i1098.photobucket.com/albums/g374/Paidion9/Emoticons/hmmm.gif I would say, the same thing might happen if you insist on believing everything in the accepted “canon”!
Here is how Job 29:18 reads in the NKJV: “Then I said, ‘I shall die in my nest, And multiply my days as the sand.”
Of course virtually all translations are based on the Masoretic Hebrew text, a much later Hebrew text type.
But the Septuagint, based on a much earlier text type which is found in cave 4 or the Dead Sea scrolls, and also the text type from which the New Testament writers quoted, puts it differently:
“Now I said, ‘My length of life shall continue even as that of the phoenix. I shall live for a long time’.”
According to Clement, Paul’s fellow helper, when he wrote his letter to the Corinthians shortly after Paul and Peter’s death, described the phoenix as living for 500 years, and then after the bird rotted, it came to life again to begin another 500-year cycle.
But not only the phoenix is found in the book of Job, but also dragons, leviathin (a sea monster), and bethemoth, whose description is similar to that of a dinosaur.
Do you believe in dragons? In the King James, the Hebrew word (Strongs 08577) is translated as dragons in all of these places:
Deut 32:33; Neh 2:13; Ps 44:19, 74:13, 91:13, 148:7; Isaiah 27:1, 34:13, 35:7, 51:9; Jer 9:11, 10:22, 14:6, 49:33, 51:34; Ez 29:3
Micah 1:8, Malachi 1:3.
However, modern translations render it otherwise. The NKJV ususally translates the word as “jackals”. However, it also translates it as “sea creatures”, “reptiles”, “serpents”, and “monsters”. When a translation renders a word referring to a beast in such a variety of ways, one is suspicious that it may not be rendered correctly.
In conclusion, I say, that if leviathin and behemoth exist, if dragons exist, why is it so hard to believe that the phoenix exists?
As for “many contradicting theological ideas”, one can find contradictions in the Bible as well. However, if they are pointed out, they are quickly explained away, for many believe the Bible to be infallible and flawless. Yet contradictions in the early Christian writers supposedly prove that these writings are “not inspired.” Those who believe they are, can explain away those contradictions as well.