The "Holy Bible" is a symbol of truth and a pillar of strength for many. For over 2000 years it has been a source for; Government, Science, History, Religion and basically an all around reference book. You can even find a copy of it in your local library. It has also been a reason for conquest (the Crusades), colonization (Pilgrims), plunder (the Vatican) and even murder (the Inquisition and Salem Witch trials).
Unfortunately many of us do not know the history of the "Holy Bible" itself and as a result get very confused and do not understand a lot of what is going on in this "Holiest of Hollis" book.
I'd like to take you back 2000 years to the time the latest addition was added by the, "Greatest of Teachers" (In my opinion).
The "Old Testament" has been around for at least 4000 years. The first book Genesis, written by Moses, was a compilation of the last few thousand years since creation. Exactly how he received the knowledge is a mystery to all, but was accepted as the "Word of God" and has remained so for at least the last 2000 years. Of course it has been modified dozens of times. Each time the "Church" faced a crisis or conflict the content was changed or omitted
(It is important to note here that the Hebrew word for "Word" has no distinction between written or spoken. Being that only clergy could write there was no need, they knew what they were referring to.)
Before Jesus died hundreds of scholars witnessed his miracles and were "inspired by the Holy Spirit" to write letters or books. There were also more than 12 people who followed him and devoted their lives to his work. Besides the "Dead Sea Scrolls" Where are their writings you might ask? Good question I have asked that question myself once or twice. Fortuanately for you I found an answer too!
The Epistle "Paul" was charged by Christ with the task of compiling his teachings into an institution everyone could access. The only problem was this "Death Sentence" that was put on any and all followers of the "Christ."
That left Paul with the option of either forgetting the whole idea or risking his life and talking to the "Romans." Obviously Paul got up the courage and the "Holy Roman Catholic Church was born.
"Ponchos Pilot" was the Roman official in charge of Jerusalem at the time. He had just nearly avoided a rebellion and really needed to organize the people. So when Paul came to him with this idea it was perfect. He let Paul assemble the teachings, but Pilot had to "edit" the final draft. (Just to make sure that there was no revolutionary content.) But there was. Unbenounced to him the remaining "Disciples" wrote a book in code speaking of how the "Church" would overthrow the Roman empire (second coming of Christ) and the "Beast" (Caesar) would be thrown into a bottomless pit. (Never to come to power again.) You get the picture. To make a long story short, the Church was founded and the books were chosen (only 52). The Holy Bible was incorporated. (Thus the split in Judaism between "Christians" and "Jews." It happened here.)
The "Church" started to grow in size and soon became the seat of political power. The "Vatican" in Vatican City Rome was the nexus of this hub. The church soon had more influence than even the Roman Empire. Either because of the fact that the Romans system of "Deities" failed to unite the people and more often than not split them apart or because the love/fear of Caesar was not as good as the love/fear of the Church.
(It is important to note that the Church itself was divided into "factions" by now most notable the Franciscans, Dominicans and Jesuit sects. Each with their own original books that did not make the Bible along with copies of the "official" Bible.) Eventually the English overthrew the Roman Empire and So did the Turks. Along with this came the "Muslim and Islam" faiths both based on the same books adding some of there own, of course, and taking some from the Cabbala. (The Jewish system of worshiping the same God.) The factions moved apart one went to England the other stayed in Rome and I'm not sure which part of Europe the other went but you get the point. At one time the English attacked the Vatican and Vice Versa, but eventually the English won and moved the Vatican to England. That was short lived and because of a decrease in power (known as the "Dark Ages") they reunited and moved the Vatican back to "Vatican City." Of course there was still treachery between the sects and Popes were still "assassinated" but the church could at least cover it up now. Thus started the "Inquisition." (Not the game show.)
Of course after all of this the sects decided that the Bible could not remain the same, so some omissions were made and other chapters replaced the obsolete. The remaining books were "preserved" in the Vatican library where they are supposedly to this day. Unfortunately the "Dewey Decimal" system would not be invented for a few centuries and the priests were not good catalogers. To make matters worse somewhere around the 1600s the priests were no longer allowed to access the older texts and they got lost in the library vaults
King James of England decided to compile a version of the bible and then had it translated into "English" so all of the people could read it. He charged the local priests to do this and thus the "King James" Version of the Bible was born. (This is the standard version for all Protestant bibles now.)
All of this made the "Puritans" upset (a group of Jesuits) and they decided to break away from the "Church of England." Besides the fact that King James was not such a "righteous" person himself they did not like where the church of England was headed and wanted to "simplify" things. So they headed off to the colonies along with the "Pilgrims" to start a new simple life free of the church of England's tyranny.
There are no "books" of Jesus' life from adolescence to manhood in the bible. That is some coincidence because there are many texts of Jesus' life in the Vatican library (unofficially of course) that could explain a great deal of things, but.......then there would be "chaos."
