Bible Secret #5: I found the Bible boring. No, wait... that's not much of a secret. Even my Mom figured that out. But what I did when I found the Bible boring... now that is Secret #5.
I became a bible hoarder. My answer to the boredom of the bible was just to change versions. Maybe the bible itself wasn't boring... maybe just the translations were dry. So I would pick up a new translation and that would revive my interest for a while. But it didn't take long and that book, or library of books, would dry up again. I kept finding new ways to be bored and new translations or paraphrases wouldn't help. I even attempted to learn Greek, so I could read the New Testament in its original language. That was an unfulfilled challenge, but maybe the most heart felt one. I still have my Greek New Testament... I didn't give it away yet.
The last translation I tried was just a few years ago. "The First Nations Version" New Testament. I thought this might be the one that would end the dryness. It changed the names of the main characters and changed the oppressive language. It seemed even more inviting than my experience with the Message... which was a translation that held my attention for the longest time. Eventually, I let go of that one too. When I woke up and found myself 2000 years past the story... I couldn't be inspired anymore.
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I am 2000 years past the story. So with that fact in mind, I ask myself... What really matters? How can we really know that the man that Christianity is built on really was someone who walked the planet? Most bible scholars are convinced that Jesus existed. Even Atheist Bible Scholar Bart Ehrman is convinced that someone existed that eventually became the model that Christianity was built on. But not everyone is convinced.
Richard Carrier and David Fitzgerald were two voices that peaked my interest as of late. After a few years of being a Bart Ehrman fan, I wanted to listen to their side of the story. Why were they not convinced that there was an actual man that the stories were based on. Was Jesus all myth and no man? Carrier and Fitzgerald seem to think so.
I mentioned during Day 28 that there was one issue I had with Bart Ehrman that led to my disinterest in pursuing his influence in my life. He still has amazing stuff out there and is a good resource I would still recommend. I just didn't like his distaste for the mythicist perspective. It seemed to me that Bart was mocking that perspective as having no place in biblical scholarship. It drove me to listen more to the mythicist perspective and my understanding is that there is a lot less certainty in the mythicist view than there is in Ehrman's take on Jesus existence. I guess it's the certainty that sours my palate now. I am 2000 years past the story... we all are... we can't really "know"... we can only guess and eventually only believe.
I will share the interviews these two mythicists had with Seth Andrews on The Thinking Atheist and then conclude with my conclusion about the second question in my title... because I don't think I can answer the first.
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Do I really care about the answer?
The simple answer is no. I just admitted that the actual written story had a difficult time holding my interest for so many years. I could remember the stories, but did they actually mean something to me? Could I even relate to them as humans. The answer to that is no. I admitted in one of my bible secrets that I thought the bible characters weren't human like me. I couldn't relate to them. They couldn't connect with me in my space. It may be why I lost interest.
I am still hoping one day that I can connect again with the words as literature, even though they hold no power for me anymore. Maybe one day. But not today.
