Frankly, and with all due respect to Kosta, if someone does not believe in the inerrant and infallible word of God then I'm not impressed with whatever purported knowledge they and others claim to have. People can cite Greek and Hebrew until the cows come home but it means nothing.
The Church declared the scriptures to be infallible. We can argue, and have, about whether scripture derives it authority from the Church or the Church derives its authority from scripture. But the bottom line is the scriptures are the only writing to be declared by the Church to be infallible and inerrant. So for someone to come along and say the scriptures are in error and incomplete goes against centuries of Church teaching. I don't need to hear the arguments laid out by atheists and agnostics. Yet you subscribe to this as "knowledgeable" and as an "expert".
Are you ready right here and now to accept our friend kosta's view that the scriptures are in error or are you going to accept the Church's teaching of the inerrant and infallibility of scripture? Do you think that Paul's writings were bigoted? Frankly, I don't expect an answer. When I have asked this questions of other Catholics they become silent on the matter. Catholics no longer believe in the inerrant and infallible word of God.
I'll settle for those who have a child like faith in God's word any day then those who fancy themselves as "experts". Those who accepts God's word as it exist and look for insight rather than controversy. I am not impressed by those who have a low view of God's word. God certainly doesn't and neither should we. Experts such as this provides me with no spiritual insight.
Some Scripture to ponder.
2 Peter 2
1But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8(for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.
Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. 14They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22What the true proverb says has happened to them: "The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire."
Romans 1:18-23
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Frankly, and with all due respect to Kosta, if someone does not believe in the inerrant and infallible word of God then I'm not impressed with whatever purported knowledge they and others claim to have. People can cite Greek and Hebrew until the cows come home but it means nothing.
Nothing to you, you mean. I am an engineer. I prefer facts where facts matter. I believe that existance exists and that reality is reality. I also hold the Faith. I'm not impressed with those who create their own faith.
The Church declared the scriptures to be infallible. We can argue, and have, about whether scripture derives it authority from the Church or the Church derives its authority from scripture. But the bottom line is the scriptures are the only writing to be declared by the Church to be infallible and inerrant. So for someone to come along and say the scriptures are in error and incomplete goes against centuries of Church teaching. I don't need to hear the arguments laid out by atheists and agnostics. Yet you subscribe to this as "knowledgeable" and as an "expert".
You are not of the Faith. What does it matter what the Church teaches? I never called Kosta expert; I merely said that he is knowledgeable. I believe the Church; I appreciate Kosta's knowledge of how Scripture developed.
Are you ready right here and now to accept our friend kosta's view that the scriptures are in error or are you going to accept the Church's teaching of the inerrant and infallibility of scripture? Do you think that Paul's writings were bigoted? Frankly, I don't expect an answer. When I have asked this questions of other Catholics they become silent on the matter. Catholics no longer believe in the inerrant and infallible word of God.
The Word of God is infallible. The interpretation of the word of God is infallible. That is the Catholic belief. If you think that you hold the original writings of whoever Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were in your hands, then you are sadly mistaken. Hint: they didn't write the King James version.
I'll settle for those who have a child like faith in God's word any day then those who fancy themselves as "experts". Those who accepts God's word as it exist and look for insight rather than controversy. I am not impressed by those who have a low view of God's word. God certainly doesn't and neither should we. Experts such as this provides me with no spiritual insight.
Is it all about you? What you'll settle for? What impresses you? Who provides you with things? Your discourse has degenerated over the months, my friend. You don't have the word of God as it exists; you have the KJV or whatever it is that you are reading. In English. God gave us His word in Greek and we have exactly none of the original manuscripts. We have what the Nicene Council tells us is the word of God in Greek. Do you accept that?
Where [is] the wise? where [is] the scribe? where [is] the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. - I Corinthians 1:18-25