I still hope to return to your questions soon but this post will at least keep the thread open. (I realize that I could simply re-open it later but I didn’t want you to think that I’d forgotten you.)
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I have to say that I’m amazed that people are discussing questions such as the number of legs on a grasshopper, the divergent genealogies of Jesus and the existence of a Noachian deluge, in relation to Biblical inspiration, inerrancy and infallibility. These are peripheral issues.
I suggest that readers spend more time checking out the Youtube videos at Digital Hammurabi and MythVision, as I have been doing for the past few months. The following videos may be of interest:
The God of The Hebrew Bible Has a Literal Body by Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou.
Meet The Real God of The Bible by Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou.
I’d also recommend reading Mormon theologian Blake Ostler’s article, The Doctrine Of Creation Ex Nihilo Was Created Out Of Nothing: A Response To Copan And Craig. Part 1: The Scriptural Argument.
What the Bible says on the afterlife
The History of Heaven and Hell by Professor Bart Ehrman.
Biblical Morality
Did the Old Testament Endorse Slavery? by Dr. Joshua Bowen.
5 OBJECTIONS to Old Testament SLAVERY ANSWERED by Dr. Joshua Bowen.
Homosexuality and the Bible: Originally Condoned, not Condemned? (Summary) by Dr. Joshua Bowen.
Is Yahweh a Terrorist? by Dr. Joshua Bowen. A must-watch.
Historicity of the Bible
Debate: Is The Exodus Myth or History? Jonathan Sheffield and C J Cox debate Dr. Maggie Bryson and Dr. Joshua Bowen.
Dating Daniel: Prophecy or History? by Dr. Joshua Bowen.
The Historical Fiction of Luke/Acts by Emeritus Professor John Dominic Crossan.
Contradictions and forgeries in the Bible
Contradictions in the New Testament by Professor Bart D. Ehrman.
Faking It: Is the Bible Full of Forgeries? by Professor Bart Ehrman (interviewed by Megan Lewis, who is herself an Episcopalian).
The overall picture is that Yahweh was originally a Canaanite god, and he was just one of a pantheon (actually, he was one of El’s sons). He was an embodied being, and he was envisaged as having a wife. In ancient Judah and Israel, he was not regarded as the one and only God, nor as an immaterial being, nor as the ex nihilo Creator of heaven and earth. Additionally, the moral code of Judah and Israel was no more advanced than that of any other nation in the ancient Near East. Chattel slavery, the sexual enslavement of women and genocide were among the features of this moral code.
After the Babylonian exile, a drastic reduction in the Jewish pantheon took place. Yahweh lost his wife, and came to be worshipped to the exclusion of all other gods. Later on, the very existence of these other gods was denied. However, he was still regarded as a material being. The first Jewish thinker to suggest otherwise was Aristobulus (c. 150 B.C.), but scholars agree that he was in a tiny minority, and during New Testament times, God was widely regarded as having a body composed of gaseous fire (called spirit, or pneuma). Only in the late second century A.D. did Church Fathers begin to claim that God was utterly immaterial, but some Church Fathers continued to teach that God was corporeal until the late fourth century. Likewise, it was around the late second century A.D. that Church Fathers came to agree that God created the world ex nihilo; before then, it was thought to have been created out of a primordial sea of chaos. In both of these cases, the change in doctrine was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy (especially that of Middle Platonism). Plato’s philosophy also influenced Christian views of the afterlife, leading to widespread acceptance of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul (something not taught by Jesus).
Meanwhile, the ethical code of the Bible had become much more refined. By the time of Jesus, for instance, religious violence against other nations was condemned by rabbis, and the practice of the death penalty was extremely rare. Rabbinical commentaries softened many of the harsher laws of the Torah by hedging them with lots of conditions, so that penalties were mitigated.
One major challenge the early Christian Church had to face was the delayed parousia. As Christians became anxious, various Christian writers resorted to forgery, composing letters in the name of revered figures like St. Paul, in an attempt to assuage the fears of members of the Christian community. At the same time, church organization was evolving, as the early Church searched for ways to preserve the integrity of its doctrine and combat false teachers. Other New Testament books were forged with the intent of refuting these “teachers” by one-upping them - that is, claiming to have been written by an apostle. The intention of these forgers may have been noble, but what they did was regarded as deceitful, even in ancient times. Contrary to what many apologists assert, pseudepigraphy was not an accepted practice back then.
Finally, the Biblical authors of both the Old and New Testament were not above rewriting history to suit their own theological purposes, and creating what might fairly be called religious propaganda. Much of what used to be accepted as history is nothing of the sort. Figures such as Moses, David and Elijah may or may not have been historical; but even if they were, most of the deeds attributed to them are not. Even in the New Testament, the historicity of Acts is widely disputed, although it has its defenders.
In the light of all these facts, we might well ask: how is it possible to regard Scripture as the inspired, inerrant revelation of a Being Who unveiled Himself to the Israelites (and later, the Jews)? As we’ve seen, the Hebrew concept of God underwent radical transformation during the period when Scripture was put together. The God the Hebrews originally worshipped was so different from the God we worship today that I don’t think anyone could call them the same God.
The only answer I can come up with is that the concept of God evolved very gradually, and that Biblical stories of face-to-face encounters with God or Biblical prophets having visions of God must be taken with a large grain of salt. Had there been such encounters, one would have expected God to have corrected certain dangerous misconceptions in theology and ethics - e.g. “Don’t engage in genocide in my name.” So I’d say there were no such encounters, until the time of Jesus. Instead, there was a gradual dawning of consciousness, over hundreds of years. Even in New Testament times, we see Christians’ interpretation of Jesus’ teachings evolving. At times they resorted to unethical practices (e.g. forgery) to propagate their new understanding. The books they wrote can only be regarded as inspired in retrospect, in the light of how the early Church received and understood them. So if we are to speak of “inspiration” and “inerrancy,” it is only because the Christian Church understood them in a certain way - and in the case of the Old Testament books, in a way that ran counter to the original intention of their authors.
Do you regard this as perplexing? So do I. But it’s the only form of inspiration and inerrancy I can salvage. One thing I do know: we need to face up to the facts about how we got the Bible, even if they’re disconcerting and at times unpalatable. My two cents.
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That was worth at least a cup of coffee, probably more. 
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Thanks for sharing! That’s very interesting. I’ll be sure to check out those links.
Your flair says that you’re a Catholic, but you seem to recognize that some of the doctrines of Catholicism, like the immortality of the soul, can’t be found in the Bible and were influenced by Greek philosophy. How do you reconcile this with your Catholic beliefs?
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Hi @misterme987,
Good question. The short answer is that Catholics, unlike Protestants, don’t claim that all revealed doctrines can be found in the Bible. Rather, the Bible and Tradition are considered to be the two sources (or channels, if you prefer) of revelation. Tradition can be the result of Christians’ reflections (over the course of centuries) on Biblical doctrines - reflections which at times go far beyond those doctrines, and which may also be influenced by pagan philosophical arguments. Cheers.
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