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Some council records also survived, and they provide alarming The shock discovery of an ancient Bible ramifications for the Church.Some old documents say that the First The New Testament subsequently evolved into a fulsome piece Council of Nicaea ended in mid-November 326, while others say of priesthood propaganda, and the Church claimed it recorded the the struggle to establish a god was so fierce that it extended "for intervention of a divine Jesus Christ into Earthly affairs. four years and seven months" from its beginning in June 325 However, a spectacular discovery in a remote Egyptian monastery (Secrets of the Christian Fathers, op. cit.). Regardless of when it revealed to the world the extent of later falsifications of the ended, the savagery and violence it encompassed were concealed Christian texts, themselves only an "assemblage of legendary under the glossy title "Great and Holy Synod", assigned to the tales" (Encyclopédie, Diderot, 1759). On 4 February 1859, 346 assembly by the Church in the 18th century. Earlier Churchmen, leaves of an ancient codex were discovered in the furnace room at however, expressed a different opinion. St Catherine's monastery at Mt Sinai, and its contents sent The Second Council of Nicaea in 786-87 denounced the First shockwaves through the Christian world. Along with other old Council of Nicaea as "a synod of fools and madmen" and sought to _— codices, it was scheduled to be burned in the kilns to provide annul "decisions passed by men with troubled brains" (History of | winter warmth for the inhabitants of the monastery. Written in the Christian Church, H. H. Milman, DD, 1871). If one chooses to Greek on donkey skins, it carried both the Old and New read the records of the Second Nicaean Council and notes Testaments, and later in time archaeologists dated its composition references to "affrighted bishops" and the "soldiery" needed to to around the year 380. It was discovered by Dr Constantin von "quell proceedings", the "fools and madmen" declaration is surely Tischendorf (1815-1874), a brilliant and pious German biblical an example of the pot calling the kettle black. scholar, and he called it the Sinaiticus, the Sinai Bible. Constantine died in 337 and his outgrowth of many now-called Tischendorf was a professor of theology who devoted his entire pagan beliefs into a new religious system brought many converts. life to the study of New Testament origins, and his desire to read Later Church writers made him "the great champion of all the ancient Christian texts led him on the long, camel-mounted Christianity" which he gave "legal journey to St Catherine's Monastery. status as the religion of the Roman During his lifetime, Tischendorf Empire" (Encyclopedia of the Roman had access to other ancient Bibles Empire, Matthew Bunson, Facts on A unavailable to the public, such as the File, New York, 1994, p. 86). A shudder of apprehension Alexandrian (or Alexandrinus) Bible, Historical records reveal this to be echoed through Christendom believed to be the second oldest Bible incorrect, for it was "self-interest" that in the last quarter of the in the world. It was so named led him to create Christianity (A because in 1627 it was taken from Smaller Classical Dictionary, J. M. 19th century when English- Alexandria to Britain and gifted to Dent, London, 1910, p. 161). Yet it . . . King Charles I (1600-49). Today it is wasn't called “Christianity” until the language versions of the Sinai displayed alongside the world's oldest 15th century (How The Great Pan Bible were published. known Bible, the Sinaiticus, in the Died, Professor Edmond S. Bordeaux British Library in London. During his research, Tischendorf had access Meditations, USA, MCMLXVIII, pp. to the Vaticanus, the Vatican Bible, 45-7). believed to be the third oldest in the Over the ensuing centuries, Constantine's New Testimonies were world and dated to the mid-sixth century (The Various Versions expanded upon, "interpolations" were added and other writings of the Bible, Dr Constantin von Tischendorf, 1874, available in included (Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. vi, pp. 135-137; the British Library). It was locked away in the Vatican's inner also, Pecci ed., vol. ii, pp. 121-122). For example, in 397 John library. Tischendorf asked if he could extract handwritten notes, "golden-mouthed" Chrysostom restructured the writings of but his request was declined. However, when his guard took Apollonius of Tyana, a first-century wandering sage, and made refreshment breaks, Tischendorf wrote comparative narratives on them part of the New Testimonies (Secrets of the Christian Fathers, the palm of his hand and sometimes on his fingernails ("Are Our [Vatican archivist], Mille op. cit.). The Latinised name for Apollonius is Paulus (A Latin- Gospels Genuine or Not?", Dr Constantin von Tischendorf, English Dictionary, J. T. White and J. E. Riddle, Ginn & Heath, lecture, 1869, available in the British Library). Boston, 1880), and the Church today calls those writings the Today, there are several other Bibles written in various Epistles of Paul. Apollonius's personal attendant, Damis, an languages during the fifth and sixth centuries, examples being the Assyrian scribe, is Demis in the New Testament (2 Tim. 4:10). Syriacus, the Cantabrigiensis (Bezae), the Sarravianus and the The Church hierarchy knows the truth about the origin of its Marchalianus. Epistles, for Cardinal Bembo (d. 1547), secretary to Pope Leo X (d. A shudder of apprehension echoed through Christendom in the 1521), advised his associate, Cardinal Sadoleto, to disregard them, last quarter of the 19th century when English-language versions saying "put away these trifles, for such absurdities do not become a _ of the Sinai Bible were published. Recorded within these pages is man of dignity; they were introduced on the scene later by a sly information that disputes Christianity's claim of historicity. voice from heaven" (Cardinal Bembo: His Letters and Comments Christians were provided with irrefutable evidence of wilful on Pope Leo X, A. L. Collins, London, 1842 reprint). falsifications in all modern New Testaments. So different was the The Church admits that the Epistles of Paul are forgeries, saying, Sinai Bible's New Testament from versions then being published "Even the genuine Epistles were greatly interpolated to lend weight —_ that the Church angrily tried to annul the dramatic new evidence to the personal views of their authors" (Catholic Encyclopedia, that challenged its very existence. In a series of articles published Farley ed., vol. vii, p. 645). Likewise, St Jerome (d. 420) declared in the London Quarterly Review in 1883, John W. Burgon, Dean that the Acts of the Apostles, the fifth book of the New Testament, of Chichester, used every rhetorical device at his disposal to was also "falsely written" ("The Letters of Jerome", Library of the attack the Sinaiticus' earlier and opposing story of Jesus Christ, Fathers, Oxford Movement, 1833-45, vol. v, p. 445). saying that "...without a particle of hesitation, the Sinaiticus is A shudder of apprehension echoed through Christendom in the last quarter of the aA os 19th century when English- language versions of the Sinai Bible were published. 56 = NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2007 www.nexusmagazine.com