TinWiki: Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. It is also important to other faiths. The composition of the Bible is divided into many books, with inclusion being dependent upon specific religious traditions. Modern versions of the Bible exist in numerous translations within English and in hundreds of other languages.

Significance

The Bible is used as source material for lessons, beliefs and doctrines in many faiths. Many faiths regard the Bible as being written by individuals who were inspired by God. Many other faiths regard the words in the Bible to be the God's own words directly recorded by its human writers. As such, it is taken as being true or at least useful in various degrees by many people. Many individuals and religions believe or teach at least one of the following regarding the Bible:

• To be taken literally true and factual.
  
• To be viewed true and factual with take some parts being metaphorical and/or allegorical.
  
• To be understood as true, though not necessarily completely factual, being mostly metaphorical and/or allegorical.
  
• To be studied as a general moral guide, though not necessarily factually accurate.
  
• To contain a secret code with hidden prophesy.
  

As a subject of secular study, the Bible is not viewed as any more or less factual as any other text, ancient or otherwise. It can be useful to provide information about different periods in Middle-Eastern history, not just in the direct information it contains, but also in how that information came to be recorded and admitted into the Bible. One prevalent study in this area is the Documentary Hypothesis.

Composition

Tanakh (Hebrew Bible)

Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh (also known as the Hebrew Bible or Jewish Bible). It comprises three parts: the Torah ("Teaching", also known as the Pentateuch or "Five Books of Moses"), the Prophets, and the Writings. Although it is not known in which languages the various texts that comprise the Tanakh where written, the oldest available material is primarily in Classical Hebrew with some portions in other Hebrew dialets and Aramaic.

Christain Bible

The Christain Bible is divided into two major sections: the Old Testament (also referred to as Septuagint, or First Testament) and the New Testament (sometimes called Greek New Testament, Greek Scriptures, or the New Covenant). Among some traditions, the Bible includes portions that were not accepted in other traditions. Such variations exist between Bible versions used by Eastern Orthodox Churches, Roman Catholicism, Protestant religions and other Christian faiths.

The Old Testament is comprised of the books the Tanakh with variations and additional books. Some of the additional books are common throughout the various Christian Bible versions, while others (such as the Deuterocanonical books) are specific to particular versions.

The New Testament is usually comprised of 27 books, which are generally considered to be originally written in Greek. Some traditions include and/or exclude particular books.

Some versions of the Christian Bible account for variations by including particular books in subsections known called Apocrypha.

Suppression of Christian texts

The First Council of Nicaea was held in Nicaea in Bithynia (present-day İznik in Turkey) and convoked by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325 AD. Some view the First Council of Nicaea as a conspiracy to suppress many Christian texts and beliefs. Most significantly, it resulted in the first uniform Christian doctrine, called the Nicene Creed. With the creation of the creed, a precedent was established for subsequent general (ecumenical) councils of Bishops' (Synods) to create statements of belief and canons of doctrinal orthodoxy, with the intent to unify beliefs for the whole of Christendom. This lead to the suppression many of the original Christian books and beliefs. To cover over this conspiracy, attempts were made to destroy all suppressed material.

Some of the ancient texts were hidden, to be rediscovered in modern times. The most notable discovery was the Nag Hammadi codices, named for the city of Nag Hammadi, Egypt (near which they were discovered). The writings in these codices, dating back to the 2nd century AD, comprised 52 mostly Gnostic treatises, believed to be a library hidden by monks from the nearby monastery of St. Pachomius when the possession of such writings was banned. The most recognized book from this collection is The Gospel According to Thomas.

Supernatural events

Within the rich content of the Bible, there are many accounts of supernatural events. The origins of some such stories may be pure fiction and may even be derived from older legends and myths (some of which are known). Other such stories may be originally based on extraordinary though scientifically explainable events that have been retold and attributed to the supernatural. Another possibility is the accounts are metaphorical or allegorical, not meant to be taken literially.

Extraterrestrial influence

Some claim the Bible talks about or is derived from extraterrestrials and alien technology.









External links

BibleGateway.com: A searchable online Bible in over 50 versions and 35 languages.
The Bible UFO Connection
The Unbound Bible - many versions online that can be compared to each other side-by-side

Relevant discussion threads on AboveTopSecret.com

Hitler, Ayrans, Summerians. How it all ties in.
Is this What You Believe In? (Quotes From The Bible)
The Creation of Israel does NOT fulfill Biblical Prophecy

Please do not forget to include that many people believe the word bible is an acronym: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Or is that not applicable since it most likely doesn't translate?

Double Post

Second time that's happened tonight, how embarrassing.

[edit on 15-3-2010 by KyleOrtonArmy]