I am of the belief that alot of the stories in the bible are fact but someone esles fact.
Take the battle of Jericho, it was a caananite city about 8000 BC and was damaged by an earthquake in 1250 bc or close to that time frame.
The bible puts the story closer to the birth of Christ. The city was damaged many times prior to the earthquake and the same story is in other religious writings that pre date the biblical account by almost 1000 years.

Here are some facts:

Jericho is said to be one of the oldest fortified towns in the world. This stone tower dates to about 8000 BC. Jerome Murphy-O'Connor says of
the tower "this supreme achievment of Stone Age people is without parallel elsewhere in the world." (The Holy Land, Fourth Edition, Oxford University Press, 1998).



This view is of the south wall of the trench showing the remains of a mud brick wall. The sign above the trench says "Canaanite City Wall 2300-2000 BC."

The story of Noah and the flood is very similar to a flood tale that appears in the epic of Gilgamesh, which was written centuries before the Bible.

btw, that picture isn't very good...it sure doesn't look like a wall to me...:D

I think it all stems from grains of truth, but over time has become embellished.......(broken telephone type thing)

Originally posted by Vilepagan
The story of Noah and the flood is very similar to a flood tale that appears in the epic of Gilgamesh, which was written centuries before the Bible.

btw, that picture isn't very good...it sure doesn't look like a wall to me...:D
Squint.

I dunno if there is a way to verify if the contents of the bible are indeed true cause of the basic fact: ITS BEEN RE-WRITTEN 100s of times...

Most people go by the KING JAMES version and they claim that one is the most accurate,but who really knows for sure?

I think ther is probably a basis in fact for most of the stories. I also think that many were told and retold over many generations before being written down. This led to embellishment to please the crowd, and to the real facts being distorted.
Take, for example, the great flood. During the last ice age, the Black Sea was not connected to the Mediteranean. It was an inland, fresh or brackish body of water. The water level was considerably lower as well. As the glaciers melted, the oceans rose and the Mediteranean overtopped the land where the Bosporous is now. This resulted in a sudden and catastrophic rise in the level of the Black Sea. People lived around that body of water, and the remains of their villages have been discovered by Robert Ballard. They were undoubtedly suddenly displaced when the water levels rose. If they didn't live near the Bosporous, the sudden change would have been unexplained. The explanation became the story of Noah and the flood, or the flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh, or many of the other flood stories. The refugees settled in many different places, and the true story was lost.

Most people go by the KING JAMES version and they claim that one is the most accurate,but who really knows for sure?

We know the KJV is full of mistakes. It even has sea monsters and unicorns. More modern translations, utilizing improved understanding of ancient languages and of older MSS should be better. All translations, however, reflect the beliefs (biases?) of the translators.

This is a major problem, in my opinion, with the widespread idea that the Bible is "God's Word." If God is "perfect," then how can one imagine He would utilize such an imperfect vehicle as his means? Even if that is ignored, how can someone reading the Bible have any assurance they are getting anything like what was originally written?

I think maybe I am particularly aware of the translation problem (most people seem to think it is easy to translate religious material from one language to another) when in fact it is absolutely impossible, even with extended footnotes. Languages set the boundaries and the connotations of words in entirely different places, so that the denotive translator misses most of the meaning.

This view is of the south wall of the trench showing the remains of a mud brick wall. The sign above the trench says "Canaanite City Wall 2300-2000 BC."
If that sign says it, then it must be true.

If that sign says it, then it must be true.Then it must all be true!