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.com
by
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.