How Do BAR Readers Differ? You Tell Us
From Strata in the September/October 2014 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review
We all know that BAR readers are better educated, more literate and know more about the Bible than Americans generally. How do we know? Well, we just know.
But what about BAR readers’ attitudes toward the historical accuracy of the Bible? Do they differ from other Americans? And, if so, how? We may be able to answer those questions.
A recent Gallup poll of more than a thousand American adults offered three different attitudes toward the Bible’s historical accuracy, as follows; after the question we give the percentage of people who agreed with the particular viewpoint (totaling 96 percent; 4 percent had no opinion):
Over time, the percentage of the first category has declined somewhat from earlier Gallup polls. The second percentage has remained about the same, and the third percentage has increased somewhat.
How do BAR readers compare? We are taking a poll. Cast your ballot below. We will publish the results.
We’d also like your views about the matter. Are these three attitudes the only ones? Are they described accurately by Gallup? What do they tell us about Americans (and perhaps about Gallup)? What will the answers tell us about BAR readers? And what will a comparison tell us about ourselves?
However, the answers depend on you. Please cast your ballot.—H.S.
Update, February 10, 2015: The BAR poll was open from August 8–October 31, 2014. Click here for the results!
“Strata: How Do BAR Readers Differ? You Tell Us” was originally published in the September/October 2014 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.
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The words may have changed but the concepts have not in some bibles. Unfortunately the words have changed the true meaning is modern bibles.
We know that the Bible was written by men; people, perhaps a number of women as well. It has been written, re-written, edited, altered, added-to, deleted-from, translated countless times and, in many cases, deliberately corrupted by church fathers trying to reconcile prophecies that have passed unfulfilled. And there are many. Jesus said “This generation will not pass before all these things come to be.” Obviously when that generation had, indeed, passed, they had some reconciling to do. This happened many times, almost from the inception of the Torah.
This is actually tough. Every word of the Bible is inspired by God. Everything in the Bible is true. The problem has been in corruption from the event to its recording. The second problem is in the interpretation of what was said. How many of the Prophets wrote down their own testimony? God speaks through the Prophets, which speech is recorded by a scribe, who emphasizes what he feels to be the most important. Things are lost there, literally and contextually.
This is a poorly formulated survey. To use the phrase “is to be taken literally, word-for-word” is, as others have mentioned (see Marlan #32), not exactly what even biblical inerrantists believe because, for instance, poetic sections aren’t to be taken “literally,” per se, but poetically, for instance. Or phrases like “the rising of the sun” is not expected to be taken “literally” (from a purely scientific standpoint) because it’s not a scientific account, but rather a figurative statement (and one used by us today. But neither we, nor the Bible assert that the sun is “rising.”) This suervey would have been much more interesting if the options were more precisely worded to accord with the actual views scholars take on biblical accuracy.