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It's no coincidence that the world's best selling book is the world's most boring book.
Exactly. People only buy that book because their preachers tell them they will go to hell if they don't read it.
If it were not a sacred text, it would be anything else but a Bible. I'm pretty sure everyone was on the same religious bent, so it was not written as anything more than an historical passage of that era at first. Much of it was inspired by the Prophets. Now? THAT is heavy. I like that part. Then we have the athiests and Pagan religions. All mixed up. The Pagans were either spiritual, like Hindu or the Old Religion or Craft. Or debauched bums like the orgy lovers in Rome(whatever it was called back then) and Mesopotamia. There was no Catholics nor Christianity when the Bible was first created and inspired.
Jesus did not arrive on the scene until the New Testament.
So, the BIBLE would have just been a catalog or a Sci-Fi novel if it were not about the contents that MAKE it the BIBLE. What else could it be? A 'Fun with Dick and Jane' Primer? And it would be totally forgotten, like Donald Trump soon will be. Dust in the freaking wind.
Just like the Bible soon will be. In the face of eternity? The Bible can only hint at what FOREVER is or means.
No' 'nuff 'obbitses.
Isnt the bible mostly a giveaway item? I sure have received a lot of them. Never bought a single one ;-))
As a trivia enthusiast (spermology), I have learned that the Bible is the most published book but not the most profitable published book. That title would belong to Guinness Book, or so they say. :P
Yes, Any book which records the history of a people/ culture back 6000 years is going to be a book people will find fascinating.. It is an awesome book to read even if the reader is not religious.
It is actually part of the religion of Christianity that no one should make money out of selling the message of God.. So many Bibles are indeed given away as donations to people.. But the donator still has to pay for the book to be made..
High selling? No. Small scale? Yes. Its plots and characters are just as good as "The Thousand and One Nights of Scherezade." Possibly better, because they show the social evolution of a people through its myths. They can be examined from many points of view. And they reveal much about human nature. It could as easily be a source point for great literature as "The Odyssey" was for Joyce's "Ulysses."
Some passages are exquisitely poetic.
Last months Watchtower may be of interest, especially the subheading Why the Bible Has Survived at the bottom:
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-no4-2016-july/
Over the centuries, all kinds of threats could have destroyed the Bible or its message. Why is its survival significant?
Some of the subheadings:
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-no4-2016-ju...
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-no4-2016-ju...
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-no4-2016-ju...
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-no4-2016-ju...
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-no4-2016-ju...
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EDIT: This maybe of interest as well:
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/bible/nwt/appendix-a/how-the-bib...
Sacred text for a religion? No, religion is a man made thing. Everyone interprets and takes their own spin on the words, hence all the religions and churches.
Maybe it has survived because some see it as truth.
As literature, the Bible is a very mixed bag. Much of the narrative passages, the poetry, proverbs, parables and letters make for a good read, but against this the genealogy, legalistic passages and revelation are hard going. It was never designed to be popular and until the arrival of the printing press and translators into the vernacular, was kept firmly in the hands of the clerics. Depending on what you understand by a religion, parts of the bible serve as sacred text for a number of them.
