Scripture: problems in transmission

[Archaea]

An idea occurred.

The Bible is riddled with errors because imperfect men wrote what they believed was God's words, after hearing oral traditions which modified the recording of the actual events and the copying process compounded the errors. Then there are translation errors, lost words, lost manuscripts and it becomes a wonder that anything of value is transmitted.

If a God recorded in a perfect language events accurately and perfectly and these words were transmitted in perfect form to another God, no error in transmission would be committed. However, because that is not the case with any scripture, no scripture is perfect.

I get the sense that LDS believe our script is perfect but the Bible is not. I don't the exact quote, but Joseph Smith state the BoM is the "most" correct book, and if we abide by its precepts we would find our salvation. Well, if you look at what we have in the Bible, it would not be very hard to have a more correct book. However, we had an imperfect man, even inspired by God, who had to use his understanding to deliver the "words". We have an inherently imperfect process, because we have "human speech" not perfect communication, and we have imperfect recipients of the information. So whatever the "translation" process was, it could not be perfect. The most important aspect of Joseph Smith's instruction regarding the BoM are its "precepts".

Thoughts?

[Indy Coug]

Originally Posted by Archaea

An idea occurred.

The Bible is riddled with errors because imperfect men wrote what they believed was God's words, after hearing oral traditions which modified the recording of the actual events and the copying process compounded the errors. Then there are translation errors, lost words, lost manuscripts and it becomes a wonder that anything of value is transmitted.

If a God recorded in a perfect language events accurately and perfectly and these words were transmitted in perfect form to another God, no error in transmission would be committed. However, because that is not the case with any scripture, no scripture is perfect.

I get the sense that LDS believe our script is perfect but the Bible is not. I don't the exact quote, but Joseph Smith state the BoM is the "most" correct book, and if we abide by its precepts we would find our salvation. Well, if you look at what we have in the Bible, it would not be very hard to have a more correct book. However, we had an imperfect man, even inspired by God, who had to use his understanding to deliver the "words". We have an inherently imperfect process, because we have "human speech" not perfect communication, and we have imperfect recipients of the information. So whatever the "translation" process was, it could not be perfect. The most important aspect of Joseph Smith's instruction regarding the BoM are its "precepts".

Thoughts?

Less chefs spoiled the Book of Mormon broth.

[pelagius]

Originally Posted by Archaea

An idea occurred.

The Bible is riddled with errors because imperfect men wrote what they believed was God's words, after hearing oral traditions which modified the recording of the actual events and the copying process compounded the errors. Then there are translation errors, lost words, lost manuscripts and it becomes a wonder that anything of value is transmitted.

If a God recorded in a perfect language events accurately and perfectly and these words were transmitted in perfect form to another God, no error in transmission would be committed. However, because that is not the case with any scripture, no scripture is perfect.

I get the sense that LDS believe our script is perfect but the Bible is not. I don't the exact quote, but Joseph Smith state the BoM is the "most" correct book, and if we abide by its precepts we would find our salvation. Well, if you look at what we have in the Bible, it would not be very hard to have a more correct book. However, we had an imperfect man, even inspired by God, who had to use his understanding to deliver the "words". We have an inherently imperfect process, because we have "human speech" not perfect communication, and we have imperfect recipients of the information. So whatever the "translation" process was, it could not be perfect. The most important aspect of Joseph Smith's instruction regarding the BoM are its "precepts".

Thoughts?

Actually, this is what I like about the Bible and scripture in general. It is so human and yet at the same time it is so divine. I am not sure I would really appreciate the divine in the Bible if it wasn't so human. It gives me hope; if God can work through such flawed human agents in the writing of scripture, then I think he might be able to use or work with me.