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A new kind of Bible commentary
Tired of all the "study Bibles" and Bible "commentaries" that ignore or even cover up the many Bible contradictions found in the Christian scriptures? The Atheist's Bible Companion to the New Testament (ABC-NT) is a comprehensive resource for atheists, agnostics, and even for wavering Christians. It puts the many logical, historical, and theological difficulties of the Christian Bible at your fingertips, and is a great source of ammunition for debating Christian fundamentalists. In addition to highlighting Bible contradictions and inaccuracies, it also provides historical and linguistic background information for your own personal Bible research. We hope you'll find the ABC-NT to be a useful tool for your own Bible study, and that you'll be back to visit often. Use it with any edition or translation of the Bible.This commentary can be used with any translation or edition of the Bible. So BYOB (Bring Your Own Bible) and follow along as we expose the contradictions, inconsistencies, and absurdities of the New Testament. (Recommended translations: Revised Standard Version, New American Standard Bible, New International Version, or King James Version.) Where's the ABC-OT?Despite what Christians may think, the "Old Testament" is not a Christian document. The books that Christians refer to as the "Old Testament" are more properly called the Hebrew scriptures. They are Jewish documents, not Christian. Of course, that doesn't stop the Christians from trying to take them over and use them for their own purposes, such as trying to show that the coming of Jesus was predicted by the Hebrew prophets. But our purpose here is to critique Christianity, not Judaism. Thus, the ABC-NT points out the many errors and misinterpretations made by the Christian authors of the New Testament when they try to hijack the Hebrew scriptures in support of their own theological agenda. But a direct critique of the Old Testament as such is not in scope for this project. SourcesThe major source for the ABC-NT is the Bible itself. When biblical passages are quoted in the commentary, they are from the Revised Standard Version (RSV) unless otherwise noted. Secondary sources are occasionally cited to provide additional background on historical and linguistic issues, or to provide exegetical insight into theologically significant passages. Most of these sources represent mainstream biblical scholarship and are widely known standard references. The ones most heavily relied on are listed here. Any additional references are cited in the commentary. When they are not fully spelled out in the comments, they may be abbreviated as follows:
The New Oxford Annotated Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973) (OAB) The most often cited English translations of the Bible are abbreviated as follows:
King James (Authorized) Version (KJV) The following references were consulted for the Greek text of the New Testament:
The Greek New Testament, 4th Revised edition, edited by Aland et al. (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft/United Bible Societies, 2001) |
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