{"id":476,"date":"2011-01-03T16:11:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-03T16:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2011\/01\/what-is-the-bible\/"},"modified":"2011-01-03T16:11:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-03T16:11:00","slug":"what-is-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2011\/01\/what-is-the-bible.html","title":{"rendered":"What is the Bible?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>I often start my one-semester course on the Bible with the question \u201cWhat is the Bible?\u201d Even seemingly obvious answers \u2013 such as \u201cIt\u2019s a book\u201d \u2013 need to be qualified and corrected (it is in fact a <i>collection<\/i> of books and other kinds of literature).<\/p>\n<p>A couple of posts around the blogosphere relate to this subject, and how assumptions about what the Bible <i>is<\/i>\u00a0affect the way they read it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mysticalseeker.blogspot.com\/2011\/01\/conceptions-of-bible.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Mystical Seeker links to and discusses<\/a> an op-ed piece in the <i>Huffington Post<\/i> by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Bulletproof-Faith-Spiritual-Survival-Christians\/dp\/0470279281?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;link_code=btl&amp;camp=213689&amp;creative=392969\" target=\"_blank\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Rev. Candace Chellew-Hodge<\/a><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=jamefmcgrshom-20&amp;l=btl&amp;camp=213689&amp;creative=392969&amp;o=1&amp;a=0470279281\" style=\"border: none !important;margin: 0px !important;padding: 0px !important\" width=\"1\">, on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/rev-candace-chellewhodge\/why-gays-and-lesbians-sho_b_801399.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">why gays and lesbians should never argue Scripture<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Jim Spinsi saw a book offering Biblical models for marriages, and <a href=\"http:\/\/anebooks.blogspot.com\/2011\/01\/are-we-sure-thats-what-we-want.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">asks if that is really what anyone wants<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And from the <a href=\"http:\/\/failblog.org\/2011\/01\/03\/epic-fail-photos-puzzle-book-fail\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+failblog+(The+FAIL+Blog+-+Fail+Pictures+%26+Videos+at+Failblog.ORG)\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">FailBlog<\/a> via Google Reader, here\u2019s an image that illustrates nicely what some people wrongly think of the Bible as\u2026<\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both;text-align: center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/failblog.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/12\/203a269f-059f-4d6d-bf2d-61d5fa080040.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/failblog.files.wordpress.com\/2010\/12\/203a269f-059f-4d6d-bf2d-61d5fa080040.jpg\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7622297540113836091-8078142564157209598?l=exploringourmatrix.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I often start my one-semester course on the Bible with the question \u201cWhat is the Bible?\u201d Even seemingly obvious answers \u2013 such as \u201cIt\u2019s a book\u201d \u2013 need to be qualified and corrected (it is in fact a collection of books and other kinds of literature). A couple of posts around the blogosphere relate to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is the Bible?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I often start my one-semester course on the Bible with the question &quot;What is the Bible?&quot; Even seemingly obvious answers - such as &quot;It&#039;s a book&quot; - need to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2011\/01\/what-is-the-bible.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is the Bible?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I often start my one-semester course on the Bible with the question &quot;What is the Bible?&quot; Even seemingly obvious answers - such as &quot;It&#039;s a book&quot; - need to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2011\/01\/what-is-the-bible.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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