by Richard Griffin

Created on: January 09, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

The entire Bible is outrageous and is full of contradictions. Many people try to write about the bible without any concrete knowledge of what they are talking about. This can trick and mislead the gullible. They are persuaded by poignant preachers pursuing payment. These writers claim they have done personal research (whatever that means) and then they make ridiculous statements like "the original Bible was written in Hebrew."

There is no original Bible as we know it today. The original text was lost long ago and we have no idea what they said or what language they were written in. The Aleppo Codex (the Keter ("Crown") Aram Tzova) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew bible and is aproximated at circa 920. According to the bible timeline, this is about 5100 years after the story of Genesis took place. Yes, there are older hebrew scriptures such as the so-called Dead Sea Scrolls, however these are still several thousand years after the fact. Although they contain texts that are in the current Bible they are also mixed in with text such as Enoch that are not. The fact that there are non-canonical works mixed in with Bible text is a contradiction to the statement "the Bible came to us from God". In fact the reason some scriptures are in the Bible and some are not is entirely by choice of man.

In contradiction to the political propaganda preached by the churches of today, the Bible was an evolutionary work that came into being over several years of ecumenical council by the bishops of the early (circa 4th century) Roman church. If it were not for the Emperor Constantine the council would have never taken place. It was this pagan Emperor who established the need for a unified set of beliefs to unite his empire.

Every time there is a major division of theology the cannon is modified. Check the differences between the Catholic Bible and the Greek Orthodox. The Ethiopian Coptic Church has another cannon different from both of these. The Protastant Bible is missing the Apocryful texts.

Martin Luther wanted the book of James removed because of its contradictory message. Paul preached one cannot be saved by works, but only though faith, because if it were possible to earn your salvation by works then what Jesus did would be of no use. James states in chapter 2 that you are not saved by faith, but by your works. Hence the contradiction and why Martin Luther opposed the book of James.

There is a whole book called the "Lost Sriptures" by Bart D. Ehrman that deals with sciptures that didn't make it into the Biblical cannon because these texts were viewed as contradictory and herectical. Many of these texts are thought to be from a sect of belivers know as Gnostics. Gnostics have a differing viewpoint on the path to heaven than standard Christians do. The Gnostics belive that Jesus imparted certain secrect information to obtain a way into Heaven. If the Gnostic belief had been more popular then their version of the Bible would have been the one that exists today.

The current Bible can not be from God, unless God is very flawed, because it is a very flawed book with more contradictions than is practical to list here. The current book that is used as the Bible is based on popularity contest by early church bishops fueled by political motives. The only way it can be remotely veiwed as true is because it is so vague there is a wide opportunity for interpatation. Selling the Bible as the true word of God is the greatest con job of all time. The reason people fall for it is they are so desperate for answers that they will believe anything that will give them hope of better life and life eternal.

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