[AzNASCARfan]

It takes an act of faith to believe the entire bible is the literal word of God... There is much of it that sounds too far fetched to be true, like Noah’s ark and the flood covering the whole earth... or Jonah and the whale. I think it stems from us trying to put the greatness of God into simple human understanding and being limited to humans words and especially after the languages were confused. The example I got was that the Hebrew language used I think 5 or 6 different words that would all be translated in English to the same word, Love.

I had a really hard time trying to figure out what the King James version was saying, much less what it meant. I was taught the bible had all the answers man had on how we should live our lives... but I did not know what it was saying. I really did not even pick one up, most of my adult life... and especially after the internet when I could just search for, what does the bible say about “X”
(which is still a good tool, many times you get multiple good verses back to read...)

Last year I found Amir Tsarfati and he kept talking about Ezekiel’s war brewing, so instead of reading the King James version I found an online NIV version and read Ezekiel... I understood what he was saying, so then I decided it was time to read the whole bible.

I got an Interlinear NIV Hebrew-English Old Testament because I wanted to see the original text translated as it was written, But the NIV is just written in plain English that you don’t need to try to figure out what it is saying...

I found it interesting listening to somebody reading the King James while following along in my NIV and where they read something different, they come back and clarify with exactly what my Bible says in the first place.

[Conan the Librarian]

The other issue with the King James is that King James ordered certain passages changed to fit his thinking.

For example, the Hebrew Bible says “You will not murder”, the King James says “Thou shall not kill”. Big difference. But King Jame wanted it to say “kill” so the translators made it say that.

[fso301]

It takes an act of faith to believe the entire bible is the literal word of God.

And why couldn't God literally use allegory, metaphor and descriptions suitable for comprehension by a primitive people?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I use NLT, but it’s basically plain, modern English, also.

[Dogbert41]

"It takes an act of faith to believe the entire bible is the literal word of God... "

Oh it's much more difficult to believe than that! Jesus is the Word made flesh.