Eph. 5:21-33 from conservative but *not *dominionist POV

[Austin]

And I wouldn't say "inspiration" or "exact words"--I think it was an oral tradition.

The problem that I have is that even though who I would consider reasonable people would not say "inspiration" or "exact words", this is a huge deal. Think of how one or two words or a couple of phrases have caused such division in the Church through the centuries. Wars have been fought over a word here or a fragment there. Countless people have suffered and died over it. But still, many fundamentalists claim that the Bible is completely inerrant (in their minds, totally without error), and when you spend two seconds thinking about the sources, the time period, and all the rest of it, that just doesn't make sense.

[Joykins]

The problem that I have is that even though who I would consider reasonable people would not say "inspiration" or "exact words", this is a huge deal. Think of how one or two words or a couple of phrases have caused such division in the Church through the centuries. Wars have been fought over a word here or a fragment there. Countless people have suffered and died over it. But still, many fundamentalists claim that the Bible is completely inerrant (in their minds, totally without error), and when you spend two seconds thinking about the sources, the time period, and all the rest of it, that just doesn't make sense.

It seems to me that people who say "exact words" and "inerrant" fall into one of two camps:

1) they think there is some Platonic Ideal of each manuscript that at some point existed that actually had no errors ("original autographs") which can explain away observed discrepancies.

2) they read the Bible devotionally and not critically so "exact words" and "inerrant" are more statements of faith/ ideology than a scholarly position.

"Inspiration" is one of those words with such a vague definition it covers a multitude of sins.

As for the last, I must quote my favorite Church of Ireland clergyman, Dean Jonathan Swift--

Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether the juice of a certain berry be blood or wine; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire; what is the best color for a coat, whether black, white, red, or gray; and whether it should be long or short, narrow or wide, dirty or clean, with many more. Neither are any wars so furious and bloody, or of so long a continuance, as those occasioned by difference in opinion, especially if it be in things indifferent.