No TV.
No Radio.
No Internet.
No daily newspaper.
How did a pre-technology world get information?
Word-of-mouth.
Rumor.
Visiting strangers.
Commerce.
The stories of Jesus were oral urban legends that probably began this way:
"Hey did you hear about that Rabbi in Jerusalem who could walk on top of water?"
Sort of like telling about a UFO sighting or an encounter with Bigfoot in our own day and time.
The credulous and the uneducated would be the first to listen and retell (with embellishments) what they'd heard.
Ask yourself how we all know what space aliens supposedly look like if it weren't for the trope of storytelling over decades.
Did you know that before there were Alien sightings there were Fairy sightings?!!
Each generation has its own Golem, vampire, succubus, Robin Hood or King Arthur.
The ACTUAL WRITTEN books of the bible are another matter.
NOBODY thought they were writing a book under inspiration! They were just writing a story!
Even Paul's letters (which preceded the Gospels) were just encouraging letters and nothing much more than that by reputation!
Paul had some sort of "vision" or hallucination---like a contemporary Catholic might see the Virgin Mary. He wrote about it.
The letters were passed around and probably wore out eventually. Copies were excerpted and passed on.
A farmer might see a UFO and be taken on a ride by Aliens who probe his butthole. Surely he'd tell all the details to whomever would listen!
Sure it sounds crazy---if it didn't--WHO WOULD EVER LISTEN AND PASS THE STORY ON??
The status of HOLY or INSPIRED was a gradual affectation. As the stories were written down and recopied an aura of importance EVENTUALLY
became attached to the original. In our own lifetime, the story of AREA 51 has taken on a life of its own. It has become a worldwide industry with movies, books, personal accounts, investigations and endless speculations attached.
Who wrote the original story? NOBODY!
So too with the Bible stories!
Hello? There may have never been an ORIGINAL!
Here is a thought experiment for you. Think about the origin of jokes. Sure, we know where George Carlin's jokes came from--he wrote them.
"A guy walks into a bar.." jokes---where do they come from?
Some anonymous Joe somewhere thinks one up and tells it.
Another person polishes it and makes it punchy.
Another teller makes it more colorful and tells it with an accent or adds an animal to it.....
The "final" joke is just a work in progress. The kernal of the joke has been wrapped in other people's ideas and talent for telling something funnier. There is no Author--per se.
The Bible was a series of urban stories not unlike jokes for the next guy to tell and make a little more colorful and exciting!
Deciding which books were "holy" or "inspired" was a fool's errand. They ASSUMED their premise (inspiration from God) and then set out to prove it!
Want proof?
Where are the ORIGINAL manuscripts to any bible book??
If any were actually HOLY----do you think they wouldn't be preserved and revered like the Shroud of Turin?
No, canonicity and inspiration are conceptual labels eventually attached to stories that were passed around, "improved" and retold until they got written down and edited.
At that point the cycle started all over. Redactors kept on "improving" and harmonizing until the "canon" got frozen.
Today, walk into any bookstore and see how much of the original Gospel isn't STILL BEING CHANGED AND RETOLD for modern audiences!
More people read contemporary retellings than read the Bible itself!
The story is always being adapted, stretched to fit a new context and passed on.
As Ex-Jehovah's Witnesses we can stop and ask ourselves this question: If today's JW were put in a Time Machine and sent back to talk to one of Russell's colporteurs or Rutherford's street peddlers, or Brother Knorr's Bethel graduates---would they share the exact SAME RELIGIOUS BELIEFS?
Absolutely not!
The TRUTH is no truth at all----it is just a story in progress. Each link in the transmission RE-CREATES the idea of TRUTH which is always better than what came before.
The Bible became HOLY so that we could all justify spending so much time considering it important in the first place.
Besides, it is nice being backed up in what we think is "true" by a superpowerful God who'll slap you down if you disagree with me!
