• If the bible is the word of God: why are there so many different interpretations?
• Jonah and the whale (fish)
• Was it the sermon on the Mount or on the plain?
• Was the Robe placed on Jesus at the crucifixion the color of Purple or of Scarlet?

If the bible is the word of God: why are there so many different interpretations?
God is perfect and man is not. God says something in his word and man distorts it.
Romans 7:14

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

And indeed, a great deal of scripture is dedicated to what correction of distortion.
The reason for this is that Man tends to wrap the word of God into a religious performances, or to satisfy the desires and lusts of greed, ambition, and the domination of others.
Jesus is speaking about the religious leaders in the following passage.
Matthew 23

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. "Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries[a] wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them 'Rabbi.'

Here is an example of a simple observance of remembrance.
In this verse Jesus speaks of prayer, wine and bread.
Luke 22:19-20

And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake [it], and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup [is] the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

The command is "this do in remembrance of me".
The point of the activity is for us as Christians to gather, offer prayers of thanksgiving, and remember the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. That work is that Jesus "gave himself" for us and to us when he died on the cross.
It was to be an intimate relationship around a table with fellow Christians speaking of HIM.
We get in trouble when our focus moves away from Jesus Christ and turns to the wine and the bread and the performance of the act.
Rather than a time of relationship and rememberance, it has been turned into a ritual performed with pomp and rigidity of form with no intimacy. An assembly line of the devout to churn out an action of piety. For many, it is no different than the burning insense, lighting of a candle, using a hand gesture or the sprinkling of water.

Now we fight over the elements and the timing.
There are several devisions:

• The bread and wine become body and blood of Christ (Transubstanciation).
• The body and blood of Christ come along side the bread and wine in the spiritual world.
• The bread and wine are spiritually the body and blood of Christ
• The bread and wine are just symbols of the body and blood of Christ

The blame is not with God or his word, but with us.

The next time you take communion, an act or instance of sharing, remember him.

Jonah 1:17 tells us that �Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.� It is this one statement that has made the book of Jonah, as much as any book in the Bible, an object of attack, skepticism, criticism, and doubt. The skeptics and liberals cry, �Impossible. It is impossible that a man could live inside the belly of a whale or some other kind of fish for three days.�
When I think about the skepticism and attacks on such a thing being possible, I am reminded of the:
Attempts At A Natural Explanation Of The Story

One theory that has been proposed is that as Jonah was floundering in the water another ship came by and rescued him. The name of the ship was �The Whale.�

Another explanation is that as Jonah was struggling in the sea and the carcass of a dead whale came floating by, so Jonah crawled inside and was later found alive.

There have been others that have not attempted to rob the story of it possibility, but have presented stories that reveal that it could have been possible.
Accounts from history
Sir Francis Fox records a story which he assures us was carefully investigated by two scientists, one of whom was N. Day Pardill, editor of a scientific journal in Paris. I want to read to you some excerpts from this: February 1891 - "The Whaleship Star of the East was in the vicinity of the Falcon Islands. The lookout spotted a large sperm whale three miles away. Two boats were lowered and in a short time, one of the harpooners was unable to spear the whale. The second boat attacked the whale, but was upset by a lash of its tail and the men were thrown into the sea. One being drowned, and another a James Bartley having disappeared could not be found. The whale was killed later and in a few hours the great body was laying by the ship's side and the crew was busy with axes and spades removing the blubber. They worked all day and into the night. The next day they attached some tackle to the stomach, which was hoisted onto the deck. The sailors were startled by spasmodic signs of life and inside was found the missing sailor, doubled up and unconscious. He was laid on the deck and treated to a bath of sea water which soon revived him, but his mind was not clear. He was placed in the Captain's quarters where he remained for two weeks, a raving lunatic. He was kindly and carefully treated by the Captain and the officers of the ship. He gradually regained possession of his senses and at the end of the third week, he had entirely recovered from shock and resumed his duties. During the sojourn in the whale's stomach, Bartley's skin, where exposed to the strong action of the gastric juices, underwent a striking change. His face, neck, and hands were bleached to a deadly whiteness and took on the appearance of parchment. Bartley affirmed he would probably have lived in this house of flesh until he starved to death. For he said he lost his senses from fright and not from loss of air." Some have suggested that the great fish was "Rhincodon typus," what we normally call the "whale shark." In one story, the late Dr. Harry Rimmer, President of Research Science Bureau of Los Angeles, wrote of a case of an individual who was swallowed by a Rhincodon: "In the LITERARY DIGEST, we noted an account of an English sailor, who was swallowed by a gigantic Rhincodon in the English Channel. Forty-eight hours after the accident occurred the fish was sighted and slain. The man was found unconscious on the inside, but he was alive. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was found to be suffering from shock alone. A few hours later he was discharged having been declared physically fit. The man went on exhibit in the London Museum at a shilling admittance fee, being billed as the 'Jonah of the 20th Century.'� In 1926, Dr. Rimmer reported that he met this man personally and said his physical appearance was odd. His body was devoid of hair, patches of yellowish-brown-whitish color covered his entire skin. Is it humanly possible for the Jonah account to be true? Some stories would seem suggest that it is possible. But, may I say that the attempts to give a natural explanation are really not all that important, as far as I am concerned. It is fine if you can find stories that reveal it is possible, but it would not matter to me if there were such stories or not. I am not all that concerned with any attempt to provide a natural explanation of the account.

When Heiderhal, crossed the Pacific in his raft "Kon Tiki" he was followed by a Rhiniodon Typius, also known as a whale shark. These monsters have a habit, of going to shallow water and vomiting out, that which presents a problem of digestion.
Cranky old people qualify.