Is the Bible mostly fact or fiction?

Answer 1

The Bible is a mix of fact and fiction, of history and religion.

As to history, some of the Old Testament has been shown to be historically correct by archeology. Writings and inscriptions in other cultures, and in the Holy Land, have confirmed events which are mentioned in the Bible. However, other events have been shown to be fictional or incorrect. What biblicists who get so excited over archaeological discoveries which confirm aspects of the Bible apparently can't understand is that extrabiblical confirmation of some of the Bible does not constitute confirmation of all of the Bible.

Other parts of the Old Testament are not historical, but are literature, poetry, prophecy and myth.

The New Testament varies in its historicity as well. All of it was written down many years after the death of Christ, and the four gospels often present completely different versions of the same event, Rashomon-style. Much of what is in the New Testament is not present in any other contemporaneous historical sources, including proof of the actual existence of Christ. And Revelations is the written down version of a dream that John, one of the gospels, had.

The letters which constitute a good part of the new testament were written after the death of Christ, by those building the church. Biblical scholars have shown that several of the letters attributed to Paul (who never met Christ), one of the church fathers, were either forgeries or misattributed.

What we know as the Bible was cobbled together under Constantine by a committee; many books then in circulation among Christians were left out. (Various churches even now disagree as to which books are canonical and which aren't.) This Bible was then hand copied over and over again through many generations until the invention by Gutenberg of the press. Mistakes crept in--many of them--and subtle changes were introduced to push one religious view or another. Biblical scholar Bart Ehrmann once noted that, due to copying and transcription errors, there are now more errors in the Bible than there are words.

Other opinions:

Facts require proof While beliefs can stand by faith alone, facts needs proofs. There's no proof outside the bible and the fraudulent later interpolation in the writings of Josephus that proves that Jesus ever walked on earth.

It is fiction. While many of the stories in the Old Testament are part of Jewish/Hebrew history, many others still are simple mythology, just as every other culture on Earth has or had.

As to the New Testament, the earliest the gospels are known to exist is around thirty after the death of Jesus. Critics think that the inconsistencies and date of their writing makes them unreliable witness accounts. While there is evidence that a person named Jesus did exist and was executed, his teachings are just that, and critics of Christianity regard the miracles are no more fact than is any sci-fi movie.

The letters of Paul are perhaps the only documents in the Bible with any decent realism; they are historical letters to communities around the Mediterranean, in which Paul preaches to the various peoples. As such, they are certainly real, but also not really reliable as a witness to fact.

In whole, critics regard the Bible as simply an arbitrary collection of religious writings, and should treated accordingly: with respect by those who believe it, and with the same consideration as for any set of millennia-old documents by those who don't.

The Bible is fact (opinion)Even if you don't believe in God you can't deny that the Bible is true because it is like a history book it holds our history from the time the world began to a time after the world will come to an end. No one has a problem believing the history that we have been taught about our nation so why is it so hard to believe in a book that has been around for more than 2,000 years when our history books in school have been around for less time than that. I would much rather believe in a book that tells all of our history rather than leaving Jesus and God out when they are the Most important people and/or beings in all of our history. And as far as not being able to prove that the mark of the beast and all of revelation is true well you can't prove that you will wake up tomorrow morning until you actually wake up just like you can't prove revelations because it has not happened yet but just because it has not happened yet does not mean that it won't. everything in the bible that God said would happen has happened so far so why doubt what God says will happen during the revelations and tribulation? There is proof out side the bible that Jesus really existed because Jesus and his life and ministry are mentioned in our history books and if you believe in our history that means that you believe that Jesus existed because our history says that he truly did exist.

OR if you don't want to read all that - Jesus existed but some people don't believe him because what he did. Erase that from your memories and doesn't he seem like a real dude? Well, since writing wasn't really invented yet (NOT TRUE, writing has been around for centuries), nobody knows for sure. And think of this - do you know the story when he died and came back to life? Well, maybe he was in a coma or a concussion. Now God, I ain't so sure about.

It is most definitely all completely and totally Fact.Some things you just don't have to have all of the proof to know that they are true. The Bible is not fiction and it is most definitely not a myth. The Bible is the only history book that has so much controversy and for one book to have so much controversy I would say it is a special book and most of the time when there is controversy about a book or any topic it is because people are afraid to admit that something they cant explain is true and real. The miracles are fact and the fact that there is life on earth at all is a miracle so therefore it shouldn't be difficult for anyone to believe in miracles. I think we as humans want to suppress the truth that the bible is fact because we are too prideful to admit that everything is in God's hands and not our because we want to believe that we are in control of our own lives when the fact of the matter is that we most defiantly are not. If you don't believe the Bible is real that's fine but you will be the ones to regret it later when you find out that Christians are right in believing what God said in the bible through those who wrote it. I don't believe that anyone could write such a book as the bible and it still be around today and have so much controversy if it were not 100% true.

No, the bible is mostly paper and some cardboard. (Well, some of the nicer editions have leather, too.)