Religion and Its Money-Making Scriptures!

R&I – FS

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Religion and Its Money-Making Scriptures!

Most conservative Christians will tell you that the Bible is the work and words of God! One has to give them their dues. They genuinely believe that their God-inspired man, in writing down his words for posterity. Yet, today there is no original autograph of the word of God, just copies or copies. Not only that, biblical translators themselves are retranslating (up-dating) their versions every few years. 

Take the King James Version Bible of 1611.   

The Modern English Version (MEV) heralds a new day for Bibles with the most modern translation ever produced in the King James tradition, providing fresh clarity for Bible readers everywhere with an updated language that does not compromise the truth of the original texts. The MEV is a translation of the Textus Receptus and the Jacob ben Hayyim edition of the Masoretic Text, using the King James Version as the base manuscript. https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/Modern-English-Version-MEV-Bible/ 

Yet, the biblical scholar Daniel Wallace disagrees with bible gateways assertions that the language update does not compromise the truth of the original texts. I quote Bible.org’s (2004) quote of Daniel Wallace, a noted Greek scholar and professor of the New Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary. In his paper entitled “Why So Many Versions?” Wallace makes the following statement: “…we must remember that the King James Bible of today is not the King James of 1611. It has undergone three revisions, incorporating more than 100,000 changes!” https://bible.org/article/changes-kjv-1611-illustration   

I would myself say at least four changes (unknown to Daniel Wallace in 2004) if we consider the 2014 MEV was a translation from the 1611 KJV Bible. How many modern Englisce Bible translations do we have? Well, there are hundreds! Below are the various abbreviated translations used by BibleHub, 33 in all.  

NIV, NLT, ESV, BSB, KJV, NKJ, NAS, AMP, CSB, HCS, CEV, GNT, ARA, ASV, DBT, DRB, ERV, GWT, ISR, ISV, KJP, NET, NHE, OJB, WEB, WBT, WYC, YLT, JPS, KJP, KJA, KJ2, and NAS https://biblehub.com/   You will find that Bible Gateway uses more than fifty Englisce translated Bibles. Which, means if the other biblical versions have three translations each, there are 200 or more different translations of each of the books of the Bible.

All this does not bode well with God and his four Omni. Of which is omniscient, which means that he is all-knowing.  Why so many Bibles and a myriad of mistakes.  In the Greek biblical manuscripts (MSS) alone, there are between 300,000 and 400,000 anomalies, with most being spelling problems. One would think that God would have supervised and seen any irregularities and put them right. Also, one would think owing, to faith, that God would have kept the scripture safe through time if it was his work? However, no such thing happened.

Why all these different versions, and why perpetual periodic translations of Bibles? I find that there are several reasons, which come down to one thing. Which is better told by this abstract from a quote!  

But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow he just can’t handle money!” ― George Carlin

There is no malice on my part against the Christian religion. However, a problem does exist with the religious money-grabbing echelons, which also includes televangelists.  

The 1995 Guinness book of record claims up to 5 billion Bibles had been sold to that date. 

With an estimated sales based on Andre Swervy computation 5 Bn x $15+ $75 Billion. 

Edit: Jerry Coffin’s comment is completely true. There’s no way of knowing how much a Bible was worth hundreds of years ago in present-day dollars, but my number of $15 was probably off by a factor of at least 1,000.

Accounting for this information, the number is probably somewhere in the trillions of dollars.

However, the best response is probably that it depends on your definition of the Bible and “book sales”. But even given these parameters, the answer is that it’s impossible to say.

Sources: The Bible vs. Mao: A “Best Guess” of the Top 25 Bestselling Books of All Time – Publishing Perspectives.https://www.quora.com/How-much-money-has-the-Bible-made-in-book-sales   

That was 26 years ago! Most of the sales of Bibles seem to be in what is known as Christendom, with the US being the best buyer.  

The average American Christian owns 9 Bibles and wants to purchase more. For this reason, the Bible has actually excluded from book bestsellers lists because it would always be on top.https://brandongaille.com/27-good-bible-sales-statistics/

From the 1950s America to 2005, Bible sales were tax-free. It appears today only four states have Bible tax exemption: Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri and Texas.

https://help.barnesandnoble.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2597/~/states-where-bibles-are-tax-exempt 

What do you say on a book that is presumed to be revered and Holy? However, by its critics, it is anything but sacred. Claims of controversies, pro-war, macabre, porn, inaccuracies and large scale counterfeiting from its conception. In addition, what do you say on the money-making side of religious literature making their God look like a dummy owing to the amounts of new translations or corrections or the Bible?

 

Cofion

Jero Jones

Article URL : https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/discuss/