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Jan. 22, 2005 I've written a book that details the authors and origins of each book in the Bible. It's called "The World's Most Dangerous Book." It takes each book in the Bible one at a time and tries to uncover its mystery. However, I've written this article to give readers a short, brief description of the bible and to whet their appetite. I won't address all the discrepancies and contradictions here, but just touch on the long, confusing and controversial history of the making of the Book of Books. First of all, to be objective, we must realize that even though the Bible seems to be about God, it wasn't written by him. It wasn't even inspired by him no matter what you've been told. The Bible is not God's picture of himself because that would be ridiculous. The Old Testament is the ancient Israelite picture of God and the New testament is the early Christian picture of God. That's the simple answer. Let's look a little closer. The Old Testament of course, is the oldest part of the Bible, but it's not as old as it seems. For over 1000 years religious leaders taught that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. This is simply impossible for two very important reasons. First, these five books are written in the third person. No writer would do that, especially if they are telling the story from their own personal perspective. Secondly, the death of Moses is recorded in Deuteronomy 34:1- 12. Obviously no writer can tell of his own death. The first five books of the Bible are called the Pentateuch and weren't officially canonized until about 400 BCE. That means that even though these may have been written and compiled in the 10th Century BCE, they weren't actually considered part of sacred scripture until about 600 years later. The Prophetic Books weren't canonized until about 200 BCE and the Writings weren't canonized until about 100 BCE. We know the Pentateuch isn't any older than this because of a story in 2 Kings 22:1-20 and 2 Kings 23:1-3. This is the account of how King Josiah found the long lost Book of the Covenant while he is making repairs to the Temple. Apparently, then, this book contained the Law of God that had been instituted by Moses. However this happened over 200 years after David was king of Israel so this means that the book had been hidden in the Temple for a very long time. Remember who built the Temple? It was Solomon. Because the Pentateuch itself has many references to the time of the kings of Israel and Judah, it couldn't have been written before then. And since this was found by Josiah it obviously couldn't have been written after that. So, it was written sometime between the time of King David and King Josiah, a period of about 200 years. Okay, I'm getting too lengthy. Let's look at the New Testament before I run out of time. The earliest books in the New Testament are not the gospels. It was Paul the Apostle who wrote the first books of the New Testament starting in about 50 CE. He was martyred in about 67 CE so his writings covered about 10 or 15 years. Then the gospel of Mark was written about 70 CE and the rest of the books were written over the next 30 years. The New Testament wasn't officially canonized until 367 CE. So, let's do a brief summary. The Pentateuch was canonized, or made official by about 400 BCE. The Prophets were canonized by about 200 BCE and the Writings by about 125 or 100 BCE. The New Testament was written between about 50 BCE and 125 BCE. It was canonized in 367 CE, over 300 years after Jesus died. Now, the important thing to remember is that the Bible wasn't always considered the Word of God. That took some time. The Bible and all its various parts are only sacred to a particular group of people. They make it sacred by using it but that doesn't mean it is automatically divine. That's why the Jews still don't consider the New Testament to be sacred but Christians do. From this brief article you should be able to see why this book is so controversial. We don't know for certain who wrote some of its books. It gives conflicting information about God and its origins are shrouded in superstition and mystery. No one seems to be able to agree on the meaning and yet millions of people are devoted to its message. This situation has led to the realization that the Bible is only a book of ancient religious literature. It's not the infallible Word of God and as such it cannot save us. So we must put the Bible in its place once and for all and take responsibility for our own destinies. Devotion to this archaic book will not stop wars or preserve our ecosystem. It won't help us cure AIDS or cancer or heart disease. It won't restore the lives of the victims of the diastrous tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. We are alone in the universe and only we can work to ensure the survival of humanity in the future. We are the only species on the planet who can actually alter our evolution. So, what are you waiting for? Put the Bible back on its shelf and get to work! ------------ About the author: Keith Cantrell is a musician, artist and writer who lives in a small town in Oregon. He has worked at many different professions and currently is writing a book on the origins of the Bible entitled "The World's Most Dangerous Book." He has been a professing fundamentalist and is now struggling with atheism. His life has been spent searching for truth, and nothing but the truth. He loves comments, feedback and even verbal abuse if it is intelligent. He has 4 children and 4 grandchildren and loves everything about living in Oregon. Email: kwcantrell@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. 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