Some logical answers please..
By vanny
@vandana7 (100526)
India
October 4, 2012 1:17am CST
I know for sure our holy books have more than 500 or is it 1000 pages.
I presume yours are also reasonably thick with many pages.
We all know Chinese invented paper after our religions started, and the technology reached other parts of the world.
And today we read those books PRINTED ON PAPER.
Now, my questions to you all are..
a. How was the content in your holy books recorded in the interim period?
If it was recorded on leaves then it would take several several several thousands of leaves that were dried in a special way to be available for writing.
b. Can you with modern implements write 500 pages manually without any corrections?
c. Can you with computer never edit what you type?
d. How many 500 pages books can you write manually?
e. How many years would it take you to write a book as large as our holy book manually?
Just asking..
4 responses
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
5 Oct 12
Such information was normally passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth. There would also be those who devoted their lives to religious teachings, so they would study the religion for most of their life from elders and subsequently pass the knowledge on to others the same way.
As for committing a whole religion to paper when the option became available, this would not be done by a single person. As you rightly say the time involved would be formidable. There would be vast numbers of people compiling different sections of the teachings, which ultimately would be combined as the technology to do so arrived.
Naturally it would be impossible to keep an accurate record when translating from an ancient language to a modern one because many phrases could not be translated precisely. This does not mean that the overall message conveyed is not a very close account.
2 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
5 Oct 12
Oh yes, the potential for an omission or addition is definitely there. We have no access to the original sources and thus have no way of knowing exactly what is original and what is not, or whether there are missing chapters or sections.
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@vandana7 (100526)
• India
5 Oct 12
Yeah translation in transition period might have altered the original text a bit. That is what I thought as well. :)
Compilation and verification, and linking the book left adequate scope for somebody to insert something or remove something, or miss out on something, or make some modification which was not done perfectly I suppose. Trust me everytime I type a response here, I go through those procedures here..so I do know it is not an easy thing, at least for me. :)
@urbandekay (18278)
•
5 Oct 12
Well, I have read a whole lot of scripture from Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. and here is the miraculous thing; through all the centuries, through all the translations and errors of memory, the words of Jesus come shining down. I certainly don't mean all Christian scripture here but those words spoken by him, I believe have by good luck or divine intervention been preserved.
Now, word use drifts over time, so that a word can even come to mean to opposite of what it once did, such is the case with the English word 'anon' which originally meant, 'immediately' but came to mean, 'sometime.' So, a translation can retain the original meaning better than the original words! Since, what those original words mean to the present generation will be slightly different from what they meant to those concurrent to their utterance
all the best urban
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@vandana7 (100526)
• India
5 Oct 12
Wow..that is a great explanation Urban..especially about the changing meanings of the words.
In our case, (Hindu religion), I find it strange that translations into different languages has resulted in slight variations of scriptures. Therefore, out here, in South India, we believe that Ganges is the second wife of Lord Shiva, while Dupremo, another myLotter argued with me that she was not. :) That is why I felt some mistakes were always possible since those people could not have written much at great speed not having the appropriate tools, and adequate light. In any event, I think most of the content in our scriptures is about some people who lived once upon a time. In that era, people used to be overpraised - if that word is there. So part of that overpraising resulted in showing them as people with extraordinary powers.
@anurag3786 (6267)
• India
6 Oct 12
I think yes this is a thinking topic because if thousand years before when our holy books was written then it was on leaves. And how can they will write manually on papers correctly. I think these are based on our religious trust, faith, believe. And I think also it is possible many years ago when someone finds these leave they he/she started to written on papers.
@roshigo58 (4859)
• Pune, India
4 Oct 12
Hi,
It is very interesting discussion. I ahve some holy books on Vedas, Upnishdas, Puranas and some other holy books of shlokas. My father in law gave them to me to read. It is very nice gift by him but he is no more. I also have all the questions you have asked in my mind. Form where we can get the answers to these questions? How the text in these holy books is preserved from generation to generation is very surprising.
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