The purpose of this article is to make the faithful aware that the Old and New Testaments are not free from contradictions resulting both from within as well as from ancient languages and also from multitude of interpretations of various Christian theologies and, finally, from a large number of known variants of the Bible's core text. If the Holy Scriptures are verbally inspired then contradictions con-tained in them may not be incidental, but they constitute their immanent part while the Christians’ task is to resolve them individually.Therefore, removal of the contradictions, unless they result from obvious translation errors, becomes unnecessary, and they, as such, should support faith in seeking comprehension and deepen it.
The above text consists of two parts. The first one contains translation of 40 theses of Martin Luther of 14 of January 1536, called Dispute Concerning Man written down for the Wittenberg University. The second part contains the commentary. It should be noted that Luther`s text enclosed here in full corresponds with The 95 Theses of 31th of October, 1517. The author of the Comment remarks, that Aristotle`s rational philosophical concept of man has its limits of theological nature. Theology formulates the tasks of reason that, despite the decay of man, must still perform its tasks, whereas theology overcomes one-sidedness of rationalism, pointing out to the aim and formulating the sense of human life that is impossible without reference to God. These problems are dealt with in the second part of the abovementioned forty theses, 20-40. There appears a clear thought, that while fighting with his own peccability, man depends on grace (sola gratia). Here L. refers to Paul`s Letter to the Romans (3, 28) and his commentary of Psalm 51. The further part of the commentary includes specific parts of the 40 theses, arranged respectively. In the concluding part, particular contemporary concepts of human being are listed, and, at the same time, general wider perspective of Lutheran concept of man is revealed.
Complementarity in Nature and … beyond? or: coincidentia oppositorum in the Bibleas Cusanus wishes it In the micro-world, science states both indeterminacy of cognitive re-sults and dubious character of elementary particles, e.g. of light: corpus¬cular and wave. Hence former ideal of science which was supposed to give certainty of cognitive results lost its raison d'être, not mentioning the principle of indeterminacy. In humanities and in everyday life we aim at formulating conclusions which are supposed to give certainty. If we are not able to give evidence, cognition must be lacking precision to some extent. Since the whole Bible has inspired character, the contradictions appearing in it cannot be accidental, and so they become a task for a man. Therefore criterion of coherence in the Bible does not have raison d'être, and hence we encounter some immanent contradictions in it, e.g. recommendations, and on that account a man has to choose between them, the choices resulting in for and against arguments. In consequence, the act of faith will have to be accompanied by uncertainty and risk. The author illustrates these theses by the examples from the Old and the New Testaments, exemplarily analyzing so called „Abraham’s conflict”. Existentialized faith understood in this way does not comprise single acts, there should be repetitive choices forcing a man into steady activity in religious sphere. In contrast to empirical sciences, contradictions included in the Bible do not onlydisqualify the Gospel, but they have faith-creating character because of it.
Autor Artykułu skupia się na zaprezentowaniu sprzecznych danych liczbowych dotyczących exodusu narodu wybranego z Egiptu. Liczby te oscylują w granicach od 6 tysięcy do ponad 600 tysięcy osób; niektórzy autorzy szacują łączną liczbę uciekinierów, wraz z rodzinami, nawet do 3 milinów osób (!). Niestety, nie ma możliwości adekwatnego przeliczenia danych zawartych w tekście Pisma św., w celu uniknięcia błędnych i przesadnych interpretacji. Jednocześnie dokonano krytyki dowolności związanych z uzupełnianiem tekstu wyjściowego. Całość artykułu oparta jest na analizie poglądów autorów polskich i zagranicznych. Tekst prezentuje szereg trudności z różnych dziedzin. Dotyczą one „Wyjścia”, bądź „ucieczki” ludu wybranego z niewoli egipskiej; sygnalizuje krytycznie problemy, nie pretendując do ich rozstrzygnięcia.
EN
The author focuses on the presentation of controversial numerical data relating to the Exodus of the Chosen People from Egypt. These figures range from 6 thousand to over 600 thousand people; some authors estimate the total number of refugee, along with families, even on 3 millions of persons (!). Unfortunately, it is not possible to adequately convert the data contained in the text of the Holy Scriptures, in order to avoid incorrect and over-interpretation. Simultaneously it has been proved the rlatitude of complementing the original text. Th e whole is based on analysis of the opinions of Polish and foreign authors. Th e text presents a number of diffi culties from diff erent areas. They relate to the „Exit” or „escape” of the Chosen People from slavery in Egypt, but do not to solve these problems.