Quickly master Biblical things that Idiot at Work who is always trying to Save you is Clueless About|Bible Self-Study Guide in the Time it takes to read The Hobbit & The Lord Of The Rings|Forum|Forum: Apocalypse & Armageddon

"Reader's Digest (sort'a) Condensed" Biblical research:

The other day when I was working on a piece about The Two Old Testament Kingdoms & The Two New Testament Churches, I literally had 7 books spread over the desk, printer and floor--either open or bookmarked--and was bouncing back and forth between them looking things up. I pretty much know where to flip to pretty quick because I've read (and highlighted & underlined and scribbled in the margins) these reference books (and both versions of the Bible I had out) and can flip to the pages I need fairly quickly.

But how about for other people who better want to understand the Bible without all the baggage of some particular Religious perspective getting in the way of understanding the Bible as a library of ancient BCE (Before the Common Era) and CE (Common Era) books that were collected over about a 1000 year period and have a somewhat Israel, Judah, Babylonia, Assyria (Nineveh), Egypt, Persian, and Greek & Rome slant to them.

I compared many (let's call it 8 or more) versions of the Bible and have done extensive comparisons of mistranslations from English back to Hebrew & Greek meanings and found The New English Bible with the Apocrypha, c. 1972 CE, New York, Oxford University Press, is one of the most readable Bibles, as literature, which I often compare verses with Oxford's, King James Version (because so many people rely [are hung-up] on the KJV word-for-word) The New Scofield Reference Bible.

You could do it the long way by comparing these two​, New English & Scofield,​ Bible versions paragraph by paragraph with the 12 Volume The Interpreters Bible which ​itself ​ uses a parallel column per page verse by verse readings of both the King James Version & The Revised Standard Version. But even with the wealth of information given between chapters of the various books of these two Bibles, there is still a
​ slight​ "Christian" slant to the wealth of its scholarship notes, and with Volume 1 alone being some 1100 pages and only covering a discussion of the Bible's first two​ books of Genesis & Exodus. And there are 11 more Volumes after that to work your way through The Old and New Testaments for about 12,000 plus pages.

Not many people are going to do that. So I often get asked by people if they'd like a reasonably good understanding of the Bible without having to do much more reading effort than as if​ just sitting down to read The Hobbit & The Lord Of The Rings trilogy, how can they do it.

Again, I suggest if you are going to have a Bible as literature to read, The New English Bible with the Apocrypha is very readable. The main reason to keep a KJV (King James Version) around is mainly for
​ verse​ comparison because some people will only make their arguments by quoting verses directly from the KJV, as if they think God Himself only wrote the Bible in the British King's English. The very "fact" that it is any "Kin​g​'s version" should tell you that Bible had Politics behind the translation.

By the way, the books of The Apocrypha are some of those Jewish Books found with The Dead Sea Scrolls that were composed between the completions of the writing of the books of the Old Testament & the beginning of the writing of the Letters [Epistles], books and Gospels of the New Testament, and originally were included in the KJV but were later dropped out (Oops! So I guess that original KJV collection wasn't really all that infallible after all, was it).

I think having The Apocrypha books included is important for Biblical study as: (1) they are included in many other than American Southern Bible-belt versions of the Bible; and (2) they fill in the blanks of some important information about what was happening in the Ancient World at the time of their writing, and illuminate what is going on in other Old Testament books.

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One of my quick background references is How Came The Bible, 1940 CE, by Edgar J. Goodspeed ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_J._Goodspeed ) who taught at the University of Chicago. It is only about 135 pages and​ takes you through, simply, how the various books of the Bible were collected by the Jews and Christians over 10 Centuries by Priests, and their redactors & scribes, various translations and versions "published" right up to modern times when some early English translators & publishers were put to Death like criminals by kings & their churches simply for trying to translate & publish the Bible in English so everybody else could read it for themselves.

But after 36 years of Comparative Religion & Bible research, I've found the best​, most convenient,​ "Reader's Digest Condensed" Bible reference books to be​ (originally in 2 volumes, but lately published together in 1 book) is Asimov's Guide To The Bible,​ The Old Testament & The New Testament (and includes The Apocrypha)​ 1969 CE, by Isaac Asimov ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov ). Asimov's Guide is written so a layman can understand the secular rest of what was going on in the larger Ancient World right along side all the​ Bible's​ drama & pageantry​​​ of the relatively insignificant and small kingdoms of Israel & Judah located in the middle of the Superpowers' of the Day, Trade Routes.​

Keep in mind most Bible verses Asimov uses are from the KJV or The Revised Standard Version. So there could be minor differences in how the translator of your Bible version worded a particular verse. Realistically, of the 8 plus Bible versions I've compared there is not enough difference between what is being told in the Bible stories to make all the fuss people make over their version being superior to others, except for readability. Does it really matter if you read something like "And so the Persian king Cyrus the Great conquered mighty Babylon" or a different version might write the same sentence "All of mighty Babylon was conquered by Persian king Cyrus the Great." ​ People forget that translating from one language into another language is often not a simple word-for-word substitution process. ​
And, ​every​ ​one of ​those 8-plus Bible versions have specific mistranslations to advance one Church's doctrine over others. Every one of the "Christian" Bible versions, for instance, mistranslates the Hebrew word for "Messiah" in the Old Testament as an "Anointed" One in order to confuse their congregations into thinking that there were not hundreds of Jewish Kings & High Priests who carried the title of office "Messiah" so that their Bible version readers think New Testament Jesus was the only "Messiah" in the Bible, and that the word means some kind of God's only Superhero. It doesn't, as that would be Jewish blasphemy. But every one of the English "Christian" versions of the Bible hide this fact from you for Political reasons. And that's lying by omission and ain't Spiritual!

You can take all 12 volumes and 12,000 plus pages of The Interpreters Bible and pretty much get out of Asimov's Guide To The Bible all the essential information. And sitting down and reading each Biblical chapter section of Asimov's Guide To The Bible along side each chapter/book of The New English Bible with the Apocrypha shouldn't take you any longer than reading The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings trilogy (come on, we know you read faster now than you did back in high school). Asimov's Guide is like Cliff's Notes, but with all the important background scholarly detail.

Then when you are finished you'll have a working knowledge of the Bible that most SOB Televangelists, Priests, Preachers and that Religious Fanatic at work always pestering you, can't come close to. You'll soon discover that most Preachers & Religious Fanatics are bullshitting everybody about what is really in the Bible and are cherry picking Bible passages to try to win secular Political arguments for their agenda, which is nothing less than trying to take over your Country & the World if you let them. Their agenda has always been Political and not Spiritual. And their Political Advantage has always been (and continues to be) Nobody actually reads the Bible and knows they are Lying.

Other than these short pieces that I write once in awhile for the Apocalypse & Armageddon web site (which most people can't remember two weeks from now or tie into the Bigger Picture), that's about as Easy as I can suggest as a Biblical Self-help course. God is Love; Turn the other cheek; and Burn The Heretics at the Stake! What, Me Worry?

NOTE: Asimov also wrote a pretty good 3 Volume set of books on Physics that has been used for Freshman University classes as Isaac Asimov was also a Professor of Biochemistry at Boston University besides being a prolific writer of fiction. One of my favorites is his book on The Neutrino.

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