Banned from the Bible

Banned from the Bible
In a 2-hour special, History Channel's show Time Machine scrutinizes ancient writings that didn't "make the cut" in the Christian Bible. Biblical archaeologists and scholars examine why they were left out and if others might yet be found. Beginning with the little-known Life of Adam and Eve, they also peruse the Book of Jubilees, the Book of Enoch, the Gospel of Thomas, the Protevangelium of James, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Nicodemus, and the Apocalypse of Peter.

Example, Jubilees has more detailed version of Genesis but was banned. Why? Because it told the truth of Adam and Eve. It has Cain marrying his sister. Why is he doing this? Because they are the only humans around!

Then Enoch is still mentioned in the bible, once. It is like Genesis 2, more details, like the giants, fallen angels, so forth. Mainly the angels descend upon earth and have sex with the women and the children are giants that are blood thirsty and kill most men off. Also the fallen angels teach humans medicine, technology, so forth. It also has god banning these angels to the depth of the earth and the fallen angels plead to Enoch to bring their case to God. They lose.

Why were they banned? They were in the bible before and only thrown out by the church in the later years. Was there more damning information than the other books that the church decided instead of editing all of it to just ban them? Written at the same time, or earlier and therefore closer to Jesus's time, but banned. People who think the bible wasn't edited, there were whole books thrown out.

This is probably THE biggest reason I have alot of trouble considering the bible to be "THE" book and true word of God. Sure there is a lot of wisdom to be gained by reading the bible, and any person that decides to live by its teachings will have more grace and humility in their lives then those that stumble around without any guidance, but the fact that it was a hack edit job by those deeming themselves experts on the matter leaves alot to be questioned IMHO. I suppose many of the books you mentioned were left out because of the many contradictions they posed and therefore creating a text that would seem even more suspicious to its followers. What a lot of people don't know also is that in early Christian times, the only people allowed to actually read and interpret the bible were the priests. Any knowledge the layman had of it was what was preached to them from the pulpit, along with the interpretations of all the parables and such found within. I suspect once the church realized they couldn't keep it this way, they had to make the changes so that the congregation would not see these inconsistencies and doubt the divinity of the holy book.

cheers,

StickyG

[edit on 10-7-2004 by StickyG]

Originally posted by James the Lesser

Example, Jubilees has more detailed version of Genesis but was banned. Why? Because it told the truth of Adam and Eve. It has Cain marrying his sister. Why is he doing this? Because they are the only humans around!

Then Enoch is still mentioned in the bible, once. It is like Genesis 2, more details, like the giants, fallen angels, so forth. Mainly the angels descend upon earth and have sex with the women and the children are giants that are blood thirsty and kill most men off.
...
They were in the bible before and only thrown out by the church in the later years.

Of course Cain married his sister. Who else would he marry? That is no special reason to through out a book.

Enoch is actually mentioned 12 times in the Bible:
Genesis 4:17, Genesis 4:18, Genesis 5:18, Genesis 5:19, Genesis 5:21, Genesis 5:22, Genesis 5:23, Genesis 5:14, I Chronicles 1:3, Luke 3:37, Hebrews 11:5, and Jude 1:14

The whole fallen angels creating "giants" is actually mentioned in the Bible. Genesis 6:1 - 4:

6:1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them,
6:2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
6:3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."

6:4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days--and also afterward--when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

100 years after this, God sent Noah's flood over the the earth to wiped out everone, including these Nephilim; everyone except Noah.


Those "extra" books were not ever actually in the Bible and thrown out. The "Canonization" or selection of which books of the Bible were "in" or "out" took a long time. Also different religions and denominations actually use different "Canons" of the Bible.

Look here for more info:

gbgm-umc.org...

Originally posted by StickyG
What a lot of people don't know also is that in early Christian times, the only people allowed to actually read and interpret the bible were the priests. Any knowledge the layman had of it was what was preached to them from the pulpit, along with the interpretations of all the parables and such found within. I suspect once the church realized they couldn't keep it this way, they had to make the changes so that the congregation would not see these inconsistencies and doubt the divinity of the holy book.

Your facts are sort of correct, they are just in the wrong order. The Bible, i.e. the one containing the same stuff as the King James Bible you see in all the Hotel rooms has, was actually canonized, "hack edited", long before the "reformation" which is when lay people started to be allowed to read it for themselve.

Look up the life stories of John Wycliffe, John Hus, Martin Luther (the first one, not the civil rights one).

You will find that these guys were leaders in the Catholic church at the time, but were outspoken against the church for not allowing the lay people to study the Bible for themselves.

One of Wycliffe�s followers, John Hus, actively promoted Wycliffe�s ideas: that people should be permitted to read the Bible in their own language, and they should oppose the tyranny of the Roman church that threatened anyone possessing a non-Latin Bible with execution. Hus was burned at the stake in 1415, with Wycliffe�s manuscript Bibles used as kindling for the fire.

www.greatsite.com...

So the canonized Bible we have today existed long before the people were actually allowed to read it.



[edit on 10-7-2004 by leiphasw]

Oh god! Lets not start talking about the Nephilim again! Theres a whole thread for that! haha!

But really now, I agree with Sticky. People claim the Bible to be the "word of God" when it was edited by the Vatican counsel? Eh?

To me they were banned simply because they didn't fit into what the Vatican wanted. They took out the Gospel of Mary because women weren't intelligent enough to speak the word of god, they took out the Evangelians because it made angels seem immoral (having sex with humans, etc) , and the list goes on and on. The council took out everything that contradicted anything in attempt to make it more concrete. Pish posh.

The most interesting book to me is The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ. It says that Jesus was able to speak right after he was born and that the young savior would adjust the size of boards for his carpenter stepdad.

How dare the Vatican or any other man change, edit or otherwise tamper with the word of god? THat kinda makes all religions following the edited scriptures hypocrites right? False religion all of them? Is there an uncut version of the Bible anywere?

Sounds like maybe the eithiopeans(sp) might have the closest to real bible perhaps they do have the ark...

X

Originally posted by Scat
Oh god! Lets not start talking about the Nephilim again!

Okee Dokee

Originally posted by Scat
But really now, I agree with Sticky. People claim the Bible to be the "word of God" when it was edited by the Vatican counsel? Eh?

To me they were banned simply because they didn't fit into what the Vatican wanted.

It is interesting that you would say that...I agree. Since you seem to know which books were ditched and why, you presumably also know that the current Catholic Bible is significantly different from the Protestant Bible. From my understanding, the "Vatican edited" Catholic version doesn't hold up well against verifying texts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and other early manuscripts.

I wouldn't bet my "life" (eternal and temporal) on their version either.

The current Protestant Bible, such as the New International Version, or the New King James, were translated using these early manuscripts as their basis. So they are very accurate.

I do bet my "life" on these versions.

Well L- youve got to remember...Catholicism was the first true branch of Christinaity, so I'd say a Catholic Bible is alot closer to the original the the new Protestant ones.

Now to another rant-
I wouldnt bet my life on ANY Bible, seeing how of course, it was written by MAN, is written in the word of MAN, and is approved by MAN. God is a footnote. GOD DID NOT WRITE THE BIBLE, IT IS NOT THE WORD OF GOD. See any religious thread about the bible Ive ever posted on and I go crazy about this. hahha. Sure God might have "inspired" the bible, but weed has probably inspired alot more!

OK, that was a rude and crass remark, but I just had to!

Here is the rest of it. It is very interesting to see what the church decided was too much to edit and so just had it banned.

Gospel of Thomas explains how it all started with Jesus. Jesus is 5-12 years old and is a troublemaker. Gospel of Thomas was very popular, until later years the church had it thrown out. First time Gospel of Thomas was printed out was in 185ad. It has Jesus making sparrows out of clay on the Sabbath and was in trouble with the law. Also, it has a story about Jesus as a kid. He killed someone by pushing him off a roof. But he then raises the kid from the dead. He had a dark side to him. He blinded a man for criticizing his fathers work. He uses his power to knock down his teachers, friends, anyone. But he starts to help his dad and mom and the people when he gets older. As mentioned he would lenghten a board if cut to short for Joseph. But the whole story of the Gospel of Thomas is Jesus growing and learning how to use his power for good. So why is it banned? It shows that when young he made mistakes but as he grew he learned and became the man the Christians think he is.

Next is the book that disproves Mary being a virgin. It doesn�t make sense she was a virgin, does it? She was married, what kind of honeymoon is that? Gospel Of James. This tells you about Mary before and after the birth. It starts out with Mary�s parents praying for a child for the wife was barren. They see an angel, and Mary is born. The Christians say Mary remained a virgin. But the Gospel of James reports that Mary had four sons and countless daughters before Jesus. In fact, James, the guy who was stoned to death, was either a brother or half brother of Jesus. And so in Mark 6:1 it speaks of the brothers and sisters of Jesus. But know what is sad? Mary is mentioned more in the Quran than in the bible. But that isn�t important in this topic.

The Gospel of Mary. Now we have Mary Magdalene. Now I have known about this before, that Mary was the lover of Jesus and the leader of the seven female disciples. She was also an Apostle. Jesus gave her special training, and Jesus told her more than anyone else. Most of the 12 male disciples are jealous of her and they first try to discredit her, but the few not jealous of her keep the others from fighting. Also, Jesus told Mary that WHEN he died she would be the leader. I already know why the church left out this part. It gave a woman power, and the church can�t have that. All women but Virgin Mary are discredited by the church and the books allowed in the bible are edited to make all women either whores or clueless. In fact this book was ordered destroyed by the leader of the early church but the people already had read them, knew them, and most could not bring themselves to destroy the words of Mary, Jesus� lover. So they put them in pots and buried them to be found 2000 years later and revealed to the world.

Next is Gospel of Nicodemes where Jesus goes to hell when he dies. It begins with an eyewitness account of the trial and execution of Jesus. Jesus basically goes in and has the gates opened. Turns out hell is not fire and brimstone, but where you go when you die. Now Jesus sees all the people who died before him, so had not known him. He brings them out of hell and leads them to heaven and now hell is where you go if you sin and heaven if you are good. But before Jesus died, hell was where you went when you died for one had not known Jesus and therefore could not know god. This explains a main atheist argument of �What happened to all the millions of people who were alive before Jesus was born?� This explains it! So why kept out? Because the church didn�t like hearing about Hell not being fire and brimstone for if it isn�t how can you scare people into believing?

Last book is the Apocalypse of Peter, the last chapter of the bible. Well, suppose to be but the church didn�t like it so it was thrown out. The Revelation of John took over Peter�s spot. Of course, Apocalypse in Greek is revelation, or when God opens the heavens. Peter�s Apocalypse describes sin, what kinds of sin, the punishments for the various sins, and what happens to the righteous. If you were a womanizer, you were hung by your penis. If you were a spreader of lies, hung by your tongue. But Peter also asks God why all these people were being tortured, and why are they to be there for all eternity. God tells him it is a secret, don�t tell anyone else. but they will get out once they are redeemed and pure. Reason church took this out is the thought that people are stupid and would see this and do what they wanted for yes they would go to hell, but not forever. The same excuse they use for when they talk about Jews, atheists, Hindus, so forth. �They don�t believe that they will be punished for their actions so they will kill and rape and steal all they want.� But this is not true for humans know what is wrong and what is right. They don�t need to worry about an all powerful spanking for being bad for they know that it is wrong to kill and rape and steal.

Originally posted by leiphasw

The current Protestant Bible, such as the New International Version, or the New King James, were translated using these early manuscripts as their basis. So they are very accurate.

I do bet my "life" on these versions.

Excuse Me? Assphinctersayswhat? Accurate?

PLEASE!

I am in complete agreement with Scat!
Especially the part about the inspirational quality of The Holy Weed!


Thanks for bringing up the topic James!
I just finished watching the show myself. Very well done! Kudos to The History Channel yet again!




[edit on 10-7-2004 by scottsquared]

I think in order to understand why the books were omitted you have to look at the times and who the books where about. Take for instance "The Book of Mary". It's main character was... well... Mary. If this was placed into the Bible it would have been placed before any material about Jesus. This would upset many people, maybe one including Jesus, but it would also almost give the slight impression that Mary was more important than Jesus, or it would take away from the importance of Jesus. Also the woman in the times of Christ were not supposed to have this much importance. If she would have been placed before Christ this would have been seen as taboo.

I think that maybe these ideas should be reconsidered since we are now not trying to portray women to be more or less important than men. I think anything that was written about Christ or anyone close to him should be included. This is my personal opinion. Anything that was important to someone back then is even more important now because it just gives a more rounded explanation of the events that occured and the people who were involved. It would at least be vary important that these texts do not get lost. If they are not in the Bible that is one thing but if they somehow vanished that would be a sin.

Well if you beleive the bible and it says somewere that women shall rule the world then you just gota let women rule the world who is man to toy with the true words of god. I am not saying that is what the bibel says I am just saying people are blindly following hipocracy.

God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth.�To you it will be for meat." � And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:29-31)

Proof God gave us marijuana? hehe.

Don't get all crazy on me with this, just always think about this line when people bring up weed and the Bible.

cheers,

StickyG

I watched it, was very entertaining. I'm interested in reading the entire version of the life of adam and eve for my own purposes. I wonder if I can find an online version some where.... *gewgles*

The current Protestant Bible, such as the New International Version, or the New King James, were translated using these early manuscripts as their basis.

are these relativly recent translations?

perhaps this translation will so follow?
www.worldnetdaily.com...

Originally posted by James the Lesser
But the whole story of the Gospel of Thomas is Jesus growing and learning how to use his power for good. So why is it banned? It shows that when young he made mistakes but as he grew he learned and became the man the Christians think he is.

It's all about infallibility.
Even being taught a lesson by doing an evil deed and repenting is unacceptable for the church, especially in those times.

God. Is. Infallible.
Jesus, as the offspring of the Almighty is also infallible, if he did in fact, do evil, that makes Gods creation imperfect, thus negating the infallibility of God himself. Understand?

Jesus is perfect = God is perfect.

btw, which mistake did Jesus make according to that program? The killing of his chum? He brings him back to life to tell them that Jesus did in fact not push him according to the writing.

What about him blinding someone who criticizes Josephs work? Or knocking his teacher and freinds down with his power. He was a brat who grew up and learned to use his powers for good. It is a great story, one of the best, but left out.

Anyone interrested in reading a full account of the entire life of Jesus...fact or fiction?, should check out the 4th part of the Urantia Book, entitled "The Life and Teachings of Jesus".

cheers,

StickyG