Blasphemy Challenge

That changed when I mentioned that a list of verses from the Bible which they feel show the ludicrousness of the Bible, might mean something different in the original Hebrew. To make my point I did what anyone should do when reading a translation, if possible, I checked the original. Rather than debate my argument on the merits, on a subforum supposedly devoted to discussing the Bible, they proceeded to attack me. Each individual claimed that my knowledge of Hebrew was irrelevant, then they began to ridicule my intelligence, and things escalated from there.

Allow me me to be your Virgil through on this particular ring of the inferno.

First, I hope you hang around. You will find a few people who are commited to their religious tradition who soemtimes make valuable contributions and advance the debate. A kind of brain surgery in which your presuppositions and conclusions are tested forcing you to either modify of reinforce them. This kind of refining fire can sharpen you if it doesn't melt you. Having said that, there are a number of bigots on this forum who gather like flies to a dead rabbit, and their sole reason for existence is manifest their bottomless bigotry usually in the most vile and vulgar way that they can conceive to you. The best thing you can do in these instances is to not oxyginate them with any kind of a response. The upshot is that this kind of tar-baby wrestling is a waste of time and will only degrade you. There are also a number of people who in terms of their mental bandwidth are on the wrong side of the bell curve, and these you can also pass by without regrets. However, having said all of that, there are some people on this forum who are deep, creative thinkers in the best sense, some whom have advanced schooling in theology, philosophy, and other areas, and are among the best interloculors that you will find anywhere. For me at least, it makes it worthwhile.

As to the substance of your post, I'm skeptical that one can assign a definitive interpretation to specific original words. Of course, there are no original words, in the case of the texts of either of our traditions. We are after all reading copies of copies of the originals. Secondly, I think it is a somewhat meaningless exercise either to demonstrate the credability or the absurdity of those texts. I think it's perhaps even a fallacy when someone tries to nail a theological point by saying, "Well, according to the original language, this is the way it is." The fallacy lies in the fact that words don't interpret themselves. We need to interpret and contextualize those words. The Bible as a whole contains many kinds of writing, and unless we agree that we are reading poetry in distinction to history, say, no knowledge of original words is going to advance our understanding, IMO. Sometimes, a statement may have one meaning or many meanings. Sometimes, the meaning of that statement may change over time, as it is reinterpreted in application to new circumstances, not unlike our Constitution. I think, however, to assign a single meaning to statements in the Bible or any writing for that matter is a mistake. The best one can do, in my opinion, is to approach it as you would any truth proposition-- here is what it is; here is what I think it means; and here is why I think it means thus.