mini_mouse said:
I think it's more the inaccuracies in the Bible (e.g. its inconsistencies) that are most telling when it comes to giving insight toward the social, political, cultural and economic issues of the day. A lot of the dates and characters are verifiable and so, in this sense, the Bible is a worthy historical document but, as with most historical sources, it's the telling of the tale that most tells of the teller. For example, take the Gospel of John and compare it to the other three Gospels. The sequence of events are totally different and the places of emphasis are completely different too. In John, for example, Jesus' human lineage is ignored and he is instead promoted as the supernatural Word. In the Synoptics, however, he is linked to the line of David, and a good many chapters are dedicated to his infant human development and parentage. All the Gospel writers are writing about the same man, however, because they have different messages about him that they wish to emphasise, they tell their tales differently. It's inconsistency like this that, for me at least, speaks the most about the cultural climate at the time each verse, chapter and book was written.
... sorry for the ramble ... I'm really interested in the philosophy of religion so I tend to get a bit verbose 
<<<<<< me
bye now
j/k well um I cannot touch that one.
but there are indeed some remarkable instances of accuracy that cannot be denied.
the thing that really bakes my noodle is the prophesies.
there are 8 out of like 300+ THAT CAME TRUE, THAT even the most schepticle have said "yea shoot I can't refute that one"
a mathematician, who used the relatively new science of probablity took those 8 prophecies and basically said the likely hood of those being able to come true was something like piling the entire state of texas with sliver dollars 2 feet high, marking one of the silver dollars with a red x, and telling someone with a blinde fold to go in and find the marked silver dollar.
non the less 8 univerSALLY ACCEPTED HAVE COME TRUE, ALTHOUGH i can't name them, cus I am not a scholar
one example is the prosperous city of TYRE, and it's overthrow by NEBAKANEZZUR, and it final destruction many years later by Alexander the Great...this was all predicted and recorded with extreme accuracy.
i'm bableing, but another interesting side note is that the text of the bible itself is extremely accurate with the language of previuos Authors, which thus at least lends some validity to what the preson who wrote the information down at the time was actually seeing.
Rabbis who would transfer the text of the Old testament for example would throw away whole pages of transcribed material if even ONE comma or letter was out of place in the document.
when the dead sea scrolls were found, one entire scroll was found of a complete work..MATHEW, or MARK...soemthing that started with an M but I have now forgotten.
and when scholars went over it and compared it to copies that were modern
the modern text was only 5% off from the original scroll.
how accurate can you get.
4 % innacurracies were ascribed to musplaced lettere, and grammer devices.
and 1 % percent was for the misrepresentation of one word
and that was the word "light"
Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
and guess that big4 would apply that to living as a homosexual also, for instance, which would essentially create conflict with your agreement with his statement.
