WAS THE BIBLE heavily censored?

For the more than 2 billion Christians in the world today, the Bible is synonymous with “the Holy Scriptures.” No other work in history has been translated into as many languages or printed more often or in more versions than the Bible. Nowadays a pope would not dare alter the “Word of God” as we know it, but that was not always true. “The Bible did not simply drop from heaven,” says Annette Schellenberg, professor of Old Testament studies at the University of Vienna: It was written by human authors. But while the New Testament focuses on the life of Jesus, it is highly unlikely that any of the authors actually knew the founder of the Christian religion. The earliest book is believed to be the Gospel According to Mark. Likely written before the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70, it has been attributed to John (aka John Mark), who was an associate of Paul and a disciple of Peter. It was followed by two derivative accounts: Matthew took 90% of his content from Mark, while more than 50% is found in the Gospel According to Luke. John’s Gospel, which differs significantly, appears to have been written later, perhaps in the year 100.

The early Christian religion was a loose network of individual churches rather than an organized religious bloc. But as Christians began to be persecuted by the Romans, there emerged a need for greater order. Constantine the Great (who ruled from 306 to 337) was the first Roman emperor to embrace Christianity. He recognized the religion’s political potential and initiated the evolution of the empire into a Christian state. In 325 he called some 300 bishops together from across his empire (with the exception of Britain) for the First Council of Nicaea, and the assembly laid down the first uniform Christian

doctrine, as exemplified in the Nicene Creed, which confirmed the divinity of Jesus Christ as “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.” The early Church fathers had already expunged many texts that didn’t fit with the prevailing ideology. In doing so, they reduced the New Testament from at least 100 books

to only 27 today. However there’s no evidence that the bishops’ meeting in Nicaea undertook this task. It was done earlier, and Christianity would have been quite different had it not rejected a number of these “gospels.” One confirmed Mary Magdalene as a close associate of Jesus: “Peter said to Mary, ‘Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than the rest of women.’” Another portrayed Jesus as being easily offended and vengeful: “After that, Jesus again went through the village, and a child ran and dashed against His shoulder. And Jesus was provoked and said unto him: You shall not finish your course. And immediately he fell down and died.” In a third, Jesus seems to commend Judas for agreeing to betray him: “Truly I say to you, Judas, you will exceed all of them.” Historians may disagree about Nicaea’s lasting legacy, but in any case the meeting appears to have established the Church as an institution for the ages.