Originally Posted by
DONW
In order to understand the Bible, one needs to go back and look at the history of why it was written. It was written because a Roman Emperor commanded Monks to write it to bring his people together because he felt like he was losing control of his empire. Only a few people back then gathered in churches as they do today and they all had different books and gospels they liked to read in their homes. The monks went throughout the country gathering those writings. The ones they liked, they put in the Bible, and the ones they didn't, they burned. Some of the writings were buried before the monks could get them and were discovered hundreds of years later. Some of these were The Dead Sea Scrolls, The Book of Enoch, The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, The Gospel of Thomas, and The Gospel of Philip. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and The Book of Enoch are two of the most amazing writings I've ever read.
The Bible is full of contradictions and duplication and some of the strangest stuff you will ever read. Here's two strange verses in Numbers: Chapter 31 verses 17 and 18, "Now, therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But, all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." Were the monks drinking a lot of wine when this was written? There are lots of strange verses like this throughout the Bible. I would suggest that everybody should read the Bible to find out what's in it, or at least read the first four chapters. Find one that is an old print that is a duplicate of the King James version that was first written in English in 1539. Many of the newer Bibles have had a lot of editing. Thomas Paine, one of our founding fathers, wrote a really good book called "The Age of Reason" where he discusses a lot of the strange verses in the Bible.