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The Bible of the Church
Part 5
The Real New
Testament
The New Testament is the core of the Christian
concept and covers part of the life of Jesus, and the actions and writings of
some of his followers, after his death. Only two of his apostle's detailed
descriptions of his life are included and two more wrote letters.
The debate over the authorship and authenticity of the accepted
books of the New Testament is endless and it is not the intent of this work to
enter into this debate. We begin, therefore with the premise that the books
now included in the New Testament of King James Bible, were read and accepted by
the original church Jesus established through his Apostle Peter and that these
books were written by men, who were strongly influenced by the Spirit of God. It
is the other books that were written by men inspired by the Spirit of God, and read
and accepted by the original church, which are not included in the current New
Testament that this work explores.
Most people believe King James decided the content of the New
Testament but, he was only translating books the had the approved status in the
Catholic Church. It was not his intent to introduce new text, but to use
existing text to solidify the "divine right of kings". He needed
that right in order to justify making
the English crown head of the new break-away church he was forming. What most
do not know, is that 15 of the books found in the original King James Bible,
known as the Apocrypha; do not even appear in the "Authorized" King James
Bible the modern Protestant Church opproves. The books found in the original King James Bible were not decided by
King James, but by a close confident of the Emperor Constantine, who created the
first Universal, AKA, Roman Catholic Church. That church was, on one hand, a
blending of pagan and Christian beliefs to unite those two opposing religions
and, on the other hand, a complete reformation of existing Christian beliefs, by
declaring all those beliefs as illegal.
The First
Theologian
Eusebius, a little known figure in the
Christian reality, was the first court-appointed Christian theologian in the
service of the Emperor Constantine. Constantine commissioned Eusebius,
personally, to produce fifty excellent copies of the sacred scriptures but gave
no instruction what books Eusebius should include or, on what authority or
criteria that decision should be made. He was given sole authority over this
project and, therefore, became the first editor of the Bible we have today.
The entire basis of belief for the Christian Church allegedly comes
from the Bible, although simple research proves the reality to be otherwise.
However, this concept is accepted by most Catholics and Protestants. There are
actually surviving copies of that original Bible called the Codex Sinaiticus.
This Bible, produced by Eusebius, is the same as that produced by King James
with the exception of the New Testament Epistle of Barnabas, and the book of
Hermas, which, though widely regarded as inspired, were purged before the 1611
translation.
The religion created by Constantine was formed by the "opinions" of
Eusebius and there is no record of any reference to standards of historical
research or textual criticism. He did not form his idea of what was accepted by
using the books that existed as the foundation for that acceptance, but first
created the religious beliefs and accepted only the books that matched those
beliefs. Eusebius stated that the only standard he used in deciding which texts
to call "recognized" is to accept only books that were recognized by orthodox
authors he knew. Merriam-Webster defines "orthodox" as: "conforming to
established doctrine especially in religion". Eusebius determined the doctrine
of the religion and therefore became the sole judge of what was "orthodox".
The result of Eusebius' final judgment of biblical canon, the books
of the New Testament to be included in that original Bible, was the division of
all known and accepted books into three categories:
Recognized
- Those books accepted by others that mirrored his specific
beliefs
Those books generally make up the modern New
Testament.
Recognized but Disputed
- Those books accepted by most others that held his beliefs
but disputed by some that also followed his concept of
orthodox beliefs.
Those books included the Acts of Paul, the Book
of the Shepherd of Hermas, the Apocalypse of Peter, the
Epistle of Barnabas, the Teachings of the Apostles, and the
Gospel of the Hebrews.
Heretical
- Those universally regarded as heretical by those adhering
to his idea of orthodoxy.
Those books included,
but were not restricted to, the Gospel of Peter, the
Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Matthias, as well as other
gospel accounts not specified, and the Acts of Andrew and
the Acts of John.
So, if Eusebius accepted the authority that
recognized the book as orthodox, the book was accepted. If Eusebius did not
consider the authority that recognized the book as orthodox the book was
rejected. It should be noted that the sole reason Eusebius uses to reject all but
the four gospels now found in the New Testament was that he considered them to
be a
"holy quaternion" of books that could not be changed. Later in
church history, the divine nature of this specific group of four books being the
only possible gospels to be used was justified because there were only four
directions, and four pillars of the Earth, to name a few. Hardly a proper
reason to exclude all other gospels without consideration.
We know, which New Testament books he accepted
because those books are in
the King James Bible. It should be noted that James, Jude, 2 Peter, 2 John, and
3 John were considered "Recognized but Disputed" books but were included in the
original King James Bible. The Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas
are in Eusebius' original Bible known as the Codex Sinaiticus. This leaves nine
New Testament books that were used and accepted prior to this change, but
excluded solely on the original judgment of one man, Eusebius and two books on
his "disputed" list that were eventually purged. Those few books we
actually know were purged, at this time, are:
The Acts of Andrew
The Acts of John
The Acts of Paul,
The Apocalypse of Peter
The Epistle of Barnabas
The Gospel of Hebrews
The Gospel of Matthias
The Gospel of Peter
The Gospel of Thomas
The Shepherd of Hermas
The Teachings of the Apostles
(There are several other "Gospels" rejected but not specifically named by
Eusebius)
An "Inspired" Theologian?
Who was this man
that determined the basis for
almost all the beliefs of a religion, which is accepted by over 2 billion people
under the control of churches claiming the title, Christian? No single person had more influence over those
beliefs than the original editor of the "Bible" and the first theologian, who
determined the doctrines of the first Universal / Catholic Church, from which
come, most of the beliefs of the Protestant Church. There is no dispute that
Eusebius was completed dedicated to the divine authority and reform agenda of
the Emperor Constantine, and that he was trusted to shape that agenda into a
religion by Constantine. It is most curious that there was never any
pronouncement by any central authority, such as the Pope, in all of Christian
history concerning, which books belonged in the Bible, until 1443 AD at the conclusion
of the Council of Florence.
As a church historian, Eusebius receives very low marks and has even
been characterized by the noted Swiss historian, Jacob Burckhardt, as "the first
thoroughly dishonest historian of antiquity". Eusebius openly displays his lack
of integrity in his Ecclesiastical History by stating "We shall introduce into
this history in general only those events which may be useful first to ourselves
and afterwards to posterity."
As a theologian he directly affirmed his total disregard for honesty,
in his Evangelical Preparation, by declaring "How it may be lawful and fitting to
use falsehood as a medicine, and for the benefit of those who want to be
deceived.", as well as "it is necessary sometimes to use falsehood as a medicine
for those who need such an approach", and "falsehood is something even more
useful". Here we have the very first theologian clearly stating that it was
proper to use deception to achieve an end. To put in different terms; the ends
justify the means, no matter how deceptive those means are.
This man, who has sole authority over what is doctrine in the
Christian religion, and, who lacks moral integrity, decided that, at least, 33%
of all the commonly accepted books considered to be "New Testament" by the
earlier church, should be purged.
A Text Version
The Bible of the Church Part 6
 
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