The Forged Origins of The New Testament
In the fourth century, the Roman Emperor
Constantine united all religious factions under one composite deity,
and ordered the compilation of new and old writings into a uniform
collection that became the New Testament.
Extracted from Nexus Magazine,
Volume 14, Number 4 (June - July 2007)
PO Box 30, Mapleton Qld 4560 Australia.
editor@nexusmagazine.com
Telephone: +61 (0)7 5442 9280; Fax: +61 (0)7 5442 9381
From our web page at:
www.nexusmagazine.comby Tony Bushby © March 2007
Correspondence:
c/- NEXUS Magazine
PO Box 30, Mapleton, Qld 4560, Australia
Fax: +61 (0)7 5493 1900
What the Church doesn't want you to know
It has often been emphasised that Christianity is unlike
any other religion, for it stands or falls by certain events which
are alleged to have occurred during a short period of time some 20
centuries ago. Those stories are presented in the New Testament, and
as new evidence is revealed it will become clear that they do not
represent historical realities. The Church agrees, saying:
"Our documentary sources of knowledge about the origins of
Christianity and its earliest development are chiefly the New
Testament Scriptures, the authenticity of which we must, to a great
extent, take for granted."
(
Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. iii, p. 712)
The Church makes extraordinary admissions about its New
Testament. For example, when discussing the origin of those
writings, "the most distinguished body of academic opinion ever
assembled" (
Catholic Encyclopedias, Preface) admits that
the Gospels "do not go back to the first century of the Christian
era" (
Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. vi, p. 137,
pp. 655-6). This statement conflicts with priesthood assertions that
the earliest Gospels were progressively written during the decades
following the death of the Gospel Jesus Christ. In a remarkable
aside, the Church further admits that "the earliest of the extant
manuscripts [of the New Testament], it is true, do not date back
beyond the middle of the fourth century AD" (
Catholic
Encyclopedia, op. cit., pp. 656-7). That is some 350 years
after the time the Church claims that a Jesus Christ walked the
sands of Palestine, and here the true story of Christian origins
slips into one of the biggest black holes in history. There is,
however, a reason why there were no New Testaments until the fourth
century: they were not written until then, and here we find evidence
of the greatest misrepresentation of all time.
It was British-born Flavius Constantinus (Constantine, originally
Custennyn or Custennin) (272-337) who authorised the compilation of
the writings now called the New Testament. After the death of his
father in 306, Constantine became King of Britain, Gaul and Spain,
and then, after a series of victorious battles, Emperor of the Roman
Empire. Christian historians give little or no hint of the turmoil
of the times and suspend Constantine in the air, free of all human
events happening around him. In truth, one of Constantine's main
problems was the uncontrollable disorder amongst presbyters and
their belief in numerous gods.
The majority of modern-day Christian writers suppress the truth
about the development of their religion and conceal Constantine's
efforts to curb the disreputable character of the presbyters who are
now called "Church Fathers" (
Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley
ed., vol. xiv, pp. 370-1). They were "maddened", he said (
Life
of Constantine, attributed to Eusebius Pamphilius of Caesarea,
c. 335, vol. iii, p. 171;
The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,
cited as N&PNF, attributed to St Ambrose, Rev. Prof. Roberts, DD,
and Principal James Donaldson, LLD, editors, 1891, vol. iv, p. 467).
The "peculiar type of oratory" expounded by them was a challenge to
a settled religious order (
The Dictionary of Classical
Mythology, Religion, Literature and Art, Oskar Seyffert,
Gramercy, New York, 1995, pp. 544-5). Ancient records reveal the
true nature of the presbyters, and the low regard in which they were
held has been subtly suppressed by modern Church historians. In
reality, they were:
"...the most rustic fellows, teaching strange paradoxes. They openly
declared that none but the ignorant was fit to hear their discourses
... they never appeared in the circles of the wiser and better sort,
but always took care to intrude themselves among the ignorant and
uncultured, rambling around to play tricks at fairs and markets ...
they lard their lean books with the fat of old fables ... and still
the less do they understand ... and they write nonsense on vellum
... and still be doing, never done."
(
Contra Celsum ["Against Celsus"], Origen of Alexandria, c.
251, Bk I, p. lxvii, Bk III, p. xliv, passim)
Clusters of presbyters had developed "many gods and many lords"
(1 Cor. 8:5) and numerous religious sects existed, each with
differing doctrines (Gal. 1:6). Presbyterial groups clashed over
attributes of their various gods and "altar was set against altar"
in competing for an audience (
Optatus of Milevis, 1:15, 19,
early fourth century). From Constantine's point of view, there were
several factions that needed satisfying, and he set out to develop
an all-embracing religion during a period of irreverent confusion.
In an age of crass ignorance, with nine-tenths of the peoples of
Europe illiterate, stabilising religious splinter groups was only
one of Constantine's problems. The smooth generalisation, which so
many historians are content to repeat, that Constantine "embraced
the Christian religion" and subsequently granted "official
toleration", is "contrary to historical fact" and should be erased
from our literature forever (
Catholic Encyclopedia, Pecci
ed., vol. iii, p. 299, passim). Simply put, there was no Christian
religion at Constantine's time, and the Church acknowledges that the
tale of his "conversion" and "baptism" are "entirely legendary" (
Catholic
Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. xiv, pp. 370-1).
Constantine "never acquired a solid theological knowledge" and
"depended heavily on his advisers in religious questions" (
Catholic
Encyclopedia, New Edition, vol. xii, p. 576, passim). According
to Eusebeius (260-339), Constantine noted that among the
presbyterian factions "strife had grown so serious, vigorous action
was necessary to establish a more religious state", but he could not
bring about a settlement between rival god factions (
Life of
Constantine, op. cit., pp. 26-8). His advisers warned him that
the presbyters' religions were "destitute of foundation" and needed
official stabilisation (ibid.).
Constantine saw in this confused system of fragmented dogmas the
opportunity to create a new and combined State religion, neutral in
concept, and to protect it by law. When he conquered the East in 324
he sent his Spanish religious adviser, Osius of Córdoba, to
Alexandria with letters to several bishops exhorting them to make
peace among themselves. The mission failed and Constantine, probably
at the suggestion of Osius, then issued a decree commanding all
presbyters and their subordinates "be mounted on asses, mules and
horses belonging to the public, and travel to the city of Nicaea" in
the Roman province of Bithynia in Asia Minor. They were instructed
to bring with them the testimonies they orated to the rabble, "bound
in leather" for protection during the long journey, and surrender
them to Constantine upon arrival in Nicaea (The Catholic Dictionary,
Addis and Arnold, 1917, "Council of Nicaea" entry). Their writings
totalled "in all, two thousand two hundred and thirty-one scrolls
and legendary tales of gods and saviours, together with a record of
the doctrines orated by them" (
Life of Constantine, op.
cit., vol. ii, p. 73; N&PNF, op. cit., vol. i, p. 518).
The First Council of Nicaea and the "missing records"
Thus, the first ecclesiastical gathering in history was
summoned and is today known as the Council of Nicaea. It was a
bizarre event that provided many details of early clerical thinking
and presents a clear picture of the intellectual climate prevailing
at the time. It was at this gathering that Christianity was born,
and the ramifications of decisions made at the time are difficult to
calculate. About four years prior to chairing the Council,
Constantine had been initiated into the religious order of Sol
Invictus, one of the two thriving cults that regarded the Sun as the
one and only Supreme God (the other was Mithraism). Because of his
Sun worship, he instructed Eusebius to convene the first of three
sittings on the summer solstice, 21 June 325 (
Catholic
Encyclopedia, New Edition, vol. i, p. 792), and it was "held in
a hall in Osius's palace" (
Ecclesiastical History, Bishop
Louis Dupin, Paris, 1686, vol. i, p. 598). In an account of the
proceedings of the conclave of presbyters gathered at Nicaea,
Sabinius, Bishop of Hereclea, who was in attendance, said,
"Excepting Constantine himself and Eusebius Pamphilius, they were a
set of illiterate, simple creatures who understood nothing" (
Secrets
of the Christian Fathers, Bishop J. W. Sergerus, 1685, 1897
reprint).
This is another luminous confession of the ignorance and uncritical
credulity of early churchmen. Dr Richard Watson (1737-1816), a
disillusioned Christian historian and one-time Bishop of Llandaff in
Wales (1782), referred to them as "a set of gibbering idiots" (
An
Apology for Christianity, 1776, 1796 reprint; also,
Theological Tracts, Dr Richard Watson, "On Councils" entry,
vol. 2, London, 1786, revised reprint 1791). From his extensive
research into Church councils, Dr Watson concluded that "the clergy
at the Council of Nicaea were all under the power of the devil, and
the convention was composed of the lowest rabble and patronised the
vilest abominations" (
An Apology for Christianity, op.
cit.). It was that infantile body of men who were responsible for
the commencement of a new religion and the theological creation of
Jesus Christ.
The Church admits that vital elements of the proceedings at Nicaea
are "strangely absent from the canons" (
Catholic Encyclopedia,
Farley ed., vol. iii, p. 160). We shall see shortly what happened to
them. However, according to records that endured, Eusebius "occupied
the first seat on the right of the emperor and delivered the
inaugural address on the emperor's behalf" (
Catholic
Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. v, pp. 619-620). There were no
British presbyters at the council but many Greek delegates. "Seventy
Eastern bishops" represented Asiatic factions, and small numbers
came from other areas (
Ecclesiastical History, ibid.).
Caecilian of Carthage travelled from Africa, Paphnutius of Thebes
from Egypt, Nicasius of Die (Dijon) from Gaul, and Donnus of Stridon
made the journey from Pannonia.
It was at that puerile assembly, and with so many cults
represented, that a total of 318 "bishops, priests, deacons,
subdeacons, acolytes and exorcists" gathered to debate and decide
upon a unified belief system that encompassed only one god (
An
Apology for Christianity, op. cit.). By this time, a huge
assortment of "wild texts" (
Catholic Encyclopedia, New
Edition, "Gospel and Gospels") circulated amongst presbyters and
they supported a great variety of Eastern and Western gods and
goddesses: Jove, Jupiter, Salenus, Baal, Thor, Gade, Apollo, Juno,
Aries, Taurus, Minerva, Rhets, Mithra, Theo, Fragapatti, Atys,
Durga, Indra, Neptune, Vulcan, Kriste, Agni, Croesus, Pelides, Huit,
Hermes, Thulis, Thammus, Eguptus, Iao, Aph, Saturn, Gitchens, Minos,
Maximo, Hecla and Phernes (God's Book of Eskra, anon., ch. xlviii,
paragraph 36).
Up until the First Council of Nicaea, the Roman aristocracy
primarily worshipped two Greek gods-Apollo and Zeus-but the great
bulk of common people idolised either Julius Caesar or Mithras (the
Romanised version of the Persian deity Mithra). Caesar was deified
by the Roman Senate after his death (15 March 44 BC) and
subsequently venerated as "the Divine Julius". The word "Saviour"
was affixed to his name, its literal meaning being "one who sows the
seed", i.e., he was a phallic god. Julius Caesar was hailed as "God
made manifest and universal Saviour of human life", and his
successor Augustus was called the "ancestral God and Saviour of the
whole human race" (
Man and his Gods, Homer Smith, Little,
Brown & Co., Boston, 1952). Emperor Nero (54-68), whose original
name was Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (37-68), was immortalised on
his coins as the "Saviour of mankind" (ibid.). The Divine Julius as
Roman Saviour and "Father of the Empire" was considered "God" among
the Roman rabble for more than 300 years. He was the deity in some
Western presbyters' texts, but was not recognised in Eastern or
Oriental writings.
Constantine's intention at Nicaea was to create an entirely new
god for his empire who would unite all religious factions under one
deity. Presbyters were asked to debate and decide who their new god
would be. Delegates argued among themselves, expressing personal
motives for inclusion of particular writings that promoted the finer
traits of their own special deity. Throughout the meeting, howling
factions were immersed in heated debates, and the names of 53 gods
were tabled for discussion. "As yet, no God had been selected by the
council, and so they balloted in order to determine that matter...
For one year and five months the balloting lasted..." (
God's
Book of Eskra, Prof. S. L. MacGuire's translation, Salisbury,
1922, chapter xlviii, paragraphs 36, 41).
At the end of that time, Constantine returned to the gathering to
discover that the presbyters had not agreed on a new deity but had
balloted down to a shortlist of five prospects: Caesar, Krishna,
Mithra, Horus and Zeus (Historia Ecclesiastica, Eusebius, c. 325).
Constantine was the ruling spirit at Nicaea and he ultimately
decided upon a new god for them. To involve British factions, he
ruled that the name of the great Druid god, Hesus, be joined with
the Eastern Saviour-god, Krishna (Krishna is Sanskrit for Christ),
and thus Hesus Krishna would be the official name of the new Roman
god. A vote was taken and it was with a majority show of hands (161
votes to 157) that both divinities became one God. Following
longstanding heathen custom, Constantine used the official gathering
and the Roman apotheosis decree to legally deify two deities as one,
and did so by democratic consent. A new god was proclaimed and
"officially" ratified by Constantine (
Acta Concilii Nicaeni,
1618). That purely political act of deification effectively and
legally placed Hesus and Krishna among the Roman gods as one
individual composite. That abstraction lent Earthly existence to
amalgamated doctrines for the Empire's new religion; and because
there was no letter "J" in alphabets until around the ninth century,
the name subsequently evolved into "Jesus Christ".
How the Gospels were created
Constantine then instructed Eusebius to organise the
compilation of a uniform collection of new writings developed from
primary aspects of the religious texts submitted at the council. His
instructions were:
"Search ye these books, and whatever is good in them, that retain;
but whatsoever is evil, that cast away. What is good in one book,
unite ye with that which is good in another book. And whatsoever is
thus brought together shall be called The Book of Books. And it
shall be the doctrine of my people, which I will recommend unto all
nations, that there shall be no more war for religions' sake."
(
God's Book of Eskra, op. cit., chapter xlviii, paragraph
31)
"Make them to astonish" said Constantine, and "the books were
written accordingly" (
Life of Constantine, vol. iv, pp.
36-39). Eusebius amalgamated the "legendary tales of all the
religious doctrines of the world together as one", using the
standard god-myths from the presbyters' manuscripts as his
exemplars. Merging the supernatural "god" stories of Mithra and
Krishna with British Culdean beliefs effectively joined the orations
of Eastern and Western presbyters together "to form a new universal
belief" (ibid.). Constantine believed that the amalgamated
collection of myths would unite variant and opposing religious
factions under one representative story. Eusebius then arranged for
scribes to produce "fifty sumptuous copies ... to be written on
parchment in a legible manner, and in a convenient portable form, by
professional scribes thoroughly accomplished in their art" (ibid.).
"These orders," said Eusebius, "were followed by the immediate
execution of the work itself ... we sent him [Constantine]
magnificently and elaborately bound volumes of three-fold and
four-fold forms" (
Life of Constantine, vol. iv, p. 36).
They were the "New Testimonies", and this is the first mention (c.
331) of the New Testament in the historical record.
With his instructions fulfilled, Constantine then decreed that the
New Testimonies would thereafter be called the "word of the Roman
Saviour God" (
Life of Constantine, vol. iii, p. 29) and
official to all presbyters sermonising in the Roman Empire. He then
ordered earlier presbyterial manuscripts and the records of the
council "burnt" and declared that "any man found concealing writings
should be stricken off from his shoulders" (beheaded) (ibid.). As
the record shows, presbyterial writings previous to the Council of
Nicaea no longer exist, except for some fragments that have
survived.
Some council records also survived, and they provide alarming
ramifications for the Church.Some old documents say that the First
Council of Nicaea ended in mid-November 326, while others say the
struggle to establish a god was so fierce that it extended "for four
years and seven months" from its beginning in June 325 (
Secrets
of the Christian Fathers, op. cit.). Regardless of when it
ended, the savagery and violence it encompassed were concealed under
the glossy title "Great and Holy Synod", assigned to the assembly by
the Church in the 18th century. Earlier Churchmen, however,
expressed a different opinion.
The Second Council of Nicaea in 786-87 denounced the First
Council of Nicaea as "a synod of fools and madmen" and sought to
annul "decisions passed by men with troubled brains" (History of the
Christian Church, H. H. Milman, DD, 1871). If one chooses to read
the records of the Second Nicaean Council and notes references to
"affrighted bishops" and the "soldiery" needed to "quell
proceedings", the "fools and madmen" declaration is surely an
example of the pot calling the kettle black.
Constantine died in 337 and his outgrowth of many now-called pagan
beliefs into a new religious system brought many converts. Later
Church writers made him "the great champion of Christianity" which
he gave "legal status as the religion of the Roman Empire" (
Encyclopedia
of the Roman Empire, Matthew Bunson, Facts on File, New York,
1994, p. 86). Historical records reveal this to be incorrect, for it
was "self-interest" that led him to create Christianity (
A
Smaller Classical Dictionary, J. M. Dent, London, 1910, p.
161). Yet it wasn't called "Christianity" until the 15th century (
How
The Great Pan Died, Professor Edmond S. Bordeaux [Vatican
archivist], Mille Meditations, USA, MCMLXVIII, pp. 45-7).
Over the ensuing centuries, Constantine's New Testimonies were
expanded upon, "interpolations" were added and other writings
included (
Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. vi, pp.
135-137; also, Pecci ed., vol. ii, pp. 121-122). For example, in 397
John "golden-mouthed" Chrysostom restructured the writings of
Apollonius of Tyana, a first-century wandering sage, and made them
part of the New Testimonies (
Secrets of the Christian Fathers,
op. cit.). The Latinised name for Apollonius is Paulus (
A
Latin-English Dictionary, J. T. White and J. E. Riddle, Ginn &
Heath, Boston, 1880), and the Church today calls those writings the
Epistles of Paul. Apollonius's personal attendant, Damis, an
Assyrian scribe, is Demis in the New Testament (2 Tim. 4:10).
The Church hierarchy knows the truth about the origin of its
Epistles, for Cardinal Bembo (d. 1547), secretary to Pope Leo X (d.
1521), advised his associate, Cardinal Sadoleto, to disregard them,
saying "put away these trifles, for such absurdities do not become a
man of dignity; they were introduced on the scene later by a sly
voice from heaven" (
Cardinal Bembo: His Letters and Comments on
Pope Leo X, A. L. Collins, London, 1842 reprint).
The Church admits that the Epistles of Paul are forgeries, saying,
"Even the genuine Epistles were greatly interpolated to lend weight
to the personal views of their authors" (
Catholic Encyclopedia,
Farley ed., vol. vii, p. 645). Likewise, St Jerome (d. 420) declared
that the Acts of the Apostles, the fifth book of the New Testament,
was also "falsely written" ("The Letters of Jerome", Library of the
Fathers, Oxford Movement, 1833-45, vol. v, p. 445).
The shock discovery of an ancient Bible
The New Testament subsequently evolved into a fulsome piece
of priesthood propaganda, and the Church claimed it recorded the
intervention of a divine Jesus Christ into Earthly affairs. However,
a spectacular discovery in a remote Egyptian monastery revealed to
the world the extent of later falsifications of the Christian texts,
themselves only an "assemblage of legendary tales" (
Encyclopédie,
Diderot, 1759). On 4 February 1859, 346 leaves of an ancient
codex were discovered in the furnace room at St Catherine's
monastery at Mt Sinai, and its contents sent shockwaves through the
Christian world. Along with other old codices, it was scheduled to
be burned in the kilns to provide winter warmth for the inhabitants
of the monastery. Written in Greek on donkey skins, it carried both
the Old and New Testaments, and later in time archaeologists dated
its composition to around the year 380. It was discovered by Dr
Constantin von Tischendorf (1815-1874), a brilliant and pious German
biblical scholar, and he called it the Sinaiticus, the Sinai Bible.
Tischendorf was a professor of theology who devoted his entire life
to the study of New Testament origins, and his desire to read all
the ancient Christian texts led him on the long, camel-mounted
journey to St Catherine's Monastery.
During his lifetime, Tischendorf had access to other ancient Bibles
unavailable to the public, such as the Alexandrian (or Alexandrinus)
Bible, believed to be the second oldest Bible in the world. It was
so named because in 1627 it was taken from Alexandria to Britain and
gifted to King Charles I (1600-49). Today it is displayed alongside
the world's oldest known Bible, the Sinaiticus, in the British
Library in London. During his research, Tischendorf had access to
the Vaticanus, the Vatican Bible, believed to be the third oldest in
the world and dated to the mid-sixth century (
The Various
Versions of the Bible, Dr Constantin von Tischendorf, 1874,
available in the British Library). It was locked away in the
Vatican's inner library. Tischendorf asked if he could extract
handwritten notes, but his request was declined. However, when his
guard took refreshment breaks, Tischendorf wrote comparative
narratives on the palm of his hand and sometimes on his fingernails
("Are Our Gospels Genuine or Not?", Dr Constantin von Tischendorf,
lecture, 1869, available in the British Library).
Today, there are several other Bibles written in various
languages during the fifth and sixth centuries, examples being the
Syriacus, the Cantabrigiensis (Bezae), the Sarravianus and the
Marchalianus.
A shudder of apprehension echoed through Christendom in the last
quarter of the 19th century when English-language versions of the
Sinai Bible were published. Recorded within these pages is
information that disputes Christianity's claim of historicity.
Christians were provided with irrefutable evidence of wilful
falsifications in all modern New Testaments. So different was the
Sinai Bible's New Testament from versions then being published that
the Church angrily tried to annul the dramatic new evidence that
challenged its very existence. In a series of articles published in
the
London Quarterly Review in 1883, John W. Burgon, Dean
of Chichester, used every rhetorical device at his disposal to
attack the Sinaiticus' earlier and opposing story of Jesus Christ,
saying that "...without a particle of hesitation, the Sinaiticus is
scandalously corrupt ... exhibiting the most shamefully mutilated
texts which are anywhere to be met with; they have become, by
whatever process, the depositories of the largest amount of
fabricated readings, ancient blunders and intentional perversions of
the truth which are discoverable in any known copies of the word of
God". Dean Burgon's concerns mirror opposing aspects of Gospel
stories then current, having by now evolved to a new stage through
centuries of tampering with the fabric of an already unhistorical
document.
The revelations of ultraviolet light testing
In 1933, the British Museum in London purchased the Sinai
Bible from the Soviet government for £100,000, of which £65,000 was
gifted by public subscription. Prior to the acquisition, this Bible
was displayed in the Imperial Library in St Petersburg, Russia, and
"few scholars had set eyes on it" (
The Daily Telegraph
and Morning Post, 11 January 1938, p. 3). When it went
on display in 1933 as "the oldest Bible in the world" (ibid.), it
became the centre of a pilgrimage unequalled in the history of the
British Museum.
Before I summarise its conflictions, it should be noted that this
old codex is by no means a reliable guide to New Testament study as
it contains superabundant errors and serious re-editing. These
anomalies were exposed as a result of the months of
ultraviolet-light tests carried out at the British Museum in the
mid-1930s. The findings revealed replacements of numerous passages
by at least nine different editors. Photographs taken during testing
revealed that ink pigments had been retained deep in the pores of
the skin. The original words were readable under ultraviolet light.
Anybody wishing to read the results of the tests should refer to the
book written by the researchers who did the analysis: the Keepers of
the Department of Manuscripts at the British Museum (
Scribes and
Correctors of the Codex Sinaiticus, H. J. M. Milne and T. C.
Skeat, British Museum, London, 1938).
Forgery in the Gospels
When the New Testament in the Sinai Bible is compared with
a modern-day New Testament, a staggering 14,800 editorial
alterations can be identified. These amendments can be recognised by
a simple comparative exercise that anybody can and should do.
Serious study of Christian origins must emanate from the Sinai
Bible's version of the New Testament, not modern editions.
Of importance is the fact that the Sinaiticus carries three Gospels
since rejected: the Shepherd of Hermas (written by two resurrected
ghosts, Charinus and Lenthius), the Missive of Barnabas and the Odes
of Solomon. Space excludes elaboration on these bizarre writings and
also discussion on dilemmas associated with translation variations.
Modern Bibles are five removes in translation from early editions,
and disputes rage between translators over variant interpretations
of more than 5,000 ancient words. However, it is what is
not
written in that old Bible that embarrasses the Church, and this
article discusses only a few of those omissions. One glaring example
is subtly revealed in the
Encyclopaedia Biblica (Adam &
Charles Black, London, 1899, vol. iii, p. 3344), where the Church
divulges its knowledge about exclusions in old Bibles, saying: "The
remark has long ago and often been made that, like Paul, even the
earliest Gospels knew nothing of the miraculous birth of our
Saviour". That is because there never was a virgin birth.
It is apparent that when Eusebius assembled scribes to write the New
Testimonies, he first produced a single document that provided an
exemplar or master version. Today it is called the Gospel of Mark,
and the Church admits that it was "the first Gospel written" (
Catholic
Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. vi, p. 657), even though it
appears second in the New Testament today. The scribes of the
Gospels of Matthew and Luke were dependent upon the Mark writing as
the source and framework for the compilation of their works. The
Gospel of John is independent of those writings, and the
late-15th-century theory that it was written later to support the
earlier writings is the truth (
The Crucifixion of Truth,
Tony Bushby, Joshua Books, 2004, pp. 33-40).
Thus, the Gospel of Mark in the Sinai Bible carries the "first"
story of Jesus Christ in history, one completely different to what
is in modern Bibles. It starts with Jesus "at about the age of
thirty" (Mark 1:9), and doesn't know of Mary, a virgin birth or mass
murders of baby boys by Herod. Words describing Jesus Christ as "the
son of God" do not appear in the opening narrative as they do in
today's editions (Mark 1:1), and the modern-day family tree tracing
a "messianic bloodline" back to King David is non-existent in all
ancient Bibles, as are the now-called "messianic prophecies" (51 in
total). The Sinai Bible carries a conflicting version of events
surrounding the "raising of Lazarus", and reveals an extraordinary
omission that later became the central doctrine of the Christian
faith: the resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ and his
ascension into Heaven. No supernatural appearance of a resurrected
Jesus Christ is recorded in any ancient Gospels of Mark, but a
description of over 500 words now appears in modern Bibles (Mark
16:9-20).
Despite a multitude of long-drawn-out self-justifications by Church
apologists, there is no unanimity of Christian opinion regarding the
non-existence of "resurrection" appearances in ancient Gospel
accounts of the story. Not only are those narratives missing in the
Sinai Bible, but they are absent in the Alexandrian Bible, the
Vatican Bible, the Bezae Bible and an ancient Latin manuscript of
Mark, code-named "K" by analysts. They are also lacking in the
oldest Armenian version of the New Testament, in sixth-century
manuscripts of the Ethiopic version and ninth-century Anglo-Saxon
Bibles. However, some 12th-century Gospels have the now-known
resurrection verses written within asterisksÑmarks used by scribes
to indicate spurious passages in a literary document.
The Church claims that "the resurrection is the fundamental
argument for our Christian belief" (
Catholic Encyclopedia,
Farley ed., vol. xii, p. 792), yet no supernatural appearance of a
resurrected Jesus Christ is recorded in any of the earliest Gospels
of Mark available. A resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ is
the sine qua non ("without which, nothing") of Christianity (
Catholic
Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. xii, p. 792), confirmed by words
attributed to Paul: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is in
vain" (1 Cor. 5:17). The resurrection verses in today's Gospels of
Mark are universally acknowledged as forgeries and the Church
agrees, saying "the conclusion of Mark is admittedly not genuine ...
almost the entire section is a later compilation" (
Encyclopaedia
Biblica, vol. ii, p. 1880, vol. iii, pp. 1767, 1781; also,
Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. iii, under the heading "The Evidence of
its Spuriousness";
Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol.
iii, pp. 274-9 under heading "Canons"). Undaunted, however, the
Church accepted the forgery into its dogma and made it the basis of
Christianity.
The trend of fictitious resurrection narratives continues. The final
chapter of the Gospel of John (21) is a sixth-century forgery, one
entirely devoted to describing Jesus' resurrection to his disciples.
The Church admits: "The sole conclusion that can be deduced from
this is that the 21st chapter was afterwards added and is therefore
to be regarded as an appendix to the Gospel" (
Catholic
Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. viii, pp. 441-442;
New
Catholic Encyclopedia (NCE), "Gospel of John", p. 1080; also
NCE, vol. xii, p. 407).
"The Great Insertion" and "The Great Omission"
Modern-day versions of the Gospel of Luke have a staggering
10,000 more words than the same Gospel in the Sinai Bible. Six of
those words say of Jesus "and was carried up into heaven", but this
narrative does not appear in any of the oldest Gospels of Luke
available today ("Three Early Doctrinal Modifications of the Text of
the Gospels", F. C. Conybeare,
The Hibbert Journal, London,
vol. 1, no. 1, Oct 1902, pp. 96-113). Ancient versions do not verify
modern-day accounts of an ascension of Jesus Christ, and this
falsification clearly indicates an intention to deceive.
Today, the Gospel of Luke is the longest of the canonical Gospels
because it now includes "The Great Insertion", an extraordinary
15th-century addition totalling around 8,500 words (Luke
9:51-18:14). The insertion of these forgeries into that Gospel
bewilders modern Christian analysts, and of them the Church said:
"The character of these passages makes it dangerous to draw
inferences" (
Catholic Encyclopedia, Pecci ed., vol. ii, p.
407).
Just as remarkable, the oldest Gospels of Luke omit all verses from
6:45 to 8:26, known in priesthood circles as "The Great Omission", a
total of 1,547 words. In today's versions, that hole has been
"plugged up" with passages plagiarised from other Gospels. Dr
Tischendorf found that three paragraphs in newer versions of the
Gospel of Luke's version of the Last Supper appeared in the 15th
century, but the Church still passes its Gospels off as the
unadulterated "word of God" ("Are Our Gospels Genuine or Not?", op.
cit.)
The "Expurgatory Index"
As was the case with the New Testament, so also were
damaging writings of early "Church Fathers" modified in centuries of
copying, and many of their records were intentionally rewritten or
suppressed.
Adopting the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545-63), the Church
subsequently extended the process of erasure and ordered the
preparation of a special list of specific information to be expunged
from early Christian writings (
Delineation of Roman Catholicism,
Rev. Charles Elliott, DD, G. Lane & P. P. Sandford, New York, 1842,
p. 89; also,
The Vatican Censors, Professor Peter Elmsley,
Oxford, p. 327, pub. date n/a).
In 1562, the Vatican established a special censoring office called
Index Expurgatorius. Its purpose was to prohibit publication of
"erroneous passages of the early Church Fathers" that carried
statements opposing modern-day doctrine.
When Vatican archivists came across "genuine copies of the Fathers,
they corrected them according to the Expurgatory Index" (
Index
Expurgatorius Vaticanus, R. Gibbings, ed., Dublin, 1837;
The Literary Policy of the Church of Rome, Joseph Mendham, J.
Duncan, London, 1830, 2nd ed., 1840;
The Vatican Censors,
op. cit., p. 328). This Church record provides researchers with
"grave doubts about the value of all patristic writings released to
the public" (
The Propaganda Press of Rome, Sir James W. L.
Claxton, Whitehaven Books, London, 1942, p. 182).
Important for our story is the fact that the Encyclopaedia Biblica
reveals that around 1,200 years of Christian history are unknown:
"Unfortunately, only few of the records [of the Church] prior to the
year 1198 have been released". It was not by chance that, in that
same year (1198), Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) suppressed all
records of earlier Church history by establishing the Secret
Archives (
Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. xv, p.
287). Some seven-and-a-half centuries later, and after spending some
years in those Archives, Professor Edmond S. Bordeaux wrote
How
The Great Pan Died. In a chapter titled "The Whole of Church
History is Nothing but a Retroactive Fabrication", he said this (in
part):
"The Church ante-dated all her late works, some newly made, some
revised and some counterfeited, which contained the final expression
of her history ... her technique was to make it appear that much
later works written by Church writers were composed a long time
earlier, so that they might become evidence of the first, second or
third centuries."
(
How The Great Pan Died, op. cit., p. 46)
Supporting Professor Bordeaux's findings is the fact that, in
1587, Pope Sixtus V (1585-90) established an official Vatican
publishing division and said in his own words, "Church history will
be now be established ... we shall seek to print our own account"
Encyclopédie,
Diderot, 1759). Vatican records also reveal that Sixtus V spent
18 months of his life as pope personally writing a new Bible and
then introduced into Catholicism a "New Learning" (Catholic
Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. v, p. 442, vol. xv, p. 376). The
evidence that the Church wrote its own history is found in Diderot's
Encyclopédie, and it reveals the reason why Pope Clement
XIII (1758-69) ordered all volumes to be destroyed immediately after
publication in 1759.
Gospel authors exposed as imposters
There is something else involved in this scenario and it is
recorded in the
Catholic Encyclopedia. An appreciation of
the clerical mindset arises when the Church itself admits that it
does not know who wrote its Gospels and Epistles, confessing that
all 27 New Testament writings began life anonymously:
"It thus appears that the present titles of the Gospels are not
traceable to the evangelists themselves ... they [the New Testament
collection] are supplied with titles which, however ancient, do not
go back to the respective authors of those writings." (
Catholic
Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. vi, pp. 655-6)
The Church maintains that "the titles of our Gospels were not
intended to indicate authorship", adding that "the headings ... were
affixed to them" (
Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol.
i, p. 117, vol. vi, pp. 655, 656). Therefore they are not Gospels
written "according to Matthew, Mark, Luke or John", as publicly
stated. The full force of this confession reveals that there are no
genuine apostolic Gospels, and that the Church's shadowy writings
today embody the very ground and pillar of Christian foundations and
faith. The consequences are fatal to the pretence of Divine origin
of the entire New Testament and expose Christian texts as having no
special authority. For centuries, fabricated Gospels bore Church
certification of authenticity now confessed to be false, and this
provides evidence that Christian writings are wholly fallacious.
After years of dedicated New Testament research, Dr Tischendorf
expressed dismay at the differences between the oldest and newest
Gospels, and had trouble understanding...
"...how scribes could allow themselves to bring in here and there
changes which were not simply verbal ones, but such as materially
affected the very meaning and, what is worse still, did not shrink
from cutting out a passage or inserting one."
(
Alterations to the Sinai Bible, Dr Constantin von
Tischendorf, 1863, available in the British Library, London)
After years of validating the fabricated nature of the New
Testament, a disillusioned Dr Tischendorf confessed that modern-day
editions have "been altered in many places" and are "not to be
accepted as true" (
When Were Our Gospels Written?, Dr
Constantin von Tischendorf, 1865, British Library, London).
Just what is Christianity?
The important question then to ask is this: if the New
Testament is not historical, what is it?
Dr Tischendorf provided part of the answer when he said in his
15,000 pages of critical notes on the Sinai Bible that "it seems
that the personage of Jesus Christ was made narrator for many
religions". This explains how narratives from the ancient Indian
epic, the
Mahabharata, appear verbatim in the Gospels today
(e.g., Matt. 1:25, 2:11, 8:1-4, 9:1-8, 9:18-26), and why passages
from the Phenomena of the Greek statesman Aratus of Sicyon (271-213
BC) are in the New Testament.
Extracts from the
Hymn to Zeus, written by Greek
philosopher Cleanthes (c. 331-232 BC), are also found in the
Gospels, as are 207 words from the
Thais of Menander (c.
343-291), one of the "seven wise men" of Greece. Quotes from the
semi-legendary Greek poet Epimenides (7th or 6th century BC) are
applied to the lips of Jesus Christ, and seven passages from the
curious
Ode of Jupiter (c. 150 BC; author unknown) are
reprinted in the New Testament.
Tischendorf's conclusion also supports Professor Bordeaux's Vatican
findings that reveal the allegory of Jesus Christ derived from the
fable of Mithra, the divine son of God (Ahura Mazda) and messiah of
the first kings of the Persian Empire around 400 BC. His birth in a
grotto was attended by magi who followed a star from the East. They
brought "gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh" (as in Matt. 2:11)
and the newborn baby was adored by shepherds. He came into the world
wearing the Mithraic cap, which popes imitated in various designs
until well into the 15th century.
Mithra, one of a trinity, stood on a rock, the emblem of the
foundation of his religion, and was anointed with honey. After a
last supper with Helios and 11 other companions, Mithra was
crucified on a cross, bound in linen, placed in a rock tomb and rose
on the third day or around 25 March (the full moon at the spring
equinox, a time now called Easter after the Babylonian goddess
Ishtar). The fiery destruction of the universe was a major doctrine
of Mithraism-a time in which Mithra promised to return in person to
Earth and save deserving souls. Devotees of Mithra partook in a
sacred communion banquet of bread and wine, a ceremony that
paralleled the Christian Eucharist and preceded it by more than four
centuries.
Christianity is an adaptation of Mithraism welded with the Druidic
principles of the Culdees, some Egyptian elements (the pre-Christian
Book of Revelation was originally called
The Mysteries of Osiris
and Isis), Greek philosophy and various aspects of Hinduism.
Why there are no records of Jesus Christ
It is not possible to find in any legitimate religious or
historical writings compiled between the beginning of the first
century and well into the fourth century any reference to Jesus
Christ and the spectacular events that the Church says accompanied
his life. This confirmation comes from Frederic Farrar (1831-1903)
of Trinity College, Cambridge:
"It is amazing that history has not embalmed for us even one certain
or definite saying or circumstance in the life of the Saviour of
mankind ... there is no statement in all history that says anyone
saw Jesus or talked with him. Nothing in history is more astonishing
than the silence of contemporary writers about events relayed in the
four Gospels."
(
The Life of Christ, Frederic W. Farrar, Cassell, London,
1874)
This situation arises from a conflict between history and New
Testament narratives. Dr Tischendorf made this comment:
"We must frankly admit that we have no source of information with
respect to the life of Jesus Christ other than ecclesiastic writings
assembled during the fourth century."
(
Codex Sinaiticus, Dr Constantin von Tischendorf, British
Library, London)
There is an explanation for those hundreds of years of silence:
the construct of Christianity did not begin until after the first
quarter of the fourth century, and that is why Pope Leo X (d. 1521)
called Christ a "fable" (
Cardinal Bembo: His Letters...,
op. cit.).
About the Author:
Tony Bushby, an Australian, became a businessman and entrepreneur
early in his adult life. He established a magazine-publishing
business and spent 20 years researching, writing and publishing his
own magazines, primarily for the Australian and New Zealand markets.
With strong spiritual beliefs and an interest in metaphysical
subjects, Tony has developed long relationships with many
associations and societies throughout the world that have assisted
his research by making their archives available. He is the author of
The Bible Fraud (2001; reviewed in NEXUS 8/06 with extracts
in NEXUS 9/01—03),
The Secret in the Bible (2003; reviewed
in 11/02, with extract, "Ancient Cities under the Sands of Giza", in
11/03) and
The Crucifixion of Truth (2005; reviewed in
12/02) and
The Twin Deception (2007; reviewed 14/03).
Copies of these books are available from the NEXUS website and the
Joshua Books website
http://www.joshuabooks.com.
As Tony Bushby vigorously protects his privacy, any correspondence
should be sent to him care of NEXUS Magazine, PO Box 30, Mapleton
Qld 4560, Australia, fax +61 (0) 7 5442 9381.
la digestion es la cuestion
