Not to belabor the point, but if you aren't reading this stuff in the original Greek and Aramaic you are already using a scholar's services, translation, and opinion. The little footnotes about the word meanings and translation context in the original language are an example.

I am not going to change your mind, and I see you aren't unlikely to provide evidence or proof sufficient to change my mind, so again, I wish you a fantastic day.

Jesus was a radical who concentrated more on what unites us than divides us, with his main emphasis on teaching others to do what is right rather than blindly follow rote law or reactionary emotion. Even when it is uncomfortable, as when being attacked here.

We all have our salvation story, and I spent years struggling to reconcile simplistic explanations from plain text readings without context while studying science which seemed to have so many answers - so I started to learn about the history, context, and scholarship of the Bible. Great stuff!

As an old pastor said, No god, no peace.  Know God, know peace. This has been great growth for me to really, really study the Bible as it was meant to be known, rather than for me to put my own spin on it out of context.

I'll even add a little challenge. I am willing to be wrong.  In fact, I love being proven wrong, because then I have learned something that is true that I didn't know before.

The challenge is this: Do something to research this.  Talk to your pastor, go up to your bishop, call an apologetics professor at the university.  Research online.  Start a Bible study at your church. That's non-threatening, right?  We who love the Lord are willing, hungry, open to learning more about the Bible, our savior, and our history.  Email me your results.  I'm open to a respectful conversation with a fellow believer.  I have a lot more to learn than to teach, so I'm really, truly open.