New Christian Bible Study

Commentary

 

The Bible - Authoritative?

How do we decide what rules to live by? We're here, in the 21st century, with brains that give us capabilities far beyond those of other animals, and tools and knowhow far beyond our ancestors of even just 200 years ago. There are between 7 and 8 billion of us. We have many choices available to us. So... how should we live.

Clearly, for Christians, the Bible's an important guide. But... how much of the Bible? There are at least 7 different canons (books that are accepted as being part of the Bible) in the different branches of Christianity. Then, too, of the books we accept as canonical, how literally do we take them? All of them? The New Testament weighted more than the Old? How much should our understanding of the internal sense modify our acceptance of the literal sense?

This is going to be a big subject. Right now, it's going to be a work in progress -- a notepad of sorts. Here's one set of thoughts:

The Lord repeatedly warns the Children of Israel against situations where "everyone does what is right in his own eyes". It's pretty clear that we aren't supposed to be laws unto ourselves. See Deuteronomy 12:1-12, Jeremiah 34:8-17, Judges 17:6, and Proverbs 21:2.

The Bible

 

Jeremiah 34:8-17

Study

      

8 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them;

9 that every man should let his male servant, and every man his female servant, who is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should make bondservants of them, [to wit], of a Jew his brother.

10 All the princes and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant, that everyone should let his male servant, and everyone his female servant, go free, that none should make bondservants of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go:

11 but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

12 Therefore the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

13 Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,

14 At the end of seven years you shall let go every man his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to you, and has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you: but your fathers didn't listen to me, neither inclined their ear.

15 You had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:

16 but you turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their pleasure, to return; and you brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.

17 Therefore thus says Yahweh: you have not listened to me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim to you a liberty, says Yahweh, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.

      

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