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The question of the internal consistency of the Bible concerns the coherence and textual integrity of the biblical scriptures. Christianity and Judaism consider the Bible and Tanakh divinely inspired. Disputes regarding biblical consistency have a long history. The church father Origen replied to the writer Celsus, a critic of Christianity, who had complained that some Christians had remodelled the Gospel to answer objections, admitting that some had done so.〔(【引用サイトリンク】Contra Celsus, Book II, Chapter XXVII )〕 Classic texts that discuss questions of inconsistency, from a critical secular perspective, include ''The Age of Reason'' by Thomas Paine, the ''Tractatus Theologico-Politicus'' by Baruch Spinoza, the ''Encyclopédie'' of Denis Diderot, and the ''Dictionnaire philosophique'' of Voltaire. ==Consistency as relevant to interpreting the Scriptures== For many believers, the internal consistency of the Jewish and Christian scriptures is of importance because they feel that any inconsistencies or contradictions would challenge the truth of their contents and the view that they are of divine origin. Christian evangelists John Ankerberg and Dillon Burroughs, for instance, state that "the Bible's teachings, if perfect, must be consistent with one another" and that "the Bible is consistent with itself from beginning to end."〔Ankerberg, J. and Burroughs, D., ''Taking a Stand for the Bible: Today's Leading Experts Answer Critical Questions about God's Word'', Harvest House Publishers, 2009, p. 24.〕 Similarly, Catholic writers have argued that "If we believe the Scriptures are divinely inspired, we must also believe them to be internally coherent".〔Hahn, S., and Mitch, C., ''Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon'', Ignatius Press, 2013, Introduction.〕 Pastor Erwin Lutzer argues that the Bible is consistent in asserting that it is the word of God, and that this is a reason for accepting that it is of divine origin: "The sixty-six books speak with a consistent voice that these are the words of God".〔Lutzer, EW., ''Seven Reasons Why You Can Trust the Bible'', Moody Publishers, 2008, pp. 16 & 34.〕 Critics of traditional Jewish and Christian belief have also argued that inconsistencies undermine the value of scripture. The Deist Minister Joseph Barker, speaking in 1854, described the Bible as "the most inconsistent, the most monstrous and blasphemous representations of God that can possibly be conceived by the human mind." and argued that "The book that contradicts science and contradicts itself is a book of no authority whatsoever."〔''Proceedings of the Hartford Bible Convention'', Partridge & Brittan, 1854, p. 46.〕 A modern Islamic critic writes that if the Bible can be shown to be inconsistent, "then those who preach the Bible and read the Bible must seriously reconsider their source of information concerning their faith."〔Rashad Abdul Mahaimin, ''Jesus and the Bible'', Islamic Books, 2003, p.4.〕 One response to this kind of criticism is to argue that no inconsistencies exist. As theologian John Barton explains, some Christians read the Bible with the assumption that "Scripture is ''self-consistent''", and that if there appear to be contradictions between two texts, they believe that "more careful reading is required to so as to show that they really cohere". Barton states that "this is not the Bible that we have in fact got." He also points out that Judaism understands that texts "may sometimes be in dialogue with each other" and "something positive may emerge from a kind of creative tension".〔Barton, J., ''The Bible: The Basics'', Routledge, 2010. pp. 1–15.〕 Most Christian writers, however, while agreeing that inaccuracies and inconsistencies occur, argue that these do not necessarily make the Bible false〔Giles, T., ''A Doubter's Guide to the Bible'', Abingdon Press, 2010, Ch. 4.〕 and that it is no longer desirable to try to harmonize all four Gospels into "one consistent account", because "we have learned that each of the four Gospels has its own ... unique image of Jesus."〔Garvey, JD. and Garvey, SJ., ''Why a Church Catholic?'', Rowman & Littlefield, 1988, p. 89.〕 On the subject of the Jewish text, B. Barry Levy writes about the Torah that "the textual integrity of every biblical book should be extremely important to those interested in either the Hebrew Bible or classical Jewish thought." Levy also writes that "Despite the popular, pious-sounding assumption that the Torah text is letter-perfect, frequent and extensive discussions by highly respected rabbinic leaders demonstrate that they, in some measure similar to modern scholars, were concerned about its true textual state; some of them even tried to clarify known textual doubts and to eliminate many troublesome inconsistencies."〔Levy, BB., ''Fixing God's Torah: The Accuracy of the Hebrew Bible Text in Jewish Law'', Oxford University Press, 2001, Preface.〕 However, the modern writer Joshua Golding states that even though it contains inconsistencies, this "does not imply that God did not reveal the Torah."〔Golding, JL., ''Rationality and Religious Theism'', Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2003, p.106 〕 Randel Helms argues that the books of the Bible were written for and against different points of view -- that the Bible's authors were often motivated to write because they wanted to challenge or correct those who had written before them. So, for example, Paul said that he opposed Peter because he felt that Peter was clearly in the wrong (Galatians 1 and 2). Helms notes that Jeremiah condemned the entire religious establishment, that the prophets and priests were frauds, every one of them (Jeremiah 8:10). Luke felt the need to write another gospel even though other writers had already draw up their own account of events (Luke 1:1). Luke felt that Mark's gospel was filled with errors and edited it freely, even the words of the dying Christ were not left unaltered. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Internal consistency of the Bible」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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