Whether he got them right or not, the point is he wrote about them at the time they happened. The earliest of the gospels is believed to have been written in 50 AD, almost a whole generation after the events took place.
What do you consider a generation? This is 17 years. Textual critics say that as long as it is written within the lifetimes of witnesses it is reliable unless proven otherwise. They also say it was written far to early for myth to have developed which did happen in Gnostic texts later on.
One's willingness to die for their beliefs does not validate those beliefs. Is the fact that hundreds of people killed themselves at Jonestown evidence that Jim Jones was divine?
You are still missing the point. These early Christians would have known Jesus was not divine and that none of these things ever happened if that was the case and so would have died for a known lie not a belief which makes no sence especially since there were no monetary rewards or other earthly incentives. The others you mention could not have known their beliefs were false. The very early Christians would have.
I've highlighted the parts where these decrees required people to return to their OWN homes, not to the home of their fathers. If Bethlehem was Joseph's home and where Jesus was born, why was he not called Jesus of Bethlehem?
The first part is irrelevant and the second is deperately trivial. The name of where you spent the majority of your youth was where the culture considered you of.
Are you still under the impression that people back then counted a year as 360 days instead of 365?
I do not remeber making any comments that addressed this. The prophecies are accurate within Hebrew dateing methods so I do not get the point.
Are you suggesting that people couldn't grasp the obvious, even if they didn't understand the mechanisms involved?
It is not obvious air has weight, or life depends primarily on the blood. This can be seen be the facts that even fairly modern scientist and physicians didn't know this. It is certainly not obvious that there are deep ocean currents or paths in the sea. Or what about mountains at the bottom of the ocean. This is from Jonah's whale experience.
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]"I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet have you brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God." [Jonah 2:6][/SIZE][/FONT]
Scientific Facts in The Bible
Is any of this not obvious to someone who pays attention?
I do not know why making a bad counter claim concerning one issue in a dozen is a meaningful tactic of bible critics. Since many of the scientific truths were denied or unknown in muc h more modern times they are hardly obvious. Here are the verses that are used to justify these claims:
Either way the Bible accurately portrays of this cycle 2500 years before it was widely accepted. Note the following passages:
[SIZE=-1]For He draws up the drops of water, they distill rain from the mist, which the clouds pour down, they drip upon man abundantly. [Job 36:27,28] [/SIZE]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]The One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens And has founded His vaulted dome over the earth, He who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth, The LORD is His name. [Amos 9:6][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]It has only recently been learned that most clouds are formed by ocean evaporation, but again the Bible had it right centuries ago: [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]"All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; to the place from which the rivers come, there they return again [Ecclesiastes 1:7]". [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]The complex nature of how water is supported in clouds despite being heavier than air is clearly implied when God declared to Job [Emphasis Added][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]"Do you know how the clouds are balanced, those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge (Job 37:16). [7a][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Sans-serif,sans-serif][SIZE=-1]
Scientific Facts in The Bible[/SIZE][/FONT]
Are you suggesting that people living on the Mediterranean coast would not have noticed the currents which carried their boats in the same direction regardless of which way the wind was blowing? Humans have been sailing since before they could write. Maybe they weren't as ignorant as you think.
I was in the Navy for 9 years and know more than most what currents are about and how the wind usually dominates the current for sailing vessels.
It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that the connection was made regarding currents (literally paths) in the sea and the statement from the Psalms a thousand years before Christ. In 1860, a pioneer in oceanography, Matthew Fontaine Maury, called attention to the fact that the ocean was a circulating system. His book on physical oceanography is still a highly regarded source of information on this science.
The man who is traditionally credited with the discovery with of these paths is: At one time, when
Commodore Maury was very sick, he asked one of his daughters to get the Bible and read to him. She chose Psalm 8, the eighth verse of which speaks of "whatsoever walketh through the paths of the sea," he repeated "the paths of the sea, the paths of the sea, if God says the paths of the sea, they are there, and if I ever get out of this bed I will find them."
Matthew Fontaine Maury "Pathfinder Of Sea" Psalms 8
The oldest written reference to ocean wide currents I could find is: Also, Ponce De Leon wrote about the Florida current in the early 1500s, about 300 years before Maury
"Matthew Maury and the Paths of the Sea"
They may go back quite a bit further but the written record peters out until you get back to the OT.
This site shows how most of the scientific claims in the bible were unknown until recently and even shows what that ignorance cost us.
Scientific foreknowledge in the Bible
