How was the bible put together to what we have today?

Why do Christians think the eyewitnesses wrote the gospels, and think that Paul was an eye witness when they werent?? i seriously cannot understand that.

Andy said, "How was the bible put together to what we have today?"

The city of Ugarit continued to be dominated by the Egyptians through 1400 BC. Several of the Psalms were simply adapted from Ugaritic sources; the story of the flood has an almost exact copy in Ugaritic literature; and the language of the Bible is very like the language of Ugarit. Canaanite (Phoenician) literature is analogous to a huge number of similar works in Hebrew composed between the seventh and the third century B.C. Job, Proverbs, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, the Song of Songs, Ecclesiastics, Jubilees, and part of Daniel.

An Egyptian pharaoh named Ptolemy first collected various books and put them together, it was a Pagan pharaoh named Ptolemy who put together what resembles the Bible of today. Ptolemy had the OT books around 250 B.C.

The Old Testament that claims to have come from the Moses is probably based on the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, who is also credited with creating monotheism, just like Moses. Both are said to have led a famed exodus from Egypt, as the cult of Akhenaten and his atenists (a celestial realm created by Akhenaten) were expelled from the country, the same as Moses exodus from the Bible. There was never any ancient sprawling kingdom of Israel; there was an ancient Jerusalem, but not the mythical kingdom of Israel. That phrase comes from the combination of three ancient deities, Isis - Ra, and El. There is not one shred of evidence that any Israeli slaves ever lived in ancient Egypt, and Moses never existed.

Andy said, "Why do Christians think the eyewitnesses wrote the gospels, and think that Paul was an eye witness when they werent?? i seriously cannot understand that."

There is an excellent witness to events in Judaea in the first half of the first century AD: Philo of Alexandria. Philo did not write one word about Jesus or Christianity.

Christianity was the ultimate product of religious syncretism (combining of beliefs) in the ancient world. There were many Jesuses but the story was a cultural construct. Nazareth did not exist in the 1st century AD - the area was a burial ground of rock-cut tombs. There were never 12 disciples or a master. The story was invented to legitimize the claims of the early churches. The original Mary was fashioned on pagan goddesses and she was not a virgin. Unlike Jesus and Mary a real historical figures like Julius Caesar have a mass of evidence.

Nothing in the Christianity was original it had all been in the literature for centuries. When the Jews were defeated and the temple at Jerusalem was utterly destroyed that gave the Christian churches the ability to take over and prevail.

There was never just one Christianity; there were many sects of Christianity in Rome, dozens of competing son/sun of god cults. The first Jesus believers claimed he was a spirit. Later he was born a human and was put to death. The whole story was assembled to try to unify a fragmented and fractious messianic religious movement. In the mid-2nd century the Jewish faith was purged from Christianity. The Christians remained a minority until one faction formed a political alliance with the Roman State. Orthodox Christianity remained unpopular for centuries and persecution was necessary to impose it on the people.

There are in fact 200 gospels, epistles and other books concerning the life of Jesus Christ. Political considerations in the late 2nd century led to the selection of just four approved gospels and the rejection of others. They did later accept about 23 more books, but in fact all of the stories are fiction.

It's too bad that people like this, who are asking astute questions and getting very informative answers, are being over run by xians faking atheism and posting mind numbing babble.

Folks,

Here is another perspective on Linda's very skeptical comments.

Ptolemy is a clan name not an individual's name. It is impossible for "Ptolemy" to have put the Bible together in 250 BC. We know from several sources that there was no Jewish canon prior to the destruction of the Temple in 70CE by the Romans. Once the place of worship was gone they needed a unifying text to replace the place. Leading Pharisees (rabbis) met at Jamnia (coastal Israel) about 120 CE and settled on the O.T. canon.

Asserting Atk., founded monotheism is really out there. Jews did not settle on monotheism until the exile. (586-535 BCE).  Most Egyption ancient history existed before there was even paper, so making statements about ancient Egyptians do anything, especially something a significant as putti f together the OT, cannot have documentary supper by definition. It's guess work. You can believe the OT is literal or allegorical, but all the best evidence shows that Jews put it together for sincere religious reasons, not that it was fabricated or thrown together by foreign rules or cultures.

As for the reliability of the New Testament, a good introduction is Lee Strobel's "The Case for Christ." Find excerpts of it on YouTube. No disrespect Linda, just sharing another side of the story.

For those interested in what hogwash Lee Strobel puts out, I would recommend Robert Price's 'A Case Against the Case for Christ". Robert Price is an actual biblical scholar, unlike Strobel.

Ptolemy ruled Egypt and founded the ruling family that ended with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. The letter known as the Letter of Aristeas describes how Ptolemy II requested translators and Eleazar sent 72 scribes, who translated the Septuagint in 72-days. He wanted these books for his library at Alexandria.

The Old Testament came from Ugarit. The OT story of the flood has an almost exact copy in Ugaritic literature. The Ugaritic (Cannanite) literature is similar to work in Hebrew composed between the seventh and the third century B.C. There is not one shred of evidence that any Israeli slaves ever lived in ancient Egypt. The Old Testament that supposedly came from Moses is probably based on the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten, who is also credited with creating monotheism. Like Moses Akhenaten led an exodus from Egypt.

Archaeologists are very competitive and they want to discover important finds. They can't be concerned about whether or not the public will like what they have found. Archaeological sweeps of the Sinai have failed to find any evidence of Moses et al wandering there. The OT story claims Moses was given the law on Mt. Sinai and was ordered by God to bring the law down to his people. That is not true, because it can be demonstrated to be false. It is also a fact that the Ten Commandments were not given to Moses on Mt. Sinai they came from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. This can easily be found to be true with a little research.

In the bible story Aaron is portrayed as casting a molten calf of gold from jewelry, earrings being given by the recently freed from Egypt Hebrew slaves (Ex 32:2-3). In the bible story they declare that the Golden Calf led them up out of Egypt to the Holy Mount. The story was merged. There was no Moses who wrote the first five books of the bible. Archeologists and Scholars know that many different people wrote them over many centuries.

Cuneiform texts of Ras Shamara - Ugarit attests that much of the Old Testament and the ancient Hebrew god were borrowed from the Canaanites. The Jewish people evolved from polytheism to monotheism with the promotion of a god who had been known by a variety of names, into one supreme God, Yahweh who had a consort, Asherah. This female entity was later merged by Greek and Roman traditions into Aphrodite and Venus, and known earlier to the Egyptians as Isis.

There was never any ancient sprawling kingdom of Israel; there was an ancient Jerusalem, but not the mythical kingdom of Israel. That phrase comes from the combination of three ancient deities, Isis - Ra, and El., and Moses never existed. A Egyptian Pagan pharaoh named Ptolemy first collected various books and put together what resembles the Bible of today. Ptolemy had the OT books translated around 250 B.C.

The Israelite lived for centuries with the Canaanites. Many of the sacrifices that are mentioned in the Ugaritic texts have names that are identical to those described in the book of Leviticus. It is also clear that Ugaritic and early biblical Hebrew poetry share a common literary tradition. El was used as the name of the all-powerful God of monotheistic religions. The Israelite identified him with their God YHWH in order to develop the monotheism of the Torah. Then, much later, under Jewish and Christian influence, Muhammad declared El, under his Arabic designation, Allah, to be the one true God and founded Islam.

When the royal palace of Ugarit was uncovered, a large number of cuneiform tablets were found. These tablets were the literature written down in about 1375 BCE but much older in origin. This literature described Canaanite gods that can be found in the Old Testament.

If you would care to read a book on the subject: Mark S Smith, 'The origins of biblical monotheism: Israel's polytheistic background and the Ugaritic texts', New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.