Is the Bible incomplete?

[Dee_Robert]

I thought the same. But what about the feeling of 'stories are jumping from one point to the other', when reading the parts of creation?

I understand your view Sushan, some parts are left out of the stories in the Bible. Does it make the Bible incomplete, I doubt that. Infact I think it makes it beautiful in its own way, God allows for the use of imagination here.
Remember the use of the Holy Spirit, to bring us into all truth, to show us these ancient paths.


I believe God told stories necessary for our learning in the Bible as previously quoted but we can't know everything that happened, every thought every character had. There'd be no place for development of Christians. Just spoonfed babies

That is a nice way of thinking. So even in the Bible there is space for free will and imagination

Absolutely.
Within the context of core Christian values of course.
So one doesn't freely think himself away from Christianity..

Imagine that!

[Dee_Robert]

I thought the same. But what about the feeling of 'stories are jumping from one point to the other', when reading the parts of creation?

You mean the creation story has parts that are missing? I haven't noticed. I believe the creation account in the Bible is complete.

Sorry if I made you understand it wrong. The chronological story seems that it has left out some parts in the initial days, from creation, through Eve's sin, and what came next

I agree with Sushan, the chronology has many gaps in it. Peoples stories are picked up, left off and moved on to another's, as though their time of relevance had been exceeded.

Someone explained this to me, that the telling had a purpose, as though the finish line was Jesus' story and the stories are the peoples relevance to Gods plan in the end.

Reading the Bible with this in mind, clarified a lot of things for me.

[Dee_Robert]

I'm not a Christian and never read the Bible. But, what I know is that, with ancient texts, we can't possibly debate on their completeness or incompleteness. It all depends on our belief and how we perceive it!

Debating on facts is useless. Yet we can logically think about something and try to imagine or propose possibilities

Haha
And live a happy life while at it, it really is like daydreaming about other possibilities of a book you just read and trying to understand the characters perspective. To maybe further strengthen your belief.

[Dee_Robert]

Personally I think the Bible is an amazing book with great mysteries and wisdom naturally beyond the human mind. Although i don't think that it was complete as it would be hard to gather the detail of all the accounts as they happened and would be cumbersome.

That is possible. Maybe the details have been left out to compact the bible into a more reasonable size

Oh I agree with this. The pain of really desiring to finish the Bible at its current size is big enough, imagine it at twice its size.
Which is why this authors creativity is applauded and his selectiveness in the stories he chose.

[Dee_Robert]

In the first place, the bible has never been exactly complete. It is a library of separate works that were told/written hundreds of years apart. In fact, a lot of the content was passed down through oral tradition, particularly by fishermen. As a result, the details and interpretation were always changing until Constantinople used Christianity as his political campaign. This led to the era of transcribing, finding, compiling the separate stories that make up the bible today.

This is true.
Debatable but true.

[slj3988]

As someone who isn't particularly religious but is interested in theology, I very much find fiction in the biblical world fascinating. Whether you believe or not, they are compelling stories which teach us lessons about human struggles.

I'd say there is no way to know what is or isn't missing from the Bible. When looking at any historical texts, we can only know what there is by what we find. As a compilation of stories, parables and prophesies gathered over millenia from many sources (some unnamed) that have been translated, edited and altered countless times, it's impossible to know.

What people forget is the only surviving translation of the Bible today, the one we all see as 'gospel truth' is known as the King James Bible because it was changed by order of the King. Certain parts, phrases and allegedly whole passages were not to his liking, so he ordered the old versions to be destroyed. This is something that has been done many times throughout history when men in power wished to use the word of God to control subjects. Dozens of other works draw from that source to give their own view, but everything we want to see as definitive is not.

There are also multiple conspiracies regarding excerpts that were lost or intentionally withdrawn, including the gospel of Mary, who was thought to be Jesus' wife. A real 5th century text that was found in the 1800s. The sexism of the time couldn't allow a woman to be praised and it was shunned by Catholics who were insulted that a mortal woman could possibly be loved more than anyone else. The Romans had a council who would decide what belonged in the Bible. The gospel of Peter was cut out too. Again, partly due to the allegation of favouritism, because some thought it was unkind for Jesus to appear to favour Peter over other apostles. Texts written by man, discovered and retold by man to inform and in some cases manipulate man.

My point is, there's so many things we don't know. I am comfortable with fictional interpretations filling in the gaps or offering another perspective, as long as it isn't totally changed. We must respect what's there because it's the source. Perhaps one day everything that survived the ages will be found and shared.

[Amy Murdoch Coleman]

That is a fact that is nice to know. So for some reason, those parts which were left out might have been too fictional to be included in a religious scripture

Yeah, it could have been that their credibility was questionable, or they didn't have enough relevance to the overall purpose of the Bible.

Fictions don't matter when the overall purpose of the bible is taken into matter. In that aspect, the bible carries what it needs to have

Totally agreed.

[Fi Zoraa]

Seeing the book is presented as fiction, I see no reason for the comparison. As Christians, I don't think our mind should be after the completeness of the bible. Rather it should be about the significance of the bible we have at hand in our life.

I agree. I think the message God intended to leave us with is full enclosed in the Bible as it is.

[Fi Zoraa]

As someone who isn't particularly religious but is interested in theology, I very much find fiction in the biblical world fascinating. Whether you believe or not, they are compelling stories which teach us lessons about human struggles.

I'd say there is no way to know what is or isn't missing from the Bible. When looking at any historical texts, we can only know what there is by what we find. As a compilation of stories, parables and prophesies gathered over millenia from many sources (some unnamed) that have been translated, edited and altered countless times, it's impossible to know.

What people forget is the only surviving translation of the Bible today, the one we all see as 'gospel truth' is known as the King James Bible because it was changed by order of the King. Certain parts, phrases and allegedly whole passages were not to his liking, so he ordered the old versions to be destroyed. This is something that has been done many times throughout history when men in power wished to use the word of God to control subjects. Dozens of other works draw from that source to give their own view, but everything we want to see as definitive is not.

There are also multiple conspiracies regarding excerpts that were lost or intentionally withdrawn, including the gospel of Mary, who was thought to be Jesus' wife. A real 5th century text that was found in the 1800s. The sexism of the time couldn't allow a woman to be praised and it was shunned by Catholics who were insulted that a mortal woman could possibly be loved more than anyone else. The Romans had a council who would decide what belonged in the Bible. The gospel of Peter was cut out too. Again, partly due to the allegation of favouritism, because some thought it was unkind for Jesus to appear to favour Peter over other apostles. Texts written by man, discovered and retold by man to inform and in some cases manipulate man.

My point is, there's so many things we don't know. I am comfortable with fictional interpretations filling in the gaps or offering another perspective, as long as it isn't totally changed. We must respect what's there because it's the source. Perhaps one day everything that survived the ages will be found and shared.

This has always interested me too. That why I find it so intriguing when people get caught up in arguments about very specific passages in the bible.

[Abacus]

The bible is based on a translation which some scholars question. If the original translation is inaccurate in any way, then, for example, the concept of the 30 pieces of silver paid to Judas Iscariot as a bribe may be hopelessly misunderstood or wrong.

[FaithMO19]

I believe that there is a certain part of the bible that condemns adding to its contents. Also, I do not think that the Bible is incomplete; think about the books you have read, there are certain aspects that authors intentionally leave out probably for effect or because they didn't think it necessary to include it in the book. Does that mean that the book was incomplete? No, I do not think so. Every story in the bible is there for a particular reason, we cannot expect to be given details about everything that happened in the bible. Besides, the Bible is a historical book written from the point of view of different people through the help of the holy spirit, humans are limited in knowledge, it's not possible to have the full picture of every event.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I believe the Bible is complete. Killing Abel is a fictional novel, and therefore I do not think that anything that was written out from someone's imagination would be able to make the Bible incomplete.

This fiction does not make it incomplete. But there are gaps in the chronological order

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I believe God's word is complete just as He is inspired men to write it. I believe we have everything we need for our is in the scriptures.

Maybe the scriptures has everything, but we are not seeing them

[Sushan Ekanayake]

This may be where people will have problems. I have seen Christian writers who develop fictional stories from the Bibles plot making it more relatable taking care to remain on the original track.
The problem is when someone veers off, trying to rewrite history, develop a spinoff series or something
Christians may have problems with that

But really, just how much freedom does a writer have with the original plot?
What's considered fair?

I am Christian and I have no problem with fictional stories about the Bible, as long as the authors make it clear that they are fictional and make no claim to authenticity. Religious texts will always be talked about and interpreted. These interpretations will always be embodied and contextualized in the societies through which they travel. This is inevitable and I have no problem with that. As long as the core messages of Christianity are left intact, which I think they often are in these fictional stories, I do not see it as offensive or unrighteous.

Growing up, I was often told stories about the Bible and saints which I am sure were heavily "fictionalized," but the purpose behind it was always to bring me closer to God in a way that was suitable to my age. I think everything is considered fair as long as there are no claims to authenticity to the Scriptures and the core Christian values are not altered. After all, do we not see images of Jesus and saints that might not be even close to reality? And have they not contributed to us feeling closer to them and enhancing our spirituality?

True, they do enhance our spirituality and usually the fictionalizing of these elements work to draw us closer.
I agree with what you have said. I was wondering about the borderlines?, what happens when fiction do alter core Christian values and bring in foreign ways of thinking?
Well I suppose we can only hope it eventually doesn't

The core is always same. Only the icing part will be changed from author to author, and from book to book

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I understand your view Sushan, some parts are left out of the stories in the Bible. Does it make the Bible incomplete, I doubt that. Infact I think it makes it beautiful in its own way, God allows for the use of imagination here.
Remember the use of the Holy Spirit, to bring us into all truth, to show us these ancient paths.


I believe God told stories necessary for our learning in the Bible as previously quoted but we can't know everything that happened, every thought every character had. There'd be no place for development of Christians. Just spoonfed babies

That is a nice way of thinking. So even in the Bible there is space for free will and imagination

Absolutely.
Within the context of core Christian values of course.
So one doesn't freely think himself away from Christianity..

Imagine that!

No one will try to change the core concepts, and if that happened none of the true believers will believe that