The Bible

For those who think there is a Creator, there is a desire to know what that Creator is, thinks, and wants of us. For many, this is thought to be solved by the Bible.
 
 
QUESTIONS NEEDING ANSWERS
Why would a Creator message be dependent on the human invention of papyrus, paper, pens, and the printing press?
 
Why would the Creator choose to write a book in the Bronze Age when the world was essentially illiterate?
 
Why were all the people who lived before the Bible ignored?
 
Why not implant the message in everyone's mind so even the blind, deaf, and dumb could know?
 
Why are there tens of thousands of denominations and interpretive traditions based on the Bible?
 
Why have holy book interpretations led to witch trials, the Inquisition, and countless wars?
 
 
NO ORIGINAL BIBLE
No original Bible has been found.
 
The earliest known New Testament fragment is the Rylands Papyrus P52, a small portion of the Gospel of John (an unknown writer). This has been dated 125–300 A.D., about 95-270 years after Jesus's death.
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P52 Bible fragment. 8.9 x 6 cm

EARLY COPY DIFFERENCES
With no original Bible, there are many versions.
 
For example, these verses are missing in the earliest most reliable texts:

• The story of Jesus telling those without sin to cast the first stones at an adulteress (John 7:53-8:11)
• The last 12 verses in Mark regarding speaking in tongues and snake handling (Mark 16:9-20)
• Jesus' statement in Luke 23:34, asking the father to forgive his executioners for not knowing what they were doing. 

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There are also omissions of many Jewish and Christian writings that some believe belong in the Bible.
 
Some believe the Book of Mormon (1800s)--created by Joseph Smith's translation of the seer stones placed in a hat he put his face into to read--is an important adjunct to the Bible.
 
 
MANY DIFFERENT CHRISTIANITIES
In its earliest form, Christianity consisted of competing Jewish reformist and messianic movements.
 
Over the centuries, Christianity was codified to suit whichever group could gain the favor of worldly powers.
 
The Bible has been repeatedly edited, rewritten, translated, and given to kings and popes to modify to their liking.
 
 
CONSTANTINE'S DECISIONS
The official state-sanctioned Bible began when the Roman Emperor Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. He embraced pagan Mithraism and viewed Jesus as an effective war god. Constantine’s involvement helped unify certain doctrines (such as the nature of Christ). The biblical canon was then further developed over several centuries.
 
Constantine is here depicted with the sun-god. Jesus is often shown similarly. 

​At the time of Constantine, there were many vying Christian religions.
 
Docetism, based upon the Gospel of Peter, one of the early books rejected, was widely spread. It taught that Jesus was not physically real, but rather an allegory for the spiritual awakening possible within any person.
 
Arius, an early church father with a large following, taught that Jesus was a finite being, not one with God or part of a trinity.

​In the 4th century, Pelagius refuted Augustine's original sin doctrine that man was predestined to be evil due to the fall of Adam and Eve. According to Pelagius, the mistakes of man do not come from inherent evil, but rather from failed conscience and freedom to choose.

​At the time of Constantine's Council of Nicaea, many Christians thought that people reincarnated to learn and grow from a variety of reincarnated Earth experiences. Origen, one of the most prolific early Christian writers, argued for this preexistance of souls.

​Constantine did not agree with reincarnation. Not surprisingly, he argued that the gateway to heaven was obedience to him as the supreme god leader.
 
Constantine made Jesus an incarnate son of god just like Constantine declared himself to be.

​Cyril (376-444), an Alexandrian leader, is said to have inflamed a Christian mob that stripped Hypatia naked, flayed her alive with oyster shells, and dismembered her due to her noncompliant reincarnation-flavored Christian philosophy. 

Hypatia killed in a most cruel way

Cyril sainted

UNCERTAIN LANGUAGE
The same word in different language translations of the Bible can have multiple meanings and cultural flavors.
 
Vowels were not added to the Hebrew language used in the Old Testament until the seventh century AD. There were no punctuations, sentence breaks, paragraphs, chapters, or headings in the early Bible texts. This made consistent deciphering nearly impossible.
 
Even word meanings change over time.

​A comma can create opposite meanings. For example: "Woman, without her man, is nothing," versus, "Woman, without her, man is nothing."
 
Jesus's words to the repentant thief hanging on the cross beside him, in today's official Bibles say: "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in heaven." Or, "Truly I say to you today, you will be with me in heaven." 

​Presently, there are dozens of English translations and over a thousand Bible translations worldwide. 

​A legal contract in a tongue common to both parties can be interpreted differently. A judge and jury can also have different interpretations of it. A final judgment can cause debate in the legal profession for decades. That demonstrates that writings in a foreign tongue, translated over and over, written thousands of years ago, would be impossible to be understood in one way by all people throughout all time. 

ALTERNATIVE TO THE BIBLE
No book can be demonstrated to be the literal word of an incomprehensible Creator—especially when its content depends on human language, transmission, politics, and interpretation.
 
That does not leave us abandoned. The creation and its laws reveal what we can know, not believe, about the Creator. Moreover, the free will, reason, and conscience created within us are clear messages to us from the Creator.
 
They are the tools to use for truth, not belief and faith in man-made religions, gods, and books.
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How kids and the illiterate might interpret the Bible

• In the first book of the Bible, Guinessis, God got tired of creating the world so he took the Sabbath off.
• Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. noah’s wife was joan of ark. noah built and ark and the animals came on in pears.
• Lots wife was a pillar of salt during the day, but a ball of fire during the night.
• The Jews were a proud people and throughout history they had trouble with unsympathetic genitals.
• Sampson was a strongman who let himself be led astray by a jezebel like delilah.
• Samson slayed the philistines with the axe of the apostles.
• Moses led the jews to the red sea where they made unleavened bread which is bread without any ingredients.
• The egyptians were all drowned in the dessert. Afterwards, Moses went up to mount cyanide to get the ten commandments.
• The first commandments was when eve told adam to eat the apple.
• The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit adultry.
• Moses died before he ever reached canada, then joshua led the hebrews in the battle of geritol.
• The greatest miricle in the Bible is when joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.
• David was a hebrew king who was skilled at playing the liar. He fought the finkelsteins, a race of people who lived in Biblical times.
• Solomon, one of Davids sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.
• When Mary heard she was the mother of Jesus, she sang the magna carta.
• When the three wise guys from the east side arrived they found Jesus in the manager.
• Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption.
• St. John the blacksmith dumped water on his head.
• Jesus enunciated the golden rule, which says do unto others before they do one to you he also explained a man doth not live by sweat alone.
• It was a miricle when Jesus rose from the dead and managed to get the tombstone off the entrance.
• The people who followed the Lord were called the 12 decibles.
• The epistels were the wives of the apostles.
• One of the opposums was St. Mathew who was also a taximan.
• St. Paul cavorted to christianity, he reached holy acrimony which is another name for marraige.
• Christians have only one spouse. This is called monotony.

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