Does anyone hold an original version of the first bible?

Question

For example, how was it written and on what, before King James decided to change it all?
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happy pilgrim - the reason I ask HERE is so I'll get real people's opinions and to give others something to think about. If I wanted to "read" some unverified schlock on the internet, I wouldn't have asked here!

Hello - Good one. LOL if someone COULD sell it on eBay ... they would! LOL

head fore - I'll bet I "get" a lot more that YOU do!

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I'm wondering, did the men who "said" God told them to write the bible stick up for the work they slaved over that wasn't included in the bible? who made the decsion not to include them and on whose authority?

Answer 1

There is no original version because the Catholics burned many of its books dealing with reincarnation and other matters that didnt fit into their power play. I think this was somewhere between the time they put non believers in torture chambers and last year when they were caught fondling the choir boy.

Whats left is "Pauline" Christianity a hacked version of the real thing explaining how God is a boogie man in the sky and watches everything you do like a bad Santa Claus. It was written by disciples that were pretty close to being almost as stupid as our faith based idiot we call a President.

Want me to read the bible you verse quoting zombies? Then what did you do with it?

Answer 2

1) The original manuscript of the Latin Vulgate has been lost, probably destroyed. This was the original version of the first bible. We have manuscripts of many of the NT books from the 3rd c B.C.E., and at least one from (probably) the 2nd c C.E. We have the Dead Sea Scrolls from the 1st c B.C.E., which are the oldest manuscripts of the OT books. Of all the books in the Hebrew bible, only a fragment from the book of Esther has yet to be discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls.

2) How was it written: in Latin, by hand, by a monk who was an ancient languages scholar named Jerome. Probably written on parchment or vellum. Work done late 4th c to early 5th c C.E.

3) King James did not change it all. Although it is likely that he used the Vulgate, the King James Version was translated from the original languages (as was most of the Vulgate) by scholars, not King James. He merely funded the project.


4) "I'm wondering, did the men who "said" God told them to write the bible stick up for the work they slaved over that wasn't included in the bible?"

No, they were all long dead.


5) "who made the decsion not to include them and on whose authority?"

This question was answered by a previous answerer.

Jim, http://www.jimpettis.com/wheel/

Answer 3

Nope! For a while, it was actually hard to tell what WAS the Bible! This caused a whole mess of problems - the scriptures contradicted one another, and Christians split into factions, supporting this canon or this one.... I mean, when you've got a bunch of commentaries on Jesus and God, who's to say which is accurate re: God's will, and which is just a hermit saying what he feels like? Or anywhere in between...

So, the big famous event is the Council of Nicea, 325 AD, where religious and political authorities got together to hammer out "THE Bible." They argued a whole bunch - about whether Jesus was man or divine, which books were God's word... and a lot of the folks who lost their arguments went off to become "heretics" :P

Some of the books, they named trash, and a lot of them they deemed worthy of study, and helpful in learning, but NOT God's word - "apocrypha".

Actually, though, this process kept going on for AGES... still is, really, when you think about recent additions like the Book of Mormon. Different sects of Christianity recognize different books - I used my Roman Catholic roommate's bible for school, and it's got a bunch of OT books I'd never heard of; I know the Orthodox bible has even more (like 3 and 4 Maccabees - really crazy stories about the Jews vs. the Ptolemies, and drunk elephants... yikes!).

Hmmm... I imagine it was written on papyrus, like the Dead Sea scrolls are (they're apocrypha, btw - they talk about what's going to happen at the end of the world, the seven battles between Anti-Christ and the Forces of Light, which light finally wins). I don't know, though!

Papyrus doesn't age so well. Most of what we still have today comes from little pockets where conditions were just right - consistently really dry and protected - and it's only a tiny fraction of all that was written back then. Also, the "pockets" weren't necessarily in important areas - it would've been really exciting to read what was stored in Alexandria, or Jerusalem, but... unfortunately, pretty much all mush.

Ahhh - this is a fairly frustrating part of history! We DON'T have the documents they had back then - we just have it copied-over, probably whooole bunches of time, and through this the writing changes. Maybe as a simple mistake, or maybe because the copier translated it strangely - or sometimes, just because the copier didn't like what the original said! You can find these weird edits among different versions.... it's such a mess. I feel like half of history is just figuring out all these problems with the evidence - because it is so old. Ah!

Answer 4

Excellent question.

Of course, the original scriptures were most likely written on parchement (specially treated sheep hides) and were in various languages of the prophets. The bible we have come to know was compiled from many old scriptures. The basis of the old testament is the Torah, which comprises the first five books of Moses.

Here's one theory, and someone with a book to sell:

This book is a key research work that provides the biblical student with information concerning the historical growth and progression of the Holy Scriptures. It could be academically titled "The Design and Development of the Holy Scriptures." It shows from clear historical and biblical records that our modern Bibles have abandoned the order and arrangement of the books as they left the hands of the prophets and apostles who canonized them (though they do contain all the books of the Holy Scriptures in the normal Protestant versions). It was in the early fifth century that Jerome gave to the world our present (and erroneous) arrangement of the books of the Bible. This order of Jerome is at variance with the early manuscript design. When the original arrangement is restored, a marvelous and harmonious context is shown that reveals truths of the Scripture that could not be seen otherwise. The intended design by those who canonized the Bible (which can be easily shown and proved) provides the modern reader with the accurate type of Bible that the prophets and apostles desired the world to have. Even modern scholars around the world have argued that the Holy Scriptures should be restored to their pristine and proper order of the manuscripts (as shown by Dr. Martin in this book) so that modern man can have the same Bible that left the hands of those who canonized it.
http://www.biblediscoveries.com/content/view/31/45/

Here is a more 'traditional' work on the subject, which points out the various errors that have crept into the bible over the years of copying and translations and political predjudices:
http://www.biblestudymanuals.net/original_bible.htm

One of my favorite mis translation is the statement, "...thou shalt not suffer a witch to live..." The original hebrew text states that "... you shall not suffer a poisoner to live...", poisoner was a term for an assasin, since in those times poisoning was an assassin's prefered method of getting the job done.

Answer 5

There is no such thing as the first bible. It's a compilation of letters and personal accounts that the followers of Jesus wrote. The first four of the new testament is the gospels which was Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John's personal witnessing. A lot of the other books are letters to the different churches of the time and they are usually named after their location. (Corinthians, Phillipians, Ephesians, etc.) If you look at the beginning of each book it will say who it was to and from. King James was one of the first to try and collect all the different books to put them all together but that was in 1611, so it was over 1500 years after the writings were written. You also have to take in to account what was destroyed during christian persecution during the first few centuries after Christ, we will never know of the things that was destroyed.

Answer 6

The Jews have theirs in scroll from, and King James was not the first to change the BIBLE, the Em pour Concertin changed it in the 12 century first that we know of to say what he believed it memt or wanted it to mean. In old Jews copies King David's Giant was only two METERS tall, not Three as we read today. Which is more believable, the average man was about 5' 5" then and some one six foot six would be huge to them.

Answer 7

Are you looking for copies done by hand? Your looking for scrolls. Prior to the first machine printed version "The Gutenberg bible" printed in German, all copies made were done by hand, mostly by Monks.
The bible is an assortment of individual books/ scrolls started by God, through people like Moses who penned the first 6 books.
If there actually could have been an Original 1st copy, it would be held by the Catholic church as they have most of what is left in their archives, held away from the public.

And by the way, King James Version is only an authorized version done by people in fear of loosing their heads.

Want more?

Answer 8

The version authorized by King James was based on William Tyndale's translation, based on a Greek compilation by Erasmus Desiderius from fragments of Greek Orthodox copies made in the 10th and 12th Centuries. Later Greek compilations were based on newly discovered manuscripts dating from the 4th and 5th Centuries, which did not have several verses appearing in Erasmus' version. This led to charges by the KJV fans that the Bible was being edited and distorted.

Originals? Dust in the wind...

Answer 9

The first book printed by Gutemberg was the Bible. Every bibles of this period are in meseum. Older versions of several testiments are in lost or in museums. The bible was set in Rome during the 4th century when they decided those text could ou couldn't be in the Bible. Those text were written everal years after JC's death, sometimes by people who weren't alive yet during its own life. The original Bible was more oral than written.

Answer 10

just think if you could get your hands on the real deal not something rewritten to suit man and it read when 2 meet in my name I will be there, turn a stone and I will be there the ramifications would keep alot of money in poor peoples pockets and the con men would be out of business. So the chance of reading anything truly written by anyone of importance would be defivtating to the ecnomic world financial institutions