If some parts of the Bible can't be trusted how can any of it?

What parts of the Bible are reliable or literally true and what parts are untrue or unreliable? Does it matter?Are we allowed to decide for ourselves over a period of time what parts of common folklore are true or reliable with regard to inherent truths and which parts of common folklore are bunk and without merit?I certainly hope that reasonable people eventually come to reasonable answers to such a reasonable question.Example: If someone gave you a bushel basket full of 100-dollar bills, and you discovered four or five counterfeit bills in the first say two hundred that you counted out, would you then dispose of the whole lot?Peace. Ab.This message has been edited by Abshalom, 05-28-2004 05:37 PM

My goodness, man. The Iliad is supposed to be the first instance of use of the Greek Alphabet. Moreover, the centuries-old story that inspired the writer was sung by Homer (a blind and illiterate minstrel) with such fervent passion and poetry that it gave rise to an entire friggin' classic style and writing system! "No more substance that the Iliad" indeed.Peace. Ab.

Re: "[That it's] a good possibility [that] by 'in His image' the Bible means something other than physical appearance."Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 26: "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" (The New American Standard Bible)Let's look at a few of the Hebrew words in this passage."Let Us MAKE MAN in Our IMAGE, according to Our LIKENESS ... to RULE OVER [the other animals]."(MAKE) asah: make, FASHION, produce, prepare.
(MAN) adam: man, human being, (or as more often intended in Torah) MANKIND (note the plural usage of "let THEM rule over...").
(IMAGE) tselem: image (usually in the sense of a heathen god), likeness, SEMBLENCE.
(LIKENESS) d'muwth: likeness, similtude, MANNER.
(RULE OVER) radah: dominate, have dominion over, rule, tread down, subjugate.So, briefly:Elohim said, "Let Us fashion mankind so that he rules over fish, birds, cattle, and the other creatures in Our natural creation similarly to the manner in which We would if We chose not to create mankind."This, I think, is how the fabricators of the story viewed mankind's status in the natural order.Peace. Ab.

Re: "I'm a little confused. Who's Elohim?""Elohim is the common name for God. It is a plural form, but "The usage of the language gives no support to the supposition that we have in the plural form Elohim, applied to the God of Israel, the remains of an early polytheism, or at least a combination with the higher spiritual beings" (Kautzsch). Grammarians call it a plural of majesty or rank, or of abstraction, or of magnitude (Gesenius, Grammatik, 27th ed., nn. 124 g, 132 h). The Ethiopic plural amlak has become a proper name of God. Hoffmann has pointed out an analogous plural elim in the Phoenician inscriptions (Ueber einige phon. Inschr., 1889, p. 17 sqq.), and Barton has shown that in the tablets from El-Amarna the plural form ilani replaces the singular more than forty times (Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, 21-23 April, 1892, pp. cxcvi-cxcix)." (Catholic Encyclopedia)P.S.; Re: "Judging by how things have been going on earth for the past millenia, whether fabricators or recitors of God's word, I'd say they were right."Barring any sudden impacts with large asteroids, I would agree. Peace. Ab.

Hezekiah made a "b'rekah" (pool or pond), and a "t'alah" (watercourse or trench), and caused water to come in to the town.Quite a welcomed feat of crude engineering for folks who highly valued a reliable, steady, and relatively fresh supply of water; but hardly rocket science.Also remember, this was at a time when other Old World cultures had developed lengthy stone aquaducts, and stone-aged residents of the Peruvian desert had layed out miles of surface monumentation aligned with an intricate underground network of well-maintained water conduits. So, really Hezekiah's feat of connecting a pond with the town using an open trench was no big deal.Peace. Ab.This message has been edited by Abshalom, 06-04-2004 02:26 PM