Actually, the Bible was drafted by a committee appointed by Emperor Constantine with the intent of making it the state religion. Jesus, nor Paul, ever advocated a "book of rules". It was purely a governmental decree, with an eye on controlling the people. There are plenty of other contemporary writings out there which paint a completely different picture of the teachings of Jesus.
The Bible ruined Christianity.
Btw, the "Beast" was Nero. Happened long ago.
Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy
Sorry COG, I love yuh man but you're wrong on this one.
There are many manuscripts from the first and second century
that contain parts of the canonized biblical gospels. One of the best
is the Bodmer Papyri which contains thirty one leaves of the
gospel of Luke and a large portion of Johns gospel, and it dates
from the second century, Constantine wasn't around till the third.
Also the much earlier Muratorian Fragment list the four canonized
gospels.
Constantine didn't invent Christianity, but he did try and
hijack it for his own purposes you could say.
Also he didn't make it a state religion as some think and
he wasn't the one that chose the books that were canonized.
But yes he did try and use it for his own purposes, him and about
a thousand other people after him, a pretty big crowd.
What one could consider the earliest gospel can still be found
in the Bible. God won out over mans attempts to prevent it,
imagine that.
Marcion is a good reference as well, he tried to deviate from
the accepted gospel of the time and was declared a heretic
by the second century church. He was before Constantine.