Penn and Teller: A Helping Hand

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Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. --Matthew 5:17

What this means is that although Jesus is not suggesting that the Law was wrong or unnecessary, He has taken care of all of our obligations toward it, if we follow Him. It's no longer necessary for anyone to live under Mosaic Law.

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By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. --Hebrews 8:13

Self explanatory.

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But seriously, remeber that the Bible has been translated so many times, into so many languages. You don't suppose that a massive game of telephone won't skew the origional message do you?

I can see this misconception is never going to be reversed, no matter how hard anyone tries, but here goes.

It has been translated into every world language but not sequentially, which is almost what you're making it sound like. We have texts in Greek which date back to the first century. There are some fragments which possibly could have been read by people who actually witnessed some of the events they talk about. Any new Bible you see if translated directly from the oldest (first centry) manuscripts we have.

And about telephone. Let me remind you that for the longest time, the oldest copy of the Old Testament we had dated back to 900 AD. Then, suddenly, we discovered the Dea Sea Scrolls and the writing was nearly identical. That's over 1000 years the text has survived without any of the effects of a telephone game.

It may seem odd that the culture of the OT was harsh, but look at the culture in that part of the world today. It's not even all that much more civilized. Somehow, in a place where people still get their hands cut off for stealing, I can believe anything you tell me they did over 4000 years ago.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

It's almost impossible for anyone today to really understand what their society was like. It was brutal. Stealing food might not seem like such a big deal to us, but it wasn't so easy to survive back then. Sometimes stealing someone's food at the wrong time could endanger their lives or the lives of their relatives. I can see how it would be a serious offense.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Well, a cookie is a luxury. People didn't have luxuries back then. Misappropriation of the food supply could be a serious issue and harsh laws may have been needed as a deterrent. No one really knows how often any of these laws were enforced, if ever, by the way.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Kings were also kind of not subject to law.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?