The Bible: The Good Book or the Great Hoax?

Who Writes This Stuff Anyway? Ah, the good ole Bible, the best book ever written or baloney? Believable or bunch of bull? Love it or hate it, the Bible stands strong in literary history as the most controversial, most circulated, most persecuted, and most translated book that has ever graced the planet. Certainly these qualifications make it exquisitely unique and intriguing. Most of us are familiar with the story that’s IN the Bible, but what’s the story ON the Bible? How did it come to achieve these distinctions? Although any believer will tell you that the Bible is the Word of God, they must also concede that it was written using the humble tool of human hands. Does God speak through people? Write through people? Bother with people at all? If He even exists in the first place? That of course, is a question for another time; we must stick to the topic of the Good Book or the Great Hoax, depending on who you are and how you see it. Let’s first consider the author. Or rather, authors, there were after all more than 40 of them, scholars and fishermen, generals and rabbis, doctors and shepherds, peasants and poets, philosophers and fishermen. And don’t forget the politicians and the ancient IRS representative. A more unlikely group of literary collaborators the world has never seen. Of course, a lot of them didn’t even see each other. The Bible took more than 1,500 years to be completed, the human hands assigned to this task spread out over 40 generations, not to mention over 3 continents—Africa, Asia, and Europe—and in 3 languages! The language of the Old Testament was Hebrew, referred to in the Bible as “the language of Canaan,” and “the language of Judah. (Isaiah 19:18 and II Kings 18:26-28 respectively.) Now these factors alone should make this collaboration a hodge-podge of writings as varied as the flowers of the earth, and as different from each other as fingerprints, even if they were given just one topic to write about. Really, what does the general have in common with the rabbi? And what perspective does the king share with the fisherman? And will the peasant and the IRS collector agree on anything? But interestingly enough, they do. They agree on all sorts of timeless controversies of man, like sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, the idea of many gods versus one God, etc. In addition to that, the writings encompass a variety of literary styles, including but not limited to poetry, parable, allegory, biography, personal memoirs, history, law, and of course, the prophetic and apocalyptic writings. And yet they speak in unity about the God they believe in, His hand in human affairs, and what He has decreed about the future. Now maybe, just maybe, I might be convinced that they were all trained at the same seminary. If seminaries would have existed back then, over all the continents, teaching the exact same subject matter without the use of the printing press, the telegraph, the telephone, the Postal Service, or the currently indispensable internet and email. Then I might give it a thought, but without those things in place, it is a mystery far more interesting than anything Agatha Christie has ever put out. Besides, not only were they not trained at some kind of International College of Indoctrination and Brainwashing, they were in quite a variety of situations. Jeremiah was in a dungeon, John was exiled on an island, Paul was in prison, Luke was traveling, David was at war, and Solomon was at peace, with way too much time on his hands according to his musings in the book of Ecclesiastes. And that’s just a few of the 40. And remember too, the countless number beside the 40 whose histories we do not know, whose stories we have not heard. No other book in existence has been paraphrased, translated, and retranslated as often as the Bible has. It has been published in more languages than any other book, and no other book can even think of competing with the level of the circulation of the Scriptures. Interesting. Ban the Bible! Burn the Bible! History has tried repeatedly to rid itself of this book. (And its followers too, but that’s another topic for another day). For a long time, the leaders of the dominant “church” of the day banned the common people from reading it! In their attempt to create an elevated society for themselves and to control the people (and thereby the politics), with unmitigated gall they pronounced themselves the only ones fit to read it, and the only ones with enough understanding to interpret it. Funny isn’t it, peasants and fishermen could write it, but only those “priests” could understand it. Uh huh. Nonetheless, that’s what happened. And under their hand, the situation of man and his perception of God deteriorated to such a low as has never been before or after. Thus the Christian Crusades and the Inquisition were born. Somehow, the exalted diviners of the Bible came to the conclusion that the mission assigned to them was to torture, maim, and kill in the name of Christ. But only people who didn’t agree with them, of course. Kiss their butts, or hand (if they were among the holiest of the holy) and live. Oppose and die, and forfeit everything you own to the state. The church. Whatever. The lines had been blurred beyond recognition. They became self-appointed mediators, teaching the parishioners (ignorant of what the Bible really said) that they were the common people’s only connection to God. And then, they continued on to announce their power to forgive sins. Never mind that all of this was not only absent from the Bible that they claimed divine understanding of; it was in fact, contradictory and downright blasphemous. Their lust for prestige and power was rivaled only by their unquenchable greed and all the pompous illusions (and delusions) of grandeur that went with it. You can still see the disgusting display of wealth accumulated by this “church” today. And oh, the spectacle of the pageantry! Never mind that it in no way whatsoever resembles the One they claim to follow, but none of their followers even notice. Because they don’t know. In a sad commentary on human nature, the common people that were denied the Scriptures by their leaders and wished more than anything to be privy, now, with access freely granted, simply aren’t interested. “It’s a matter for the priests,” they say. Generational inherited ignorance. Alas, I digress. The whole point of this section was to say kings, societies, individuals and countries (beginning with Ancient Rome and continuing with today’s communist countries) have attempted to eliminate the Bible, all in vain. And it’s interesting to note that the places where it was/is most repressed are the places with pockets of the strongest faith in the Book and the God it proclaims. It’s almost as though its persecution validates its claim. Irony that.