Questions tagged [bible]
Typically the lists of collected canonical text used in Christian religions. Can also refer to any set of collected works which are purported to sum up or represent the central beliefs of any group.
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Are the mathematical constants e and π encoded in the Bible?
Some numerologists claim that the mathematical constants e and π are encoded in the Bible via gematria.
For example, blogger Joe Vasta argues that Genesis 1:1 encodes 3.141554508×1017.
The value of π ...
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Did the ten plagues take place in Ancient Egypt?
Inspired by this question.
Is there any extrabiblical evidence that any or all of the ten plagues occurred as outlined in Exodus 7:14-11:10? Particularly, any evidence in Ancient Egyptian records?
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Are these occurences of the mathematical constants e and pi in The Bible at all exceptional? [closed]
This article translates the first verses of Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1, into Hebrew and Greek numeric values, then uses a single formula on both to get good approximations for e and pi, each times large ...
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Did Winston Churchill say the King James Bible had been translated into more than 760 languages?
In the Jack Chick video "Where was the Bible before 1611? How can we know God endorsed the KJV?" (linked here), this claim is made:
You know, Winston Churchill said that the King James Bible had ...
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Did the bible say slavery was okay? [closed]
I am in high school and we are doing a report on why slavery is or is not okay. A lot of my peers have been saying that the bible says there is nothing wrong with slavery. Is this really true?
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Could a man survive in the belly of a fish for 3 days? [closed]
Jonah 1:17, 2:10 ESV - And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. ... And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited ...
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Are there textual deviations between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Old Testament?
This article claims:
Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls has increased the faith of
Bible-believers. Why? Because they prove that the hand-copied texts
that have come down from the Masoretic scribes ...
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Did the walls of Jericho fall outward?
According to the Associates for Biblical Research, the walls at Tell es-Sultan (the Biblical Jericho) fell outward:
In reality what Kenyon, Garstang and other excavators have found at Jericho ...
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Was the Pentateuch dated back to the second millenium B.C.E?
This source claims, and walks through proof, that the 5 Books of Moses (Pentateuch) date all the way back to at least the era of Joshua ~1200 years B.C.E. Is this really true?
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Is the New Testament significantly corrupted from its originally intended form?
I have seen "evidence" that we know with a great degree of certainty and accuracy what the original New Testament bible said. This is to say, we know what the original authors wrote. I'm not sure how ...
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Is owning a bible punishable by death in North Korea?
This article claims that people may be killed for owning a bible. How true is it?
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How old is Judaism?
I've recently read this BBC article which makes the claim that Judaism originated some time around 2000 B.C, if not earlier. I've seen a number of sources which make similar claims (1, 2). Perhaps I'...
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Did "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife" originally refer not to sex but to housework?
In "Debt: The First 5000 Years" by David Graeber, there is a claim on page 129:
Even in the Bible, the admonition in the Ten Commandments not to "covet thy neighbor's wife" clearly referred not to ...
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Does the bible explicitly forbide homosexuality? [closed]
It's pretty common to hear that the bible condemn homosexuality, I've seen many references to versus. However, there is a good amount of debate as to which verses are actually speaking specifically ...
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Was marriage defined as "selling your daughter for three goats and a cow" in the Bible?
The organisation Planting Peace recently put up a billboard in controversial county clerk Kim Davis' hometown:
Dear Kim Davis, The fact that you can't sell your daughter for three goats and a cow ...
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Has a "chariot army" been found at the bottom of the Red Sea?
It's apparently quite a popular story to "disprove doubting Atheists" regarding the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea by the Israelites during the Exodus of the Hebrew bible that in the ...
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Has the documentary hypothesis become invalid? [closed]
The documentary hypothesis is a hypothesis which proposes that the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were ...
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Has anyone ever memorized the entire bible?
I remember hearing an old legend growing up that Noah Webster (author of the American Dictionary) memorized the entire bible. The claims seem dubious and difficult to prove.
Has anyone ever memorized ...
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Have there been documented cases of "blood pumping from the trunks of trees"?
Several British news reports (including the BBC "Bleeding trees") describe trees issuing red blood-like liquid when cut.
Once the stuff of myth and legend, modern day eye-witnesses now catch on ...
user3150
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Did the Hebrew exodus from Egypt ever happen?
The Book of Exodus describes a movement of the Hebrews from Egypt, through the desert, and into the Palestine/Israel region.
It also describes a number miracles, such as the ten plagues and the ...
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Is the mustard seed the smallest of seeds?
From Matthew 13:31-32,
31 He [Jesus] put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, ...
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Did a magnitude 8.2 earthquake hit Jerusalem in 33AD?
A Telegraph article makes an interesting claim, in a discussion about the Shroud of Turin:
However a new study claims than an earthquake in Jerusalem in 33AD may have not only created the image but ...
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Do Jews mostly descend from Shem, son of Noah?
I mean, I am not exactly a creationist.
However, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shem
How come we have a race called "semite" as in anti-semite? It's as if people think that those people are descendant ...
user4951
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Are neanderthal skull fossils just skulls of very elderly humans?
Some people claim that the fossils that have been generally classified as Neanderthal are actually human, and in particular, humans who have lived to a very old age - i.e. two or three hundred years ...
user11643
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Do magicians in Egypt turn sticks into snakes?
Rabbi Lawrence Keleman in his book Permission to Receive states that Egyptian magicians today (or when the study it was based on was published in 1960) do a similar stick-snake trick as in the Book of ...
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Were technologically advanced artifacts found at the Durupinar "ark" site?
My social media stream lately has been awash with claims about items supposedly discovered at a site discovered by Turkish army captain Llhan Durupınar in 1959 that is believed by some to be the final ...
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Is Jesus Christ's birthday March 28th?
Prior to about a week ago, I've never known Christ's birthday to be anything other than December 25th. However, my kids are starting to tell me about how they're hearing claims from peers that this is ...
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Were snakes an ancient symbol of wisdom, fertility, and immortality?
Here is a quote from The New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV, with Apocrypha, discussing Genesis 3:1
This characterization of the snake emphasizes his wise craftiness, a
characteristic that ...
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Is the Bible the most shoplifted book?
Looking at several 'fun facts' pages, the claim of the Bible being the most shoplifted book appears on several of them. Example 1, Example 2, Example 3 Example 4
The Bible, the world's best-selling ...
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Does this creation model conflict with modern science? [duplicate]
Does this timeline, loosely based on the Bible, conflict with what the Bible or modern science teach about the age and order of the universe?
Creation Timeline Table
From the Moment of Creation to ...
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Are the Claims of Edward Carpenter (and others) historically accurate regarding the Zodiac and biblical interpretation?
In Edward Carpenter's, "Pagan & Christian Creeds : Their Origin and Meaning" one of the claims is made that the golden calf story in Exodus is allegorical due to the astrological turning of the ...
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Do hares chew cud?
In Leviticus 11:6, a hare is referred to as a "chewer of the cud." What evidence is there on this matter?
It is not necessary, strictly speaking, that the evidence be on chewing cud in the same sense ...
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Does the new Testament claim that Mary, mother of Jesus, was a virgin?
I have read from quite a few sources stating that there was a mistranslation in the Bible, calling Mary a "virgin" instead of a "young, marry-able woman". It would be interesting to know about such a ...
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Is the Bible (Christian and Hebrew) the first one to suggest that the Earth is a sphere?
This website claims that the bible is the first to suggest that earth is a sphere way before the Greeks.
A literal translation of Job 26:10 is “He described a circle upon the
face of the waters, ...
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Are rape victims forced to marry their rapist, according to the Old Testament?
(Copied from http://www.theliberaloc.com/2012/05/14/traditional-marriage-according-to-the-bible/)
Relevant portion of the text:
Marriage = Rapist and His Victim (Deuteronomy 22:28-29)
Virgin ...
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Is the Old Testament based on Bronze-Age myths?
Lately I have been reading a lot about the origins biblical stories, and I have noticed that a lot of people mock the bible and the christians by telling them that they follow bronze age myths/beliefs....
user7484
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Is the name of Prophet Muhammad mentioned in the Bible?
Is the name of the Prophet Muhammad or Ahmad mentioned in the Bible? Does Jesus predict the coming of Muhammad in the Bible?
This video (part 2) is an example of this claim. Here is a quote of a ...
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Was a duel between representatives of the fighting armies an accepted way to end armed conflicts in ancient time?
The bible describes the battle between Goliath and David as a dual between two champions each represents his side fighting between them selves to determine the outcome of a battle. The same is ...
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Did the biblical King David exist?
In this question: Are any notable biblical characters historical figures? the answer touches the Davidic dynasty and not king David himself. I was wondering whether or not there was a real "king David"...
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Do the key Abrahamic holy books claim that their god is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent?
The claim that the Abrahamic god is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent is popular among theologians, practitioners of Abrahamic religions and atheists alike (I am referring to the idea of god, ...
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Was Jesus crucified?
Assuming Jesus was a real person, it is a generally accepted fact that he died on a cross. On the other hand, Jehovah's Witnesses are of the belief that the crucifixion of Jesus is a mistranslation ...
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Did William Shakespeare help make the KJV bible?
Many believe because of the placement of specific words in Psalm 46 that William Shakespeare helped in the translation of the King James bible to English.
In 1610, the year of the final editing ...
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Does the Torah-encoded age of the universe match science?
Dr. Gerald Schroeder published an article in Aish.com about the age of the Universe and the Jewish bible:
So the only data I use as far as Biblical commentary goes is ancient
commentary. That ...
user4951
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Is Y-chromosomal Adam younger than Mitochondrial Eve?
A Christian claimed to me that: the Y-chromosomal Adam is way younger than the Mitochondrial Eve.
Is this true?
He argued that this was consistent with the biblical account: that Noah is Y-...
user4951
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Has Noah's ark been discovered in Turkey?
I found this website claiming that noah's ark has been found. Is there any archaeological or historical evidence to support or deny this claim?
Related Question: Could a Great Flood have happened?
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Do the majority of Americans take the Noah's ark story from the Bible literally?
From Most Americans take Bible stories literally:
An ABC News poll released Sunday found that... ...Sixty percent believe in the story of Noah’s ark and a global flood
This claim is often repeated,...
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Was the character of Lilith written out of the Bible?
I came across Lilith in the graphic novel Lucifer, but it seems she is mentioned in Jewish mythology Babylonian Talmud among other texts.
The story goes
Lillith was in the original creational
...
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Was there an eclipse when Jesus was crucified?
I've heard it claimed from various people that we have historical records for the darkness that was said to engulf the earth when Jesus was crucified. In the bible, it claims that there was, but I ...
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Is the IKEA catalogue being distributed in more prints than the Bible?
According to IKEA
The 2010 edition [of the catalogue] is the world’s third
most printed publication (next to the
Bible and Harry Potter)
But Martin Roth wrote an article in 2002 where he was ...
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Are any notable biblical characters historical figures?
Are any of the *main** characters who appear in the Bible that are real historical people, their existence supported by multiple sources.
In addition do their actions in the Bible support or ...
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