|
Will the Real Bible Please Raise Your Hand?
Any discussion of who Jesus was and what he taught must begin with an understanding of the history of the New Testament. The New Testament was compiled from many books that were written during the early days of the Catholic Church. From the first few verses of Luke (quoted earlier) you can see that there were many accounts of the ministry of Jesus to choose from. Countless volumes were destroyed because they disagreed with established Catholic dogma. Heresies arose often and the heretics would be excommunicated from the church or killed and all their writings would be burned. The Catholic Church (hardly an unbiased entity) would then be the only historical reporter of the beliefs and practices of the heretics. The Church began to hold councils to deal with these many heresies that kept coming up. It was possible to be a hero of the faith in one generation and a damnable heretic in the next. Origen of Alexandria was one of the greatest theologians among the early church fathers. He believed firmly (as did many early Christians and Jews) in reincarnation or as it was referred to back then, the pre-existence of souls. He was a martyr and revered theologian who gave his life for his faith. Yet less than one hundred years after his death, some teachers began to attack his beliefs in the pre-existence of souls and finally at the second Council of Constantinople in 553 AD he was condemned as a heretic and his writings forbidden to be read by the “faithful.”
The New Testament became a single volume of 27 different “books” over the course of several hundred years. Some churches accepted some books and rejected others. There was a great deal of confusion. Finally the Catholic Church called a Church Council in 397 AD at Carthage in North Africa. It was there, over much debate and theological wrangling, that the official canon of the New Testament emerged, decided upon by the majority vote of the bishops present. There was a great deal of argument over whether or not the so-called Revelation of John should be included. In the earlier Council of Laodicea in 363 AD a list of books to be read in the churches included all the books that would eventually be in the New Testament except the Revelation of John. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, led a group of bishops in an unsuccessful effort to leave Revelation out of the New Testament. Some thought Revelation was the work of a madman. Others declared it a cryptic work of the Apostle John. Today the Syrian Church does not accept Revelation as canon, and to this day Revelation remains the only book in the New Testament that is not read in the Divine Liturgy of any of the Eastern Orthodox Churches. There was also debate on whether or not to include; Hebrews, James, II Peter, II John, III John, and Jude. Compromises were made; some bishops wanted the Revelation of John and not Hebrews while other bishops wanted Hebrews but not the Revelation of John. Each compromised in taking both. Even now what should be officially included in both the Old and the New Testaments is a matter of much debate and division between the different branches of the Christian faith. As of this writing, none of the Eastern Orthodox Churches have issued official decrees as to which books should be included in the Old Testament. Discrepancies in what is official canon are listed below:
Included by Roman Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, but excluded by Protestants: Tobit Judith 1 Maccabees 2 Maccabees Wisdom of Solomon Ben Sira Baruch, (Includes Additions to Jeremiah) Additions to Daniel Additions to Esther
Included by Orthodox Churches but excluded by Protestants and Roman Catholics: 1 Esdras 3 Maccabees 4 Maccabees Prayer of Manasseh Psalm 151
Included only by the Russian and Ethiopian Orthodox Church: 2 Esdras
Included only by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church: Jubilees Enoch 1–3 Meqabyan
Included only by the Peshitta Bible (the standard version of the Bible in the Syriac Language): Psalms 152–155 2 Baruch
Source of table unknown Not only is there a great deal of disagreement about which books should be included in the Bible, there are a number of very clear discrepancies in the Bible. That doesn’t mean the Bible is wrong necessarily but it does mean that it is of human origin. I will only list a few found in the four Gospels of the New Testament since we are trying to arrive at the teachings of Jesus. Now ask yourself this; if the bishops (who decided which books would be the authorized canon of the church) really wanted people to believe the New Testament to be the actual verbal words of God, rather than the inspired works of men, why would they include four different Gospels with so many clear contradictions? After all, I believe they were sincere, intelligent, good, honest and honorable men. Perhaps the main reason was they felt the layman should never read the Bible and they could keep the contradictions hidden. In their day illiteracy was rampant.
Here are a few discrepancies in the four Gospels. ~ In Acts 20:35 Paul told people "to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" There is no record of Jesus saying this. ~In Matthew 8:5-7 the Centurion himself approached Jesus and asked him to heal his sick servant. In Luke 7:3 & 7:6-7 the Centurion sent his friends and the elders of the Jews. ~ In Matthew 20:20-21 the mother of James and John requested that they sit beside Jesus in his new Kingdom. In Mark 10:35-37 James and John make the request themselves. ~ In Matthew 10:10 Jesus told his disciples not to take a staff and not to wear sandals as they traveled about spreading his message. In Mark 6:8-9 Jesus told his disciples to wear sandals and take a staff. ~ In Matthew 9:18 Jarius asked for help and said his daughter was dead. In Luke 8:41-42 he said she was dying. ~ In Matthew 8:13 & 8:14 Jesus healed a leper before he went to Simon Peter’s house. In Mark 1:29-30 & 1:40-42 he healed the leper after visiting Peter’s house. ~ In Matthew 5:1-2 Christ preached his first sermon on a mountain. In Luke 6:17 & 20 he preached his first sermon in the plain. ~ In Matthew 20:30 two blind men came to Jesus to be healed. In Luke 18:35-38 only one blind man came. ~ In John 20:1 only one woman (Mary Magdalene) went to the sepulcher of Jesus. In Matthew 28:1 Mary Magdalene and the "other Mary" (the mother of Jesus) went. ~ In Mark 16:2 it was sunrise when the two women went to the sepulcher. In John 20:1 it was still dark (before sunrise) when Mary Magdalene went alone. ~ In John 20:11-12 there were two angels at the sepulcher. In Mark 16:5 there was only one. ~ Who bought the Sepulcher where Jesus was buried? Joshua 24:32 says Jacob bought it. Acts 7:16 says Abraham bought it. ~ Who bought the Potter’s Field with the 30 pieces of silver? In Matthew 27:1-5 it says that the Chief Priests purchased the field. In Acts 1:18 it says the Judas bought it. ~ Matthew 27:1-5 says that Judas hanged himself. Acts 1:18 says he fell to his death.
Nowhere are the contradictions of the Gospels more obvious than the morning when the tomb of Jesus was found to be empty. Since the resurrection would become the very heart of Christianity, it is particularly troubling that all four Gospels disagree so drastically on the initial discovery and reporting of this event. Another blaring discrepancy is the length of Jesus’ ministry. According to Mark (and Matthew and Luke who copied him) the ministry of Jesus lasted just one year. Jesus made one Passover visit to Jerusalem and he was killed there. But according to John, the ministry of Jesus lasted three years, and there were three Passover visits. If you read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you will find that the ministry of Jesus took place primarily in Galilee with Capernaum serving as the headquarters of Jesus. However, John would have us believe that the ministry of Jesus took place primarily in Judea.
What difference do these minor contradictions make? Absolutely none! They do not change the overall message at all. I only include them to make the point that no book should ever be taken as the God-breathed words of God no matter how ancient it is, nor how “holy” someone says it is. That is not my testimony alone but the testimony of some of the very men who wrote the books that were to become the New Testament! "But I speak this by permission and not by commandment." (1 Corinthians 7:6) "But to the rest speak I, not the Lord." (1 Corinthians 7:12) "That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord" (2 Corinthians 11:17).
We can use the New Testament as a guide in making an honest effort to determine what Jesus taught but there is no room for hard dogmatism. There is no room for argument. There is no room for condemnation of others. If there is a clear path to God, it is not found in the pages of any “holy” book on this earth. When I read any alleged “holy” book from any world religion, including the Bible, I accept as truth only those words that bring peace and a discernment of right to the inner Light of God that dwells inside me, because it is virtually impossible to know with certainty the actual original words of the original author. Any honest minister or student of scripture who has studied the issue should be willing to concede that point. Those who claim otherwise and have given any study to the issue at all should not be trusted; they clearly have a personal agenda. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
=
the book is not included in that Bible
=
the book is included in that Bible
