JehovahsWitness wrote:Colloquially when people say “the bible” they are not refering to “translations” or copies, they are refering to the Word of God made available to mankind in written form.
I would disagree that they are not referring to translations. When the everyday person is talking about the Bible, it would refer to something that they can hold in their hands – a Bible translation, not the autographs. Your average Christian probably wouldn’t even know what is an autograph or what languages they are written in.
To say “the bible has errors” gives the misleading impression that scripture cannot be relied upon and we must decide for themselves which stories and commands are fabrications and which are not.
There is no need to say “the Bible has errors”. It is enough to just cease to use the term inerrancy. One can still talk about the Bible being reliable without mentioning the term inerrancy. Also, nothing needs to be said about errors until someone asks about it. One can discuss further about errors if they are truly curious about it.
To say “the bible has errors” gives the misleading impression that scripture cannot be relied upon and we must decide for themselves which stories and commands are fabrications and which are not.
Here lies the problem why the term inerrancy will not easily go away.
Most people will infer that if someone is not an inerrantist then he must be an errantist. It is not an either/or scenario. There’s exists a third option where neither is claimed.
For groups/people that do not subscribe to inerrancy, they often hedge their position for fear of being considered an errantist and being cast out as a heretic. This fear is so strong that it makes having an honest discussion of inerrancy difficult.
This may seem pedantic to someone that is approaching this from a purely academic, intellectual position but we Jehovah’s Witnesses are “in the field” as it were, dealing with real people, with real issues looking for reliable answers and communicating in the everyday speech of the common man. In the real world, to use such phraseology would cause confusion and undermine confidence in the bible.
Ironically, I also believe this. Using the theological term (and also un-Biblical I might add) inerrancy causes confusion. I’m not arguing my position just as an intellectual exercise, but it has important real world impact.
We have many students who enter college leaving the faith. I believe part of the problem is we have not educated them correctly. Among other misinformation, they are taught the Bible is inerrant while growing up in church. When they reach college, they are challenged with errors in the Bible and then their faith in the Bible, and Christianity, erodes. This is what happened to Bart Ehrman, who is considered an expert in the New Testament. You would think that as one learns more about the Bible, their faith would grow. But, his situation was the opposite. As he learned more, he faith waned. Even though he knew his Bible, his foundations were attacked because he was an inerrantist. Now, he has now completely abandoned the faith because of this doctrine. He is not an isolated case. But, he’s just a high profile example of the destructive effects of the doctrine of inerrancy.
You might notice Jesus evidently did not feel compelled to add “But of course who knows if Isaiah wrote this down correctly, after all it wasnt a dictation the copiests were not inspired so they may have made a mistake so take it all with a pinch of salt”. Why not, because he no doubt knew do so would undermine confidence in the written word of God to which he would refer throughout his ministry.
Neither did Jesus say there are no errors in the scriptures. The closest thing he said was:
[Mat 5:18 KJV] 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.Technically speaking, all he was stating is that the law will be fulfilled.
We should not avoid the truth in order to make our message “clean and presentable”. We should not place our confidence in the Bible by avoiding the hard issues. The hard issues cannot be avoided indefinitely. Confidence should be based on the truth, not on how we might make other people feel.
https://debatingchristianity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=986607#p986607