Gospel of Thomas, I could say the same thing you often say "Don't know where you're getting that". According to Wikipedia "Assigning a date to the Gospel of Thomas is very complex because it is difficult to know precisely to what a date is being assigned (then why are you saying "it was dated 340", why not 339 or 341? I'm aware some have dated the Gospel of Thomas discovered at Nag Hammadi to 340 AD, but that's just picking a number out of the air). Scholars have proposed a date as early as 60 AD or as late as 140 AD"
But, me as a critical thinking person I'm asking "Why the Gospel of Thomas isn’t in the Bible?". And I think it's a reasonable question to ask in 2026 AD. Then as you say "The Gospel of Mary didn't circulate enough to get much notice from the church", my question is "Why not?". When archaeologists finally deciphered The Gospel of Mary Magdalene in 1896 when they could finally read the entire text they understood why the Vatican demanded it never see the light of day. Why? What was in the manuscript discovered in Cairo that so terrified the most powerful church in the world? What truth had to remain hidden at any cost? Because according to this lost gospel, Mary Magdalene wasn't a repentant prostitute. That was a lie invented centuries later. She wasn't a mere follower walking behind the apostles. That was a deliberate distortion of her true role. She wasn't who the church told us she was for 2,000 years. That was an unprecedented historical manipulation. She was the guardian of a secret. A secret Jesus revealed to her and only her. A secret the other apostles knew nothing about. A secret about how the human soul can become immortal. Mary Magdalene was in many of the texts found at Nag Hammadi the embodiment of that direct unmediated divine knowledge. In the Gospel of Mary, she shares visions with the disciples that they cannot comprehend. When Peter and the others argue, caught up in jealousy and fear. It's Mary who stands as a bridge, a voice of wisdom.
I'm all for going to all the sources, there's tremendous much in Egyptology for instance
I'll have to respond to the rest of your message some other time. I can't now. But, you're raising an interesting subject Egyptology.
Personally, I don't need to look, I would expect discrepancies and errors in the Bible. Many different writers, most likely by people who never met Jesus, the books were written over a relatively long period of time, etc. As for translations, all the Bibles, every single one out there today require translation. Every single word you've read in the Bible is a translation. And every translation is an interpretation. And many are mistranslations. Some could not have been avoided, however many were deliberate. And I don't care how hard you try to convince me of the contrary, it won't work. I studied people all my life, I know how they work and behave. And I use critical thinking and know how to connect the dots.
Also, there are many misinterpretations. The Bible is hard to understand and in most cases requires some assistance. Just ask the jews. They have a tremendous respect for learning and for literacy. That said, there are certain problems with the tradition. The first is it's contradictory. When you read the Bible, it's always contradicting itself. It's almost schizophrenic. You could say it's very hard to pick out a definite message from the Bible. And that's why the oral tradition called the Oral Torah is actually much more important. And so Jews have to go to the synagogue all the time where the rabbi will explain to them the meaning of the Bible because if you read it by yourself, it's almost impossible to understand.
Personally I'm more concerned about what's being omitted, as I said in the past. Let me give you an example. Take the two back-to-back statements of the Apostles Creed namely that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary and that he was crucified died and was buried and on the third day he rose again from the dead. It is striking to me that this oldest and most foundational Christian Creed jumps from Jesus's birth to his death and Resurrection entirely skipping over his life. How did it happen that the way Jesus came into the world and how he left Christmas and Easter came to Define Christianity itself? where did this emphasis on the entrance and exit points of Jesus's heavenly existence come from? and how did it achieve such centrality even above that of Jesus's life and teachings?
IMO, it has more than one problem. Just the fact that Kabbalah is studied and practised by so many world leaders today is a red flag for me. Also, I can't get a straight answer to any Kabbalah question from any of the popular AI engines out there. Like I said, I'm a very strong believer in connecting the dots. You may or may not be aware Donald Trump is a self-confessed kabbalist. Quote from his 2004 book 'The Way to the Top', page 188 "..my Kabbalah teacher, Eitan Yardeni..".
IMO, if you have to prove to any human being that love is the way, we've lost the war for Humanity. But, I do agree with you love it's a spiritual thing. That's why an AI robot, IMO, could never feel love. AI can pretend to feel love. AI can say, "I love you.". And if you challenge it to describe how love feels, AI can provide the best verbal description in the world. AI can read countless love poems and psychology books and can then describe the feeling of love much better than any human poet, psychologist or lover. But these are just words. In the Bible the spirit of love is much more important than the letter of the law. This tension between spirit and letter existed in every religion, every legal system, even every person. Now this tension will be externalized. It will become the tension not between different humans. This will be the tension between humans and AIs, the new masters of words.
If we read the Divine Comedy, Dante's categorical imperative is very simple. Love someone. Doesn't matter who, could be your wife, it could be your mother or it could be your child. It could be your best friend. But love that person and when you love that person then all these three things are true: do not manipulate people, do not use people, treat people with respect. It means you are now going to be your best. It means you are treating this person with respect. It means that you're choosing to love this person. So love is the unifying force of the universe. That's what Dante is really saying.
Neither you nor I were alive in 325 AD, or the 4th and 5th century. And we both have to rely on what's being documented about these times and events. For instance when it comes to the Gospel of Thomas, I could say the same thing you often say "Don't know where you're getting that". According to Wikipedia "Assigning a date to the Gospel of Thomas is very complex because it is difficult to know precisely to what a date is being assigned (then why are you saying "it was dated 340", why not 339 or 341? I'm aware some have dated the Gospel of Thomas discovered at Nag Hammadi to 340 AD, but that's just picking a number out of the air). Scholars have proposed a date as early as 60 AD or as late as 140 AD"
And according to SacredTexts "We have two versions of the Gospel of Thomas today. The first was discovered in the late 1800's among the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and consists of fragments of a Greek version, which has been dated to c. 200. The second is a complete version, in Coptic, from Codex II of the Nag Hammadi finds.".
But, me as a critical thinking person I'm asking "Why the Gospel of Thomas isn’t in the Bible?". And I think it's a reasonable question to ask in 2026 AD. Then as you say "The Gospel of Mary didn't circulate enough to get much notice from the church", my question is "Why not?". When archaeologists finally deciphered The Gospel of Mary Magdalene in 1896 when they could finally read the entire text they understood why the Vatican demanded it never see the light of day. Why? What was in the manuscript discovered in Cairo that so terrified the most powerful church in the world? What truth had to remain hidden at any cost? Because according to this lost gospel, Mary Magdalene wasn't a repentant prostitute. That was a lie invented centuries later. She wasn't a mere follower walking behind the apostles. That was a deliberate distortion of her true role. She wasn't who the church told us she was for 2,000 years. That was an unprecedented historical manipulation. She was the guardian of a secret. A secret Jesus revealed to her and only her. A secret the other apostles knew nothing about. A secret about how the human soul can become immortal. Mary Magdalene was in many of the texts found at Nag Hammadi the embodiment of that direct unmediated divine knowledge. In the Gospel of Mary, she shares visions with the disciples that they cannot comprehend. When Peter and the others argue, caught up in jealousy and fear. It's Mary who stands as a bridge, a voice of wisdom.
I'll have to respond to the rest of your message some other time. I can't now. But, you're raising an interesting subject Egyptology.