The Bible of Today = Is it Authentic & Original word of GOD ?

The Bible of Today = Is it Authentic & Original word of GOD ?

Was The Bible Assembled By Vote?
40 AUTHORS & THE HOLY SPIRIT

Most modern day Christians claim the assembly of the Holy

Bible is in fact, a Perfect Book, written by forty (40)

authors, all being inspired by the Holy Spirit, and it has

remained unchanged for thousands of years. I know, because

when I was still a Christian, I used to believe the same

thing.

However, this claim is not really from the Biblical

scholars themselves, but rather by various laymen, being

uneducated in the actual work of working with ancient

documents and it promotes ignorance of the subject. When

this is offered as some type of religious authority, it

provides a deceptive and misleading presentation that is

easily exposed as nonsense and could actually turn the

believers of Christianity away from religion altogether.

SERIOUS CHANGES OVER CENTURIES

The scholars of Canon of the Bible are quick to concede

that the books we know in today's Bible, both in the Old

and in the New Testaments, have undergone very serious

changes throughout the centuries. First year students of

Biblical manuscripts will immediately acknowledge this is

the undeniable case. The Dead Sea scrolls (actually know

as Wadi Qumran scrolls) for example, are clear evidence to

this fact without doubt. Although hidden from the public

for over forty years after discovery, the facts have now

come to light. These scrolls were not something recorded

before the advent of Christ (peace be upon him). But

rather, these are now accurately placed at the very time

of the first century of the Christian Era (C.E.). These

ancient manuscripts demonstrate a number of very different

variations of scripture all being distributed all at the

very same time. Some of these scrolls are noted by present

day scholars to be even more accurate, more extensive and

of much better quality than what we find in our Bibles

today.

What is the Real History of this Book? - The Holy Bible?
Has the Bible always been, as claimed by some, the

unchangeable, uncompromised - Word for word - Letter for

letter - Dot for dot - Word of God, that we know today?

REAL HISTORY

Let's first consider the real history. For centuries there

have been translations in and out of many different

languages, too many to even number. My own library

contains more than a dozen very different translations and

I know of many more in the local Christian book store.

While many Christians would like to think the Bible they

have on the coffee table, in their bookcase, hall closet

(or in the bathroom) is the very same Bible used by the

church for two thousand years, this is simply not true.

ENGLISH BIBLE NOT EVEN 1,000 YEARS OLD

First and foremost, English must be ruled out as an

authentic language for the Bible, as the English language

did not even exist until after the Normans invaded the

Saxxons in the Christian Era 1066 (C.E.) and that is not

even one thousand years ago.

PROTESTANT BIBLE EXISTED
AFTER PROTESTANT REFORMATION

The Protestant Bible with its sixty six (66) books, did

not exist until after there were Protestants. That may

sound a bit humorus, yet many Christians today rely on the

Protestant Bible as though it had come to them directly

from the time of Jesus himself (peace be upon him).

MANY MISTAKES OF
4TH CENTURY LATIN VULGATE

Actually, the Catholic Latin Vulgate is the Bible

translated by Jerome in the Latin language. It dates back

to the fourth century (C.E.) and is currently located in

the Vatican in Rome. Irregardless of its value in

antiquity, the evident mistakes and deviations from the

older manuscripts make it more of a museum spectacle than

a serious reference.

CATHOLIC BIBLE HAS 73 BOOKS

The Catholic Bible has been comprised of seventy three

(73) books for many centuries, athough from time to time,

the Book of Revelations has come under question and been

removed by one council or another and then replace by

other councils at later dates.

PROTESTANT BIBLE HAS 66 BOOKS

Most Protestant Christians seem to think their Bible of

sixty six (66) existed for thousands of years. This is

incorrect. This particular version cannot exit prior to

the advent of Bishop Martin Luther and his followers, all

within the last five hundred (500) years or so.

DEBATES ABOUT BOOKS UNTIL 1647

The word 'canon' refers to specific writings that are

accepted by the Church as being from the 'Devine' source

(God). However, as to which books or writings are

acceptable as canonical and which are not acceptable has

been the subject of debates amongst the Judeo-Christian

leaders for the last two millenium. As already mentioned,

the Catholic Church has maintained over seventy (73) books

in their version, while the Protestant verison limits the

number to sixty six (66) and even then the Protestants did

not agree on which books should be part and parcel o the

Bible up until 1647, at the Assembly of Westminster.

NEWLY ACCEPTED BOOKS

A few of the New Testament Books now accepted (but earlier

rejected) include: Hewbrews, James, 1st Peter, 2nd Peter,

2 John, 3rd John, Jude and the book of Revelations.

ORIGINALLY ACCEPTED BOOKS
(BUT NO MORE)

At one time in earlier manuscripts we find as part of the

New Testament canon (at that time) the inclusion of:

Shepher of Hermas, Epistle of Barnabas, 1st Clement, 2nd

Clement, Epistle to Laodiceans (by Paul) and the Apostolic

Constitions.

JEWS & CATHOLICS ACCEPT
PROTESTANTS DO NOT

There are more than a dozen Books of the Old Testament

accepted by some Jews and for the most part by Greek and

Roman Catholic Churches, yet rejected by the Protestants.

These include: Baruch, Tobit, Judith, Book of Wisdom, Song

of Three Children, History of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon,

Prayer of Manasseh, Ecclesiasticus, 1st Esdras, 2nd

Esdras, 1st Maccabees, 2nd Maccabees, 3rd Maccabees, 4th

Maccabees, 5th Maccabees.

ALL AGREE ON
ONLY 5 BOOKS

Only the first five (5) books, called the Pentateuch, were

accepted by all Jewish and all Christians as being

canonical or Devine. These are the famous first books of

the Old Testament: Genesis; Exodus, Leviticus; Numbers and

Deuteronomy.

LOST BOOKS OF THE BIBLE

While in my father's study, I came across a reference book

for the ancient manuscripts of the Bible. In it I found

listed the "Lost Books of the Bible". I was fascinated

with this and through close examination, I found there

were many other Books or manuscripts I had never heard of.

The authors or writers of the Bible actually had referred

to these works: Book of the Wars of the Lord; Book of

Jasher; Book of the Covenant; Book of Nathan (the prophet,

son of David); Book of Gad; Book of Samuel; Prophecy of

Ahijah; Visions of Iddo; Acts of Uzziah; Acts of Solomon

(son of David); Three Thousand (3,000) Proverbs of

Solomon; A Thousand and Five (1,005) Songs of Solomon;

Chronicles of Kings of Judah; Chronicles of Kings of

Israel; Book of Jehu and the book of Enoch (the first

person to write scripture of God, according to Islamic

traditions).

CANONIZED BIBLE BOOKS
CHOSEN BY POPULAR VOTE

The 'Canonized' Version of the Bible did not exist until

after the Council of Bishops and even then is was still

being debated for many centuries afterward. The books to

be contained in the Holy Word of God, were actually just

chosen by the popular vote, much the same way we would

vote on any public law today. Which brings to mind a

number of complications as to these really having any real

Divine authority. Which bishop was against or for certain

books that did not make it into the final edition (and

why?). What was the reason some endorsed while others

declined on various books?

GOSPELS LEFT OUT

We now come to another very important issue concerning

books, actually 'Gospels' (Greek: 'Good News') of the New

Testament. Why are we now deprived of the 'Good News' of

Thomas? Or Jade? Or Peter? Those were the names of actual

Gospels that were left out of the final version of the

council choices. Along with others such as: The Gospel of

Hebrews; Gospel of the Egyptians; Gospel of Perfection;

Gospel of Judas; Gospel of Thaddeus; Gospel of the

Infancy; Gospel of the Preaching of Peter; Gospel of the

Shepherd of Hermas; The Epislte of Baranabas; Gospel of

the Pastor of Hermas; the Revelation of Peter; the

Revelation of Paul; the Epistle of Clement; the Epistle of

Ignatius; the Gospel of Mary; the Gospel of Nicodemus and

the Gospel of Marcion.

MORE GOSPELS & ACTS LEFT OUT

Did we somehow miss out on all of this "Good News"

(Gospels) by one or two votes? How much did we miss these

by? And then, what about: The Acts of Pilate, Acts of

Andrew; Acts of Mary; Acts of Paul; Acts of Thecia and

even more. Consider what would have happened in the year

365 (C.E.) at the Council of Laodicea, if even one of

those Bishops had voted differently, or maybe not even

shown up on that particular day. A vote or two cast

differently would have produced a very different belief

for millions upon millions of Christians in the last 1600

years.

As a matter of fact, why would we be forced to accept the

voting of some men back 16 centuries ago?

BIBLE NOT REALLY A 'BOOK'
UNTIL 15TH CENTURY

The Gutenberg priniting press brought about a

revolutionary change in reading material that changed the

way people read, learned and understood informaiton as

never before. It was this invention that produced for the

first time, a Bible that could be said to be exactly the

same as other Bibles coming from the same printings on

this press.

At the same time, we become seriously aware of the fact

that prior to this marvelous invention, the Bible was not

in one solid form. Rather it was in pieces in manuscript

form on scrolls and parchments and could not have been

reliabily copied, translated, recopied and transferred

from one parchment to the next without at least some

mistakes, omissions, alterations or errors.

WHAT ABOUT CHANGES? ALTERATIONS? OMISSIONS? DELETIONS?

This begs the question, how easy would it have been to

intentionally change, alter, add or omit certain words,

verses or even whole chapters by church leaders or scroll

keepers in an effort to appease rulers or enforce certain

objectives on the believers?

How could we ever know just how much of the Biblical text

has been altered, changed, deleted or rewritten by the

hand of well meaning (or not-so-well-meaning) monks and

scroll keepers over the centuries?

We are all in a serious condition these days. Atheism is

on the rise amongst many of our youth. And dependency on

drugs, alcoholism, sex, family abuse, adultry, rape,

murder, terrorism, wars and suicides are happening

everywhere. All the while we have people insisting on

reliance to a book, that in all fairness is much more from

mankind than it is from Above.

All the faithful would agree, there must be reliance on

the the Word of the One God Above for solutions to these

problems. But how many will really take a step back to

consider what the correct source for God's Word to mankind

might really be?