The Bible-The Real Truth

By Trevor Marriott

Trevor Marriott is a retired British police detective who has actively continued to investigate mysteries both past and present. This led him to investigate the origins and format and the stories of the bible, and in particular the 123 miracles recorded in both the Old and New testaments.
This new book is one of the most contentious, controversial and hard-hitting books ever to be published, which seriously questions the accuracy and the truthfulness of what is contained in the Bible as we know it today.

The Bible is and has always been cloaked in mystery but despite that, it is regarded as the backbone of Christianity, it is a book that is made up of sixty-six single books written by many different authors over centuries which are a combination of myths, legends, poetry, history, opinion, biography, letters, and theological commentary, and stories along with sacred texts, parables, psalms, proverbs and scriptures.

The Bible and its origins are regarded in the Christian faith as not just a book, but the authoritative, written word of God, but is what is written in the bible the real truth, or is it nothing more than just a collection of stories about events written by many different authors at different times over thousands of years, and with that has the passage of time distorted those stories to the point that the bible is now without question is still readily accepted as being accurate and true.
If the many miracles and stories described in the bible can be proved to be flawed, false, or simply beyond belief then all the many explanations postulated by bible researchers worldwide, and those who firmly believe in the bible are meaningless.

But will those who firmly believe in the bible ever be convinced, or accept that it is unsafe, and that that the miracles never happened as described, or will people's faith in the bible be so strong, that when challenged, the explanations of the modern-day researchers, and theologists who seek to explain away all the flaws, and the stories that beggars belief, along with all the contentious events in the diary still prevail?

"The Bible - The Real Truth" is a compelling and thought-provoking book and a must read!!!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trevor Marriott
• Release date: Sep 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201638078

Book preview

THE BIBLE

THE REAL TRUTH

Written and Compiled by

TREVOR MARRIOTT

Copyright © 2020

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information   storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trevor Marriott is a retired British police murder squad detective who joined the police service in 1970 and was soon promoted to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), where he was involved in the investigation of numerous murders, as well as assisting in the investigation of other major crimes throughout his long and distinguished career. He is the author of Jack the Ripper: The Real Truth (2019) and The Evil Within -The World’s Worst Serial Killers (2013) – a comprehensive analysis of some the world’s worst serial killers from around the world.

His most recent publications include two Victorian crime mystery novels, the first based on the Whitechapel murders titled Prey Time (2013). The second titled "Sherlock Holmes –The Final Chapter (2015) also published are "Myths and Mysteries-The Real Truth (2015), and Pirates of the Caribbean-The Real Truth (2017) Full details of all books and purchase options can be found on his website www.trevormarriott.co.uk

To contact the author, to arrange press and media interviews, speaking engagements or any other personal appearances.

Website: www.trevormarriott.co.uk E Mail: [e-mail] Copyright Trevor Marriott 2020

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

The Bible is and has always been the backbone of Christianity. It is a book containing a collection of sixty-six single books which in themselves contain a compilation of myths, legends, poetry, history, opinion, biography, letters, and theological commentary, stories along with sacred texts, parables, psalms, proverbs and scriptures. Different parts of the Bible records the relationship between God, and Jesus, the son of God, and Christians and Jews alike. The Bible is regarded in the Christian faith as not just a book, but the authoritative, written word of God.  It is believed that the first edition of the complete Bible was assembled by St. Jerome around A.D. 400 and written in Latin. It wasn’t translated into English until 1500 A.D. It is said to cover the period between 700 BC and 400 AD.

The King James Bible is possibly the most widely-known edition of the Bible, in England it is known as the Authorized Version. First printed in 1611, this edition of the Bible was commissioned in 1604 by King James I after feeling political pressure from Puritans and Calvinists demanding church reform and calling for a complete restructuring of church hierarchy.

In response, King James called for a conference at Hampton Court Palace, during which it was suggested to him that there should be a new translation of the Bible since versions commissioned by earlier monarchs were felt to be corrupt.

King James eventually agreed and decreed the new translation should speak in contemporary language, using common, recognizable terms. King James’ purpose was to unite the warring religious factions through a uniformed holy text.

This version of the Bible was not altered for 250 years and is credited as one of the biggest influences on the English language, alongside the works of Shakespeare. The King James Bible introduced a multitude of words and phrases now common in the English language, including eye for an eye, bottomless pit, two-edged sword, God forbid, scapegoat and turned the world upside down, among many others. But just how much of the original scriptures has been lost in translation is open to question.

The Bible in its original format is cloaked in mystery it could not have been written in one specific year or at a single location, by a single person. On the topic of writing, the earliest writing began when symbols were scratched or pressed on clay tablets. The Egyptians refined this technique and developed an early form of writing known as hieroglyphics. Some parts of the Bible that were once asserted to be literally true and are often now described as symbolic, but only because it is no longer possible to sustain an argument that they are true.

The New Testament is the name given to the second part of the Bible, with the focus being on the life and times of Jesus. It is said that there were up to ten authors who were followers, or disciples of Jesus who contributed to the New Testament. Did they write about events that happened in their lifetime, or as was the case with Moses, wrote about things that had happened previously before their lifetime, or in some far off land, whereby a story had been documented and transported to a new land, where the real facts behind the story have become distorted? Also, people’s poor understanding of natural phenomena gives root to myths in a way to explain. The Bible is said to contain many errors of fact, science, history and geography, and too many self-contradictions.

So who were the authors of the books? The bible is made up of the old and the new testaments. The Old Testament consists of many different books purportedly written over a period of centuries: The first five books in the Old Testament are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These were said to have been written by Moses during the period 1300-1500 BC, charting events from the creation of the earth and man to all the events leading up to the birth of Jesus, all events that happened long before his time, but that theory has been serioulst challenged and does not stand up to close scrutiny.

Modern-day researchers suggest it was as late as 4-5BC. I have to ask why didn’t he simply write them in his own name, and where did he gather all the information from to be able to write such detail about the events described which if believed occurred long before his time? Bible believers have that answer is covered by suggesting it was God who spoke to him and provided him with all the information needed. So really there is no data which we can safely rely on to accurately date the early stories from the Bible or to prove any of them beyond a reasonable doubt.

THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS

Researchers and those who believe in the bible rely heavily for corroboration on the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, which were found in caves by shepherds near to the Dead Sea in 1946. These caves might have been home to an ancient scribe, or a religious sect, or even a teller of stories. The scrolls relate to 225 biblical books of the Bible, they consist of thousands of leather fragments from over 900 manuscripts that may have been written by a sect called the Essenes.

The scrolls contain texts from the Hebrew Bible as well as calendars, astronomical observations and community rules. These date from 408 BC to 300 A.D. making the oldest Biblical text contained in the bible to be about 2700 years old. They are written in Hebrew and include fragments from every book of the Old Testament except for the Book of Esther. There is no conclusive proof as to who wrote them, or when they were written, and there is no mention of Jesus in any of them.

Since then over the ensuing years, the world’s private antiquities markets became saturated with fragments purporting to be from the Dead Sea Scrolls, they are leather fragments, largely of unknown origin, inscribed with biblical verses. With a growing number of collectors willing to pay upwards of six figures for the tiniest snippet of holy text, there was a clear motive for forgery.

Among those reputable collectors and museums that were offered and subsequently purchased these leather inscribed fragments in later years were The Schoyen Collection, The Museum of the bible, and Azusa Pacific all paying vast sums of money for them, and have had them on display for many years.

Many of these fragments from these collections have now been recently tested using modern-day technology never before used including 3D microscopes, infrared spectroscopy and "energy dispersive X-ray analysis which has resulted in them being found to be forgeries from the 20th Century. It is believed that there may be as many as 70 forgeries, which are in the possession of collectors worldwide and are said to have come from the same forger. It just goes to show the length forgers will go, and how the expertise they use is so good it can even fool experts, and how the forgers benefit on a massive financial gain, but modern technology eventually finds them out as is the case here.

The new findings must now cast doubt on the 100,000 real Dead Sea Scroll fragments, most of which lie in the Shrine of the Book, part of the Israel Museum, in Jerusalem. But none of these has been tested using this modern technology so there now has to be a question mark hanging over them, that cannot be lifted until they are fully tested, however, the museum say they have no plans to have them retested, a decision I find in some way strange, but in other ways, if they were examined and also found to be forgeries just imagine what impact it would have on the belief in the bible.

On the subject of forgeries, it is important for me to mention another alleged forged biblical artifact. In 2012 a scrap of 1.300year-old papyrus fragment was introduced into the public domain by an eminent historian Karen.L. King. She was not the owner of the fragment and stated the owner wished to remain anonymous. It was written in the ancient language of Coptic, which is an Egyptian language, she dated it to the fourth century AD, however, scientific tests would date it between the eighth and ninth century AD. The ink is from 200 AD, while the carbon 14 test says the document is from 700 AD. The age of the ink could be younger than the substrate, but it can’t be older.

Whatever, its true age the contents sent shock waves around the world, as part of the contents bore the phrase Jesus said to them, My wife. This opened the door to the suggestion that Jesus was married.

The full text spans 14 lines on the front and back, forming incomplete phrases presumably snipped from a larger manuscript. Jesus said to them, My wife is the most arresting line, but others are also striking: She is able to be my disciple; I dwell with her. and also refers to a Mary, possibly Mary Magdalene, leading to the suggestion that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married, and she was known to be one of his constant followers and was present at his crucifixion, although there is no mention in any of the books in the New Testament of Jesus being married

Certainly, modern scientific tests do not conclude that the papyrus itself and its writing is a modern day forgery. It was composed centuries after Jesus’ death. It showed merely that one group of ancient Christians believed Jesus had been married, and that leaves us with an interesting thought.

As a child growing up, like all school children we were taught to believe in God, Jesus and the bible, and were led to believe that all that was contained in the Bible was the gospel truth,(no pun intended) and that miracles did happen and in the way, they were described in the Bible. What people believe about the Bible is a matter of personal experience, education, and choice. In fact, much of the Old Testament existed in the oral tradition before it was transcribed, so how much was lost or embellished in that transcribing? Some say that the Bible is true and reliable, contrary to what most people say about it and it has been misread, misinterpreted, lied about and denigrated for centuries.

However, many modern-day scholars and I now question the accuracy, and truthfulness of much of what is contained in the bible, in both the old and new testaments. This has led me to conduct a review of many of the previously accepted facts, stories and miracles as set out in both testaments.

My objectives were to try to prove or disprove, the stories, and miracles, and events as described in the bible, and the authenticity of the Bible itself. This would not be an in-depth review of the complete bible but an exercise where I would simply re-examine many of the well-known events along with the 123 miracles that are described in the bible which are spread throughout the old and new testaments.

So what constitutes a miracle?

Something that is beyond the laws of nature

A supernatural event

Something that cannot be duplicated by man or by natural causes 

However, those who believe in the bible and the miracles described in the bible define a miracle in a different way

An event brought about by God that is beyond human understanding   

Having thought about my objectives, along with my limited prior knowledge of the events in the Bible, I soon formed the belief that many of the stories were fictional, and possibly made up by ancient storytellers, who later found their way into the ancient scriptures and into the Bible as it is today?

Ancient storytellers were a form of entertainment in days gone by; the modern-day equivalent of going to a lecture or watching a documentary on the television, word would spread of their arrival in villages and towns and the people would flock to hear these stories around campfires. The question was would I be proved right or wrong in my belief?

I did not intend to go into the greatest of detail in assessing and evaluating the miracles, as that would have meant an almost rewrite of the bible. I would simply assess and evaluate the basic information I gathered. I have also read arguments by scholars from both camps, and then written my findings and my conclusions in layman terms in the hope that this will make it easy to understand for those who fully believe in the Bible, but those who may not, and have their doubts about the accuracy of what is contained in the Bible.

The first thing that became apparent was that with many of the events and happenings described in the bible, these differed dramatically in content to those found in other versions of the bible. This first started the warning bells sounding and led me to ask what the reasons for that were? Surely if the events as described were real and did happen, then why should there be such differing accounts of the same events, especially if they were witnessed by the same people?

Creation-Genesis 1

I will, therefore, start at the beginning where the Bible starts. In the book of Genesis chapter one, it sets out how God created heaven and earth. I have set out below the text from that book. It is not my intention to go too deeply into the all the references to God as known in the Bible, and the other gods worshipped by other religions, because the Bible says, that there is but one God, who rules heaven and earth, and that God is everlasting.

Chapter one says "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

God said, Let there be light: and there was light, and God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness, and God called the light Day, and the darkness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters and God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so, and God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day, and God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear and it was so, and God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called the Seas: and God saw that it was good, and God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth and it was so, and the earth brought forth grass and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

And the evening and the morning were the third day, God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years, And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and