You are very trusting jenyar. Why are you so sure? The game chinese whispers is traditionally taught to children in early elementary school by teachers, its a good way for children to learn that they shouldn't believe EVERYTHING they hear. Seems you were sick that day Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! As talented as the prophets might have been the phenomenon is unnavoidable. The stories change little by little each time they are told, over thousands of years its going to be a pretty big change, translating to a different language? forget about it! There is no way genesis could be the same as it originally was. I think this is obvious by just reading the damn thing, but when you use logic to really think about its history it could be said that there is absolutely no way in hell that todays genesis would be a perfect representation of the original, in its words intentions or meanings.
How much was this story changed since its inscription. How many chinese ears did it pass through? What you are making is a broad and wild statement. You have provided no proof of anything that has been changed. You reject any scolarly research on oral traditions, and stick with your irrefutable chinese whispers. As you can see, I also don't believe everything I hear.
Every form of belief has some degree of "convenience". To claim otherwise, you would have to be an anarchic nihilist.
Jenyar, First of all, that is written, is it not? Then that does not qualify as "oral." Secondly, that hardly is a good comparison... a simple sentence is not like trying to relate the whole chapter Genesis, not in the least... how many pages are there in Genesis? I don't have a Bible anymore so I can't look it up. As Dr Lou pointed out, it is a very good example of the reality of what happens to stories. Here let me tell you a story that takes an hour to tell... then you repeat it back to me 5 years later without changing a SINGLE WORD. Whether is a sign of today's times or not is irrelevant to the fact that you couldn't do it. Furthermore, people would change the story to suit their new times... like a new generation of children who live in a different world (things change ya know)... sometimes in order for the children to understand you have to simplify or change the situations to fit the "new times." This is just reality, it is very unrealistic to think that a huge tale wouldn't change over time being passed on.
It's generally agreed that the stories of creation, Noah, and Babel were oral accounts before being put into writing. From Abraham onward the writing is more detailed. This might have been writen during Abraham's time or written by Moses under the direction of God. However the Israelites must have heard of Abraham before Moses because an explanation would have to be given to circumcision. In oral traditions it is common to purposely change the story to make it lend more interest. You can study the variations in the oral stories of Mali, for example. Professional bards can repeat stories for two hours or more. However these same stories have been recited and heard many times. So the bard is forced to add new stuft to the story.
