Adam Eyves
2 min readApr 21, 2024

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I think the Bible can be both divine and human. The biblical themes tap into the whole of supreme and timeless truth, and to the degree the Bible writers could understand what they were witnessing, they wrote down their epiphanies, but within their human limitations. Obviously, their culture affected their bias towards the truth they could see, understand, and apply.

For example, I see the law of Moses as a waypoint on the journey of discovering and understanding our creator. Those Old Testament laws were imposed on that specific group of people at that particular time for practical reasons, mainly for the survival of the Hebrews as a people group. Some of those laws are morally archetypal (10 commandments) and carry forward through all millennia and cultures, but many Levitical laws have no context or use in our modern society.

So, were the laws of Moses the literal word of God for us? I don't think so - not all of them. The laws of Moses are a snapshot of the Hebrews' limited understanding of God's nature at a particular time and served a practical purpose.

The way I see it, the words of Jesus (the Beatitudes) are a natural and sophisticated maturity of ideas that began thousands of years ago, starting with Adam. The beatitudes brilliantly clarify our creator's nature, and our understanding of our Christian God hasn't grown much since. But even we can't see the totality of truth. We too are affected by our cultural biases. In fact, I believe our knowledge of God has devolved in many ways, and we have turned the words of Jesus into a "religion" he would scold (six of the seven churches in Revelation).

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Adam Eyves

Writer, editor, storyteller, sailor, and coffee drinker. I think, I question, I imagine. I am a philosopher at heart, and a connoisseur of all good things.