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Psalm 137. It’s a beautiful passage, and there several hymns made out of it. Except, you know, they always leave out that last bit. In fact, nobody ever says anything about that last bit, ever. You wouldn’t know it existed. Why is that? Because it’s creepy. Dashing their children against the rocks? Ew! Come to think of it, there are quite a few passages that people just sort of ignore. And yet, there are all these people who claim that they believe in the Bible unfailingly, and so on and so forth, while ignoring all those shifty passages. There are lost of others, like 1 Samuel 18, about Jonathan and David.




Not to even begin talking about all the passages on Marriage.
So tell me
- What do you think about all these ignored passages?
- What do you think it means to “Follow the Bible”?
- How do we judge what rules to follow, and which ones to ignore?
- (And whatever else you have to say on the subject, or other passages you’d like to add.)

*g* I always wondered what people who claim that the Bible has to be followed word by word are doing in their spare time...

Now back to topic. Following the Bible is somewhat difficult. Psalm 137 shows pretty well that the Bible has to be interpreted more often than one might think. I didn't even understand what was meant by the described passage until I looked it up in my German Bible. Luckily enough a footnote explained what was meant: Psalm 137 is a lament from the Israelites in the Babylonian captivity while verse 9 is a curse that expresses the harsh feelings of the Israelites towards their Babylonian masters.

In its' historical context the passage is much more understandable. It's an emotional outcry, an expression of feelings not an advice from God. If there's anything this passage tells us to do than it's something like that one has to take a look at the Jewish history before judging Israelite actions nowadays. (That's just an example, because I find it very difficult to understand or even judge Near East politics.)


The second passage is more difficult to interprete for me, because my German translation means that Jonathan loved David the same as his own life. The German word used for "covenant" ("Bund") has much more meanings than "marriage" and related meanings. Some possible synonyms for "Bund" are "tie", "alliance", even "treaty" may be used. Maybe the meaning becomes clearer when I found out what role Jonathan plays in the story about Saul and David. (Does anyone know? It's been a while since I read the last time in this story...)

To cut a long story short, understanding the Bible to be really able to follow it, is a work in progress that's impossible to finish during a lifetime. Still it's important to follow the Bible by using one's own conscience, gathering information, ask questions and trust in God for the rest.

Nor do I think that anyone follows the majority of the Bible's rules about say, Marriage. I am going to build on what you say, and say that I think a lot of the people sort of equate the Bible with God. Now, don't get me wrong, the Bible is God's word, and it's amazing, but as you said, there's a lot of historical and translational context that you have to take into account, and also the fact that it was penned by men. I know that when I'm feeling sad or down, or any kind of feeling, I can almost always just open the Bible and read just what I needed to at that moment, it's nothing short of amazing, frankly, but that does not mean that I feel the need to take all of the Bible Literally. Because that would just be silly, I think.

Now, I haven't read the bible all the way through [I'm a horrible christian, I know] so i don't really know all the ignored verses...

But one thing that always gets me is that there is a Commandment, that is routinely ignored, and no one says a damned thing:

Remember the Sabbath Day and Keep it Holy.


There was a man refered to in the bible that was picking up sticks off the ground on the sabbath, and he was put to death.
No, I'm obviously not suggesting that we put people who work on the sabbath to death, I'm merely wondering why we follow 9 out of the 10 commandments, and simply omit that one as if its not important....?

The sabbath is Saturday...just an FYI

cuz the week starts on sunday
and god rested on the 7th day of the week...saturday...

....possibly

The only reason I even brought any of this up is my pastor did a sermon on this about a month ago and this thread made me remember...but yeah, he said Saturday, and untill then I had always thought it was Sunday.

Yes, the Bible is God's revealed Word to us, but it is also an historical document. Almost the entirety of the Old Testament and New Testament is history as viewed through the eyes of the Jews, God's Chosen people. In order to understand their viewpoint, we need to examine the culture in which they lived. We must try to understand to the best of our ability why they thought the way they did in order to understand the majority of the verses in the Bible.

God guided the hands of men to write the Bible and preserve it. Through the words in the Bible God gives us a glimpse of His plan and hopes for us, but we have to dig for the Bible is trapped in time - in a time radically different from our own.

This important fact is something many people forget, and it is why I cannot agree with taking the Bible literally just as I cannot agree with sola scriptura, for God did not just reveal Himself through the Bible. I of course have a long, descriptive essay on sola scriptura, but that's not really relevant with this topic, so let's save that for another day.

So in essence, I agree that the Bible simply cannot be taken literally and that the ignored verses need to be taken in their historical and cultural context in order to be fully understood.

Colossians 2:13-17 deals with the sabbath specifically, and the entire old laws indirectly. ^-