Organized religion, by its very name, can not allow you or anyone else to interpret the Bible. What would be left for them to do, and besides, there would be far too many interpretations by people who are not Papally sanctioned, pious, Schmouncil people, official-inspired councils of the hierarchy!
One must first believe in the teachings of the church, and then, if you do, living by the rules is easy----good or bad! Also, you are guaranteed safety from hell.
I probably believe in a supreme being as much as most church goers, but eh difference is the rigmarole they go through from something written down by some other human.

I had an acquaintance in Athens (UGA) back in the '70's who opposed nuke energy. His point was that the bible was 2000 (less than 4000 total) and no one could show an original piece. Could not even keep up w/ this important doc. for 2000 years. So, how could we keep w/ nuke waste for 250,000 years. Who'll know we put it in that mtn in Nevada?
I somewhat digress. I remember reading the "Dead Sea Srolls" (in the 60's when the book came out) and there were several interpetations of Hebrew words and how you wanted to read them. The exaple I remember was that either Jesus could have "Walked on the water." OR he could have "Walked by the water."

Basically, I've told my kids either you Believe or you don't. That's why it's calle FAITH. Not picking on him but I am sure that Mitt Romney, Believes the Book of Mormon, as does the convert Harry Reid.

Well, first, Jesus is never mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered in a cave in Qumran in the 1940s and are widely thought to have been produced by a Jewish sect known as ther Essenes. So perhaps it was something else that you recall having read.

There were not a few "Gnostic gospels" that appeared in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. The so-called Gospel of Judas, of recent Discovery Channel fame was one of these. They typically ascribed esoteric teachings to Jesus. For instance, in Judas, we find Jesus often rhapsodizing over astrological signs, etc. The early church roundly and rightly rejected these, not for reasons given in Da Vinci Code-type conspiracy theories, but because it was recognized that these aimed to import an eclectic mishmash of philosophies into the original Christian faith (much like present-day New Age mishmashers).

And the New Testament was written in Greek, not Hebrew.

The passage regarding Jesus' "walking on water" employs the Greek preposition epi. Whoever you read was correct: epi is not restricted to just one translation. But here, like anywhere else, common sense and context go a long way towards understanding what the text is saying.

Here is Matthew's account:

But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

Try substituting "beside" for each occurrence of "on." You then have a story of the disciples seeing Jesus walking along the beach. Peter makes so bold as to ask if he, too, might walk along the beach. Jesus says, "Sure, be my guest!" Peter manages his way out of the boat until, for a time, he, too, is walking on the beach. Ah, but then he begins to sink!. QUICKSAND! Help, Jesus! (Here, images from old Tarzan movies come to mind.)

One may be free to discount the whole passage as a bit of mythology. Then the discussion turns to the possibility of miracles, different views of metaphysics and the difference that this makes for the believability of miracle accounts, the historicity of the man Jesus of Nazareth, etc. But the passage itself pretty clearly alleges that Jesus--and, briefly, Peter--did something extraordinary.

The passage ends with the disciples saying, "Of a truth you are the Son of God." Hey, I walk on the beach every morning when I'm in Cocoa Beach. No one has ever approached me and said anything like that, despite my sandals and beard.

Shawn, we can trust that the Bible has been accurately handed down to us for a couple of reasons. First of all, because the Bible was such a popular book in the ancient world, it was copied and translated many times, and many of these copies and translations are still in existence today. While there are small discrepancies between all of these copies, most of them coincide remarkably well. When a large number of copies transmit a passage in a certain way, we can assume that the original passage said basically the same thing. Second, archaeologists have discovered ancient fragments of the New Testament, dating all the way back to 100 AD, that match our modern New Testament perfectly. In light of these and other reasons, scholars today estimate that our modern Bible is 98% or 99% pure.

Well Bull, here is the way it has been explained before:

There were also several chapters of the "bible" that were left out due to conflicts with those already chosen. They have yet to be picked up.

But, the general attitude of the "church" is that really holy people of our civilized early history had long and strenuous meeting to decide what the Bible meant, and then they approved their conclusions and sanctified it. We are to believe those conclusions!
Otherwise we have Chaos! Occasionally, the Pope or someone will slightly revise those conclusions.
What is important, as I see it, is to be at peace in your mind with your life and have faith in yourself doing what is correct snd right.
What other people write may appeal to you but it could be wrong.