Part - I

The Christian Bible is made up of two parts - the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament was created by the Jews¹. Early Christians compiled the New Testament and added it to Old Testament and called it the Christian Bible.

Jews like to call their religion as monotheistic (one god only) but they actually have two gods. One is an all-powerful god called the Holy Father. The other one is called the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is more of a secretary than a deputy. A third force called the Holy Son (Jesus Christ) was appended to this divine duo by the founders of Christian religion to form the Holy Trinity. Because this gives rise to questions as to who is the bigger god, early Roman Catholic Church used a curious piece of logic, which says three are one and one is three. However, the Church for ostensible reasons preferred the last addition in the Holy Trinity i.e. Jesus Christ, over the other two. It urged all Christians to route their devotions solely to Jesus Christ, as the Holy Son would take care of the needs of the Holy Father and Holy Ghost.

The Old Testament is a collection of several books. The first book of the Old Testament is the Genesis. According to Genesis, life on earth did not evolve from micro-organisms over millions of years but were simply prefabricated like pizzas and delivered to earth. It also says that the process of creating the entire universe took only in six days. On the seventh day, the creator rested and that is why Sunday is holiday. The idea that human race started with Adam and Eve also comes from this book. This notion gives rise to several uncomfortable questions. Were the first few generations of the human race brought about by incest? Genesis says that Adam and Eve had two sons - Kane and Abel. Abel was killed by Cain after some dispute. Cain then married a woman, whose identity has not been revealed in the Old Testament.

4:16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. 4:17 And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

Who was Cain's wife? It can only be assumed that she was Cain's sister! If it wasn't a sister, then it must have been his mother. If it was not his mother or his sister, then she did not evolve from Adam and Eve. This contradicts the original assumption that EVERYONE came from Mr. & Mrs. Adam.

The Old Testament says that the Pentateuch² was dictated to Moses³ by God at Sinai. Some people had trouble with premise. In the 11th century, a Jewish physician in Spain called Isaac ibn Yashush wondered how a few Edomite kings who lived after Moses got mentioned in Genesis 36. Abraham ibn Ezra, a 12th century rabbi, gave Yashush the appellation "Issac, the Blunderer." He however he had some blundering questions of his own. He wondered how the books mention Moses in third person and how Moses could have described his own death. In the fifteenth century, Tostatus, the Bishop of Avila, suggested that Joshua, Moses's successor, wrote the passages about and after Moses' death. This explanation was not deemed good either because the writing style hardly varied between the two. The hundreds of years of purported history that the Old Testament claimed for Israel was now in doubt. Cracks began appearing on the unshakeable foundations on which both Jewish and Christian beliefs were founded upon.

In modern times, some serious scientific studies into the authorship⁴ of the Genesis have been made. If you read the Genesis, you will find that events mentioned one chapter is repeated again in the next chapter. For example, the creation of the universe in six days is mentioned in Chapter 1 and then repeated again in Chapter 2. Thus, the book of Genesis was found to contain a set of doublets. The two sets were so distinct that in some places they contradicted each other.

• Chapter 1 says plants and animals were created before Man. Chapter 2 says Man was created before plants and animals.
• Chapter 1 says Adam and Eve were created at the same time. Chapter 2 says Man was created first and Eve sometime later.
• Chapter 6 says Noah took two of every kind of animal into the Ark (a huge boat that he built to survive The Great Flood, which submerged every land feature on the earth). Chapter 7 says seven nos. of certain kind have to be accomodated.
• Chapter 10 mentions that there were many languages before the Tower of Babel. Chapter 11 says only one language was there.

This led scholars to believe that the Genesis had two different authors, identified in academic circles as Y and E because Y referred to God as Yahweh and E referred God as Elohim. Later, a new writing style was identified, which did not match either Y's or E's. This author is referred as P because of his emphasis on law, sacrifices, and other topics of priestly interest. A fourth author D has been identified and he is supposed to the be the same as the author of the book of Deuternomy.

There are countless inconsistencies and absurdities in the Bible. For example, it says that the universe was created not so long ago - it started only in 4004 B.C. This age was calculated from the ages of all the descendants of Adam and Eve, which are mentioned in the Bible. Adam and Eve were supposed to have lived in a place called Aden. This place is yet to be found. The apple that Eve ate was called the Apple of Knowledge and consequently earned God's wrath! After Eve eats the apple, God puts a curse on all women that they should suffer pain during childbirth. This verse, Genesis 3:16, was used by the Church to oppose the use of anesthesia during childbirth. The Bible says that the Sun, Moon, and stars were like bulbs that were switched on and off in the sky. Because of this, for several centuries, people in the Western world thought that earth was flat, it was the center of the universe, and the sun, moon, and stars were like satellites of the earth. Many scientists who propounded contrary views were persecuted. Even today, in schools in many developed countries, evolution is treated as a fancy theory while creation by "God" is taught as a scientific fact. Genesis says that every male child needs to be circumcised (surgical removal of the foreskin). Because of this, Jews continue to circumcise their babies even today. Thankfully for Christians, a circumcision without hands - a spiritual kind - has been described in the New Testament.

Other books of the Bible went in for critical study. The date of parts of the book of Isaiah was brought forward and the prophesies in the book were deemed to have been written after the events had in fact occurred. Overall, the Old Testament had shown very little awareness of contemporary history. Archeological evidence runs contrary to most of Old Testament's claims.

NOTES

1. Jews have been living in the Middle East for centuries. Today, they are members of a widely dispersed people originally descended from the ancient Hebrews and sharing an ethnic heritage based on Judaism. Israel is the world's only Jewish state.
2. Pentateuch refers to the first five books of the Old Testament i.e. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.
3. Jews and Christians believe that Moses freed Jewish slaves from the Egyptian Pharaoh and led them to the promised land called Israel.
4. Interview With Richard Elliott Friedman on Documentary Hypothesis

Part - II

Jesus Christ is the central character of Christian mythology. The New Testament part of the Bible contains four books called Gospels. These Gospels are supposed to be accounts of Jesus' life by four different people - Mark, Luke, Matthew & John. According to the Gospels, Jesus was born to a virgin woman named Mary. How can a virgin have a baby, you say. The Church had a simple explanation for this - immaculate conception. Problem solved.

In the beginning of the common era¹, the Jewish regions of Israel and Judea were under the Roman Empire. Over the centuries, there were a few men who claimed to be the "messiah" or the "saviour". These men were treated with suspicion by the majority of Jews. However, some of their purported superhuman feats inspired folktales that survived their time. The tale of Jesus Christ could have been just another such story. In any case, Christianity was an obscure sect even among Jews until the Roman Emperor Constantine gave it official backing. Otherwise, Christianity would have been died a natural death like several other Jewish sects. You need to understand that not all Jews believed in the Old Testament or the Talmud. There were many Jewish sects, some with indulgences in satanic worship. Even Christianity has many influences of those satanic practices - drinking the blood, eating the flesh, worshipping dead bodies, resurrection, etc.

Even though the New Testament says that Jesus Christ was a Jew and a messiah of their God, most Jewish people did not believe this to be true. For 2000 years, Jewish people have refused to accept Christianity and maintain that the tale of Jesus Christ as an elaborate fake. The state of Israel that Jesus wanted to be the king of is today predominantly Jewish and not Christian! Jews' skeptism is not without reason. There is no real evidence that there ever was a person named Jesus Christ. No eye-witness accounts exist. Both the Jewish people and the Roman empire left an extensive set of records none of which mention a Jesus Christ.

The Church has not been found wanting and have indeed endevoured to provide some real "evidence." Josephus Flavius, Pliny the Younger, Tacitus and Suetonius are the men that the Church says have provided the proof. All of them however were born after the purported lifetime of Jesus Christ and none of them ever met the Saviour in person. Their accounts could have been only just repetitions of what Christians of that time were saying. The Jewish Talmud is also cited as a non-Christian evidence. However, work on this book really started as late as the third century. There are many places in the Gospels where it is mentioned that huge throngs of people came to see Jesus Christ from afar. If this were true, then certainly some contemporary of his would have mentioned him.

The Gospels cannot be treated as authoritative accounts of a historical Jesus Christ. This is because history will not allow for miracles and other paranormal activities. Besides, nobody knows who wrote them and why they were written. The traditional Church view is that the Gospels were written by the Mark, Luke, Matthew & John. These men appear as characters in the Gospels. Scientific examination of these texts show that these men could not have written the books. Besides that, the four Gospels found in the Bible are not the only ones. In fact, there were many more². Most of the other gospels (like Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Peter, Gospel of Mary) were declared as heretic by the Church and destroyed.

The Gospels are supposed to have been written after the death of Jesus. The authors of the Gospels do not claim to have seen a living Jesus. No original version of the Gospel exist today. Only copies of copies exist. Researchers say that the earliest account of Jesus, the Gospel of Mark, was written not earlier than 70 CE³. The Gospel of John is believed to have been written not earlier than 90 CE. Since Jesus Christ is supposed to have been born in 4 CE and died in 37 CE, the Gospel of Mark must have been written 40 years after his death. Mark would have been 70 years and John would have been 110 years when they wrote the Gospels if we were to assume they were born around the same time as Jesus Christ. Incidentally, people in the first century did not live that long. By reading the Gospel of Matthew, it can deduced that the author was neither a follower of Jesus nor an eye witness. The author of Luke identifies himself that there were many tales about Jesus and he was only putting his own version of those tales³.

NOTES

1. See Early Christian Writings and the Nag Hammadi Library
2. CE refers to the common era. Because of an error in the formulation Gregorian calendar, the purported birth of Jesus Christ falls in 4 CE rather than at 0.
3. Did Jesus Exist?

Part - III

As mentioned earlier, Christianity started as an obscure sect and went on to become the leading religious faith of the world through a series of curious turns in history. The first one among these was the purported conversion of Constantine the Great to Christianity. Christian lore says that when Constantine was leading an army across the Roman empire (in 312 C.E.), he saw the sign χ-ρ(Chi-Rho, the Greek monogram for Jesus Christ's name) in the heavens and promptly converted to Christianity. But historians believe that he did not convert till his death in 337 C.E. In 313 C.E., as the ruler of the Roman empire, he issued the Edict of Milan, which professed tolerance to all religions. He himself believed in the what Christian historians call the pagan religion. This was a catch-all term for all religious beliefs that Romans followed. Pagan religion also ventured into monotheism and an universal god called Sol Indiges was established, which later became Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun God, encompassing Helios, Apollo, Mithras and Baal. In 321, Constantine made the day of Sol Invictus a holy day and a day of rest for the Christians — Sunday. (Before this, Christians rested on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath) When Constantine died, Bishop Eusebius^* wrote a false and eulogistic Life of Constantine, which has since been used to distort history. Constantine united the worship of the Sun God and Christianity to strengthen his position. The concept of using the solar disc in the form of an halo became part of Christian iconography in his time.

At that time, Christians were a small but influential minority, very much like today's Jews. Constantine's mother Helena was a more enthusiastic Christian than her son. She went to Jerusalem, and found several sites that she claimed was associated with the death of Jesus Christ, including one where she found the cross and nails with which Jesus had been crucified. Because she was the mother of the emperor, her claims were accepted without question. Church thanked her by granting her sainthood and we know her as St. Helena.

In 326 C.E., Constantine got his wife, his illegitimate son, and a nephew murdered in the palace in Rome at the behest of his mother Helena. According to the Greek historian Zosimus, Constantine asked the Pagan priests for a purification in the temple of Jupiter but was refused. Christian priests however consented. Because of Rome at that time was overwhelmingly Pagan, Constantine was the butt of widespread scorn.

So, he made the old town of Byzantium in Asia Minor the new capital of the empire and called it Constantinople. Constantine then continued a policy of persecution for the old Pagan religion and massive generosity to the Christian Church. But Church historians have tried to imply that their religion's natural superiority supplanted other beliefs.

In 319 CE, Constantine issued an edict that outlawed Pagan religious officials from entering the residence of a citizen. In 330 CE, Constantinople was dedicated to Christianity. The near-conversion of the emperor caused the noble class to convert and Christians had the empire in their control. Christians were encouraged to attack Pagan temples. In 337, Constantine died. Emperors after him varied in their devotion to the new religion. Julius, a cousin of Constantitius, was declared an apostate. However, Constantine's son Constantius made Pagan rituals a capital offense. He also issued an edict that required the closing of all Pagan temples. Christian mobs then took to destroying Pagan temples. Practitioners of the old religion were accused of indulging in witchcraft. Spanish emperor Theodosius (379-395) outlawed Pagan sacrifices inside the Roman empire and anyone found practicing Pagan rituals would lose all claim to their property. Christians then took to robbing Pagans and many Pagans began to convert to Christianity. In the middle of all this, the Church split into Catholic and Orthodox.

Pagan religion could not all be suppressed. Many gods were admitted to the church as saints - Dionysus as St. Denis of Paris; Diana Illythia as St. Illis of Dole. The statues of Jupiter and Apollo became statues of St. Peter and St. Paul.

The Romans celebrated the Winter Solstice on December 25th as a renewing of the sun every year. In many European countries, this is called Yuletide, meaning wheel time, the cycles of time. The Church tried to put an end to this festival but failed. So, in 354 CE Pope Liberius repackaged this Pagan festival as Christmas celebrating the birth of Jesus despite the fact there is no recorded date for the event. Another Pagan festival of the Romans was Lupercalia. Romans believed believed that the goddess Juno Februata inflicted her love fever on the young and unwary in the ides of of February. This festival was converted to St. Valentine's Day.

* - "The father of ecclesiastical history," as Eusebius of Caesarea is called, wrote his famous Ecclesiastical History some years before the death of Constantine; and it does not contain this very important miracle.

Part - IV

Gospels and the other books of the New Testament are considered to be canonical or divinely inspired i.e. the New Testament was the "word of God" and that it was not written by mere mortals. Unfortunately, there were many books in circulation and God did not specify exactly which among them had his official stamp of approval. So, that task was usurped by mere mortals - the Church fathers. These men were considered some books to be divinely inspired or "orthodox." Others were considered to be heretic. Among themselves, humans have different opinions. So, at various times in history, some books went from being orthodox to being heretic and back again and so forth. The four gospels that we now have are the ones that survived the shootout. The rest were suppressed and destroyed and almost lost for ever. Incidentally, the gospel authors (who were later made St. Mark, St. John, St. Matthew and St. Luke) had written other books, which are now considered to be heretic!

One of the first list of canonical books was drawn by Marcion. His list only had one gospel (of Luke's). Iraneous, the Bishop of Hippo, considered Marcion as heretic and made a new list of 22 books, which for the first time had four gospels. All these books except the Shepherd of Hermas have made it to today's New Testament. Later, Origen created a new list which put some books under dispute. Apostolic authorship was the reason why some books became canonical while others were not. The Church wanted to identify some apostles closely with the books so as to be their authors. The final list of 27 books of the New Testament was made by Athansius, the Bishop of Alexandria, in 367 CE. The rest were considered heretic. However, not all Churches accepted this list. This is why some very old branches of Christianity have different sets of books in their New Testament.

In 1958, Morton Smith, a theology student at Columbia University, discovered a letter which include a reference to "a secret gospel of Mark" when he was working at the Mar Saba Monastery near Jerusalem. It is a letter written by Clement of Alexandria (2nd century CE) concerning a dispute with the Carpocratians, an heterodox Christian sect. While Secret Mark may be false, the letter^* is an indication of the numeous gospels that were in existence and the plurality in the treatment they accorded to Jesus Christ. It also reveals the way "official" gospel writers worked to embellish and spruce up the tale of Christ to create a more acceptable image for the new cult.

To Theodore:

You did well silencing the unspeakable teachings of the Carpocratians...

Now, concerning their babblings about the divinely inspired Gospel according to Mark: some are wholly false while others, even if partly true, are still not completely true. The true parts, because they have been mixed with invented stories are debased so that, as the saying goes, even the salt loses its flavor. As for Mark then, during the time when Peter was in Rome, he wrote up the deeds of the Lord, not actually recording everything, nor hinting at the mysteries, but instead picking out the things he thought would increase the faith of those being taught. Then, when Peter was martyred, Mark went to Alexandria, bringing both his knowledge and the things he remembered hearing from Peter. From what he brought, he supplemented his first book with the appropriate items about knowledge for those who are making progress. He arranged a more spiritual gospel for the use of those being perfected. Nevertheless, he did not reveal the things which are not to be discussed. He did not write out the hierophantic instruction of the Lord, but added other deeds to the ones he had already written. Then, he added certain sayings, the interpretation of which he knew would initiate the hearers into the innermost sanctuary of the truth which has been hidden seven times. This is the way he prepared them, in my opinion, not ungrudgingly or unguardedly. And when he died, he left his writing to the church in Alexandria, where it is even now still extremely carefully guarded, being read only to those who have been initiated into the greatest mysteries.

Carpocrates was able to enslave some elder from the church in Alexandria and get the written part of the secret gospel from him. And he interpreted it according to his blasphemous and carnal opinion... Also, one must not concede to them that the secret gospel is from Mark, when they put forth their lies. Rather one must deny it, even with an oath. For one does not have to speak the whole truth to everyone.

So I will not hesitate to answer the questions for you, exposing their lies from the actual words of the gospel. At any rate, after the part, "They were going up on the road to Jerusalem" and the following things until, "after three days he will arise," it takes up according to the text: And they went to Bethany and there was a woman whose brother had died. And coming up to him, she prostrated herself before Jesus and said to him, 'Son of David, have mercy on me.' But the disciples rebuked her. And becoming angry, Jesus went with her to the garden where the tomb was. And immediately a great sound was heard from the tomb, and Jesus, going toward it rolled away the stone from the entrance to the tomb. And going in immediately where the young man was, he stretched out a hand and raised him up, holding his hand. Then, the man looked at him and loved him and he began to call him to his side, that he might be with him. And going from the tomb, they went to the house of the young man. For he was rich. And after six days, Jesus instructed him. And when it was late, the young man went to him. He had put a linen around his naked body, and he remained with him through that night. For Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God. After he got up from there, he turned to the region of the Jordan." And after these things, this follows: "James and John go to him," and that whole section. But the "naked man with naked man" and the other things you wrote about are not found. After, "and he goes to Jericho," it adds only, "And the brother of the young man whom Jesus loved was there, as well as his mother and Salome. And Jesus did not welcome them." But the many other things which you wrote both seem, and are, most false. So, the truth according to the right interpretation. . .

In Mark 10:46, the first sentence reads that the people came to Jericho but the second sentence talks about Jesus leaving Jericho. What happened in the middle? It was snipped by the folks at Alexandria but had been passed without edits by the Carpocratians.

Mark 10:46: And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging.

Secret Mark 10:46: And they came to Jericho: And the sister of the young man whom Jesus loved was there with his mother and Salome, but Jesus would not receive them and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging.

* - After some initial footdragging on the issue, this letter has been added to the official edition of Clement of Alexandria's writings. However, the original manuscript is no longer available for scholars at the library.