The words, ‘the Bible is a product of the culture of its time’ are what these people keep teaching undergraduates, church members, and the unbeliever. They are also words we heard when we were in undergraduate school as well.
They have been passed down from generation to generation as if they are some long-held truth. Instead, those words nullify most of the biblical commands, instructions, and other teachings the biblical authors have put into the content via God’s instruction.
That simple declaration opens up an escape clause that allows modern believers to cherry-pick which of the biblical verses they will accept and believe and which ones they will discard.
To use a word we do not like, that sentence empowers ‘Christians’ to take charge of the Bible and fashion it into a religious book that they like. Removing the harder to follow scriptures and focus on the easier ones, even though the latter is often misunderstood and misapplied.
As Peter has told us, the biblical content is not from any human source or private interpretation. That means that those words in that sentence are wrong. God did not take wise sayings, words of wisdom, or other top-quality works from secular culture or the unbelieving world and ‘Christianized them.’
The culture that the biblical content came from is not one from this world nor trapped in a limited era of history, applicable to that era alone. The Bible and its content come from a holy culture, one that transcends earthly time and is applicable in all eras of history.
….
The Biblical content comes from God who has his own culture. It is holy, just, fair, and it applies to everyone no matter how little, how big, how young, or how old.
The Bible has no earthly source and is God telling us how we are to live in his culture. Once we become Christians, we enter that culture and leave the old one behind. Our home is not this world, as the song goes, we are just passing through but as we pass through we are still expected to live by God’s culture, not this world’s.
— “Dr.” David Tee, Theologyarchaeology, Where the Bible Came From, May 19, 2021
YAAAAWWNNNN ……. Getting pretty boring. Of course the Bible was an artifact of the times. Several thousand years. Not unusual at all. The theory of Evolution is nearly as old, if not older [oldest publication on that theory is 2600 B.P. = (600 B.C.)].
For a “Doctor” of either theology or archaeology to write such a pack of nonsense is astonishing. If his doctorate came from a legitimate university, they should demand it back. “The Bible is a product of the culture of its time” is only partially true, of course. It was written, by people, over a very long period of time, for many different purposes, and copied and translated and taught, also by people, for even longer.
The Bible is not a book of instructions on how to live your life. It is poetry, (pseudo, mostly)-history, wisdom literature, parables, lamentation, encouragement to a people in exile, and other kinds of writing, including instruction–both to specific people in specific situations, and sometimes more generally. It may be what people at the time(s) it was written thought their God wanted from them, but it is not, as “Dr.” Tee insists, written by God Him(Her,It,Them)self to instruct all people through all ages.
We are, for instance, no longer allowed to kill disobedient children. Men can no longer divorce their wives and leave them without support. Wives can no longer be dragged before a priest and forced to drink a substance that both believe will cause an abortion if the child she carries is not her husband’s.
A great many things mentioned in the Bible do not apply to modern life, It is not, despite “Dr.” Tee, “holy, just, fair, and applies to everyone.” To pretend that it is and does makes no sense.
Whether Tee actually has a legitimate, earned doctorate is unknown. He refuses to provide evidence for his academic claims. Most people are quite happy to share their academic achievements. Tee (not likely his real name) says he and God “know,” and that’s all that matters.
http://brucegerencser.net/2016/03/bible-right-science-wrong/
http://brucegerencser.net/2016/08/christians-say-darnedest-things-secular-scientists-con-men/
http://brucegerencser.net/2021/03/david-tee-says-i-am-envious-and-jealous-of-evangelical-churches/
I agree with what ThatOtherJean said. The Bible allows for people to own slaves, and in most countries slavery is considered illegal and immoral. Any decent deity worth its salt would have outlawed slavery millennia ago.
If we’re passing around doctorates, I want mine to be in swearing. It’s what I am good at.
Oh man, OC, I talk like a sailor and I’m an old lady! Can I have a doctorate too? Funny how Christians want to claim the Bible is based on 100% fact, but then when we point out it’s not they want to tell us to have faith?