Why Was The Bible Written?

Why Was The Bible Written

All books have a purpose for their authorship.  School books are for education, philosophy tomes for their author’s version of the thought process, medical books…well you get the idea.

The Bible is no different.  When man first began to gather in tribes, there was always a struggle for power.  Before language, it was the most physically powerful of the group.  He would beat any challenger into submission and by doing so the rest of the tribe would fall in line.

Who knows if trade/money or language came next, but either way, they changed the way leadership was earned.  Who ever amassed the largest wealth, became the leader and eventually the King.  After the King’s leadership became traditional, the power was handed down through inheritance.

Language could have been used to gain power but I suspect it was through controlling “the gods” by the shamans.  He would demonstrate somehow that his magic incantations could heal someone or drive away the demons and the tribe would automatically give him all the power he wanted.

Of course, when his magic failed him, he could be in jeopardy of losing his position.  He might get away with one or two failures, but eventually several bad things would happen in succession and he would be thrown out of power.

As we progressed into more sophisticated languages, the shaman was replaced by the oracle.  The position was easier to maintain because once the oracle learned to speak in vagaries with multiple meanings, his or her position was very difficult to challenge.

Man invented gods early in the process and the shaman and oracle represented themselves as god’s messenger here on Earth.  Always with the eye on controlling the tribe, town or country the King often used the oracle to communicate with the god de jour.  And it was much safer for the King if the oracle failed.  Instead of the King being killed, it was ‘off with his head’ for the seer.  Early critical thinkers began to dismantle gods and goddesses with regularity, hence the progression of gods throughout history.  Gods died and new more powerful gods were invented.

Then came written language.  Now the world had a way to set down the rules from god in a formal setting and the word could be spread far and wide with everyone worshipping the same god the same way.  It was usually illegal for anyone to read or even own a Bible for centuries and to do so would be punishable by death.

So, why write a Bible if there was a danger of someone reading it and understanding its irrational rules?  It was used to control very large masses of people through fear and guilt.  As we know, the Jewish and then the Christian gods were vengeful creatures and would kill you for looking at him wrongly.

The Jews started to relax their attitude toward their god so an eternal punishment had to be invented to regain the control of the people.  Hell isn’t mentioned until the New Testament came along and a whole new period of fear and self-loathing started.

The downfall of religion started when people were allowed to learn to read.  There were some early critical thinkers who read the words of god and realized how ridiculous they really were.

That brings us to today.  Now that a goodly portion of the world is educated and can think critically, the last gods are beginning to die.  And, they aren’t going peacefully.  If you notice, the most violent people left on Earth are the least educated. Specifically, the Muslim world in the Middle East.

Let’s hope these final gods of mankind die quickly as it will limit the bloodshed.  The longer they take to pass on, the more danger mankind is in.  We stand on the threshold of two possibilities, one is a bright future of rational thinking and the other is too awful to contemplate.

Walk the Path in Grace