(May 5, 2015 at 3:45 pm)Hatshepsut Wrote: Of course we don't want to alter the text itself, but we should read it with some brains regarding its provenance and its meaning in a modern world where understandings have progressed over the last 2000 years.
Well you may not want to alter the text, but did you know that you're already doing it? The Bible itself has been edited and revised quite a lot over the last couple of thousand years. The simple fact is that the Bible is actually still being edited (you can verify that yourself). Sometimes these edits have made quite significant deviations from the “original” text. Further, some of these edits have been made for what appear to be contemporary political purposes. Hell, the latest revision to the Bible was made around the 1970's, in order to cofront the growing issue that is abortion. Just saying.