Is the Bible a quality book? (Fiction or not)

[Eloi]

So it's not really the whole bible, just the end times, but they're still some of my favorite books.

Those airport fantasy novels with a seriously flawed view on theology pale in comparison to the actual Bible, story-wise.

 

[#1 bro]

This seems like a pretty irrelevant question for a few reasons

1) Like ultraviolet said, it was written a very very long time ago and it's impossible for us to read it the same way the intended audience did.

2) Somehow, I don't really think the writers of the Bible wrote it for people to read sitting with their feet up in an armchair by the fire, sipping on their class of champagne, thinking "this is a riveting tale!" The Bible is pretty clearly meant to be a historical text, and asking if it's a good book is like asking "is your history textbook a good book".

3) Has anyone here actually read the bible?

also:

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, Abijah the father of Asa, Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram, Jehoram the father of Uzziah, Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz, Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon, Amon the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim, Eliakim the father of Azor, Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim, Akim the father of Elihud, Elihud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah. Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.

 

[Tailsy]

Are you kidding

I read the dictionary as a kid >:C THE BIBLE WAS NOTHING

OK I'm lying but I did get to... ... oh fuck knows. I got somewhere! And I remember being confused that the Corinthians never replied to letters.

 

[ultraviolet]

So many parts of the Bible talk about love, beauty, loss and other experiences that humanity has experienced through every age; just as people can still relate to Shakespeare's sonnets can people people still relate to the psalms.

yes, so many parts. You'll be hard-pressed to find someone who reads the bible in its entirety and takes from it the intended ideas of whenever it was written. Of course we can take those lessons about it, but lots of it's pretty hard to comprehend from a contemporary perspective unless you deliberately appreciate how old it is.

 

[Stormecho]

I... actually read it for fun. I was eight or so at the time. :P It had a ton of pages, so it would take me a while, I had nothing else in the house to read, and I considered myself automatically Catholic back then due to family and school. Genesis was okay, Exodus was interesting until the desert - and then the people were all so stupid. I found it weird that God was supposed to be nice and apparently spent his time razing towns and turning people into pillars of salt for being human and having free will. Also the one big section - I believe it was Leviticus - that was all laws and "make this altar out of this much gold/precious metals" bored me to tears, so I generally skipped it. I also was confused by why Israel kept being compared to some kind of wailing woman - I didn't know what a prostitute was back then. >>

I found the New Testament even more boring, because we were learning about it in class every day, so I tended to read the OT more. The prophets were the most interesting is because they had cool dreams of three-headed eagles and horns that talked, if I remember them correctly.

...I don't even know where the Bible is in our house anymore. Oh well~ It wasn't that good of a read anyways - I found Lord of the Rings far more enthralling.

 

[goldenquagsire]

The Bible is pretty clearly meant to be a historical text, and asking if it's a good book is like asking "is your history textbook a good book".

prospective history undergrad here: good writing is pretty much a prerequisite for most academic history books apart from basic textbooks. :P