Banned From the Bible

Sweetp0985

I may be late in seeing this special on the History channel, but did anyone else see this show. It was about books being banned from the bible that further explains events that may or may not have happened the way it is written in the bible. This show peaked my curiousity and I went to the library and found the book Who Wrote the Bible? by Richar Friedman. I am currently reading this book when I'm not engrossed in the forum finding new information everyday. But just the first chapter has raised many questions that I'm sure no JW will be able to answer. Any way did anyone else see this show or am I just the late one to catch the bus? I kinda got that impression when scanning the thread about J-documents. This book refers to something along those lines. Please enlighten me on this so I can catch up.

gitasatsangha

I haven't read the show but as a Witness, the apocrypha was pretty interesting to me. I think the Gospel of St. Thomas is particuarly interesting, since it seems to predate the gospels in Jerome's canon.

Its just my opinion as an outsider looking in at the Christian religion, but I tihnk that "All Scripture Is Inspired" comment by Paul really caused a great deal of damage to Christianity. It started to become book-centric after that, but the question had to be which books, so rather then having an open view to various texts, the Church felt the need to have one agreed upon series of books (a similar thing had happened in Buddhism a few centuries prior with the development of the Pali and Sanskrit Canons, and there the resemblence ends abruptly). After the Reformation it only got worse, to the point that now the bible itself seems to be something of an idol among many protestants.

Crooked Lumpy Vessel

I did not see the program, however, almost a year ago I saw a program on the other books, that were also part of the Jewish libraries at the time, one I found most interesting was the 'Book of Enoch', which goes into great detail with respects to the Angels that slept with women, etc. It was a very interesting read. They also noted that in the book of Jude, there is a reference to the prophet Enoch, which reads....

14

Yes, the seventh one [in line] from Adam, E´noch, prophesied also regarding them, when he said: "Look! Jehovah came with his holy myriads, 15 to execute judgment against all, and to convict all the ungodly concerning all their ungodly deeds that they did in an ungodly way, and concerning all the shocking things that ungodly sinners spoke against him."

Where I highlighted indicates that there exists writings from the prohphet Enoch. Plus the quote that follows, "Look! Jehovah came with his myriaids..." This was quoted from the Book of Enoch. These writings were also found with the dead sea scrolls. I started to wonder why some books were kept from the bible and others not. Who were these men that made this decision for me? So when time allows, I periodically read some of these other books.

I want to know if the Bible is truly God's word and I want to know what other books existed and who decided to have what removed and when. If I am to believe the Bible is God's word then I want the whole truth, not half truths.

Crazy151drinker

Sweet,

I caught the last part of the show where it was talking about the Gospel of Nicodemous and the Appocolypse of John (I think it was John). Very interesting show. Once again, what we are presented as the "only truth" is really the 'truth' of those who assembled it. Few realize that there are countless Books not included in the Bible due to various political and religious dissagrements.

Odrade

Ha! Sweet, I read the same book. Great read. I just posted about it on Frannie's latest. Also there's a good one called "Who wrote the Gospels?" different author. Really interesting, and expounds on the theory that the writer of Luke (?) may have been a woman. I'm not entirely sure I buy the argument, but the book makes a pretty good case... It also talks a bit about the Apocryphal books and why many of them did not make the Bible canon.

Fun stuff.

O

Balsam

Hi,

I follow all those shows on the bible on the History Channel and have read many books they have brought up on these shows. I saw the "Books banned from the Bible" show. I know as a JW I knew nothing of how the bible was put together. Had no idea that there were books left out of the old testement and the new testement. If all had been added to it it would have been 10 times as thick as it is probably. Men are the ones who decided which they wanted to be inspired and which were not. By the time the current bible was put together the Catholic Church with its Bishops were in strong influence. Thus Constantine turning to them to decide. As a JW we used to say those shows knew nothing, the funny thing is we were the ones who were ignorant.

There is JW lady who comes and brings me the magazines on a regular basis and I bought this up to her. She was ignorant about it. I have no idea if it made any impact on her thinking. I can only hope so. The bible is a book of mythos, created give man explaination for their lives and hope. The ones writing it understood it was myth like the greek stories of gods. But in our modern day and before the stories in the bible came to be viewed as the word and literal which it never was.

Even the Apostle Paul when he wrote his letters, he had no thought of what he was saying would be viewed as gospel 2000 years later. Karen Armstrong has many good books about the history of religion and how it came about. I've read "Who Wrote the Bible?" and it set me on the road to a better understand of why these text exist today.

A book you might be intersted in is called "Tomorrow's God" By a Walsh fellow. Gives us all something to think about in how we want to view God in our modern day.

I've learned more since leaving the JW then I ever did being one. I read everything I can get my hands on now, and I don't have to hold back or read in secret anymore.

Balsam

kls

I always wonder what has been left out of the Bible or when it was transulated ,what was omitted. I believe the Bible is not whole and have no doubts that it has been written to suit the writer. The NWT for instance, no one know's what the Bible was really ment to say, for all we know it could have been made up by man.

Robdar

The Apocrypha, Gospel of Thomas and the Book of Enoch are all interesting to read. After reading the book of Enoch, I began to think that that is where some of the Watchtower teachings come from.

R

L_A_Big_Dawg

My biggest issue with many of these History/PBS/National Geographic/Discovery channel documentaries is that they rarely, if ever, have conservative scholar on to present the opposite side of the coin. I have sat under a number of conservative scholars ranging from Dr. Robert Morey to Gary Habermas, to Greg Koukl, to J.P. Moreland, and I have yet to see any of these conservative scholars on any one of these shows. The funny thing is that many of these persons are considered to be the leading experts in their respective fields of study.

Most of these show's producers trot out the same scholar, John Domonic Crossan, Marcus Borg, etc. Nothing wrong with that, however it gives the lay person that what these persons and and others like them say is representative of ALL Christian scholarship. Just some equal time is all I would like.

LABD

Sweetp0985

I do remember someone once told me that the bible may not be in chronological order. I do remember that this was during the time I was in the JW group. If they were not totally sure of the time line of the events happening, how can they be sure nothing was omitted. I saw the comparisons myself in Genesis where you could give a second thought as to 2 different people giving their accounts as to what happened in the beginning and then combining them together. I think this is gonna be a good read, I'm only up to chapter 2 I think....

Banned From the Bible

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