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submitted 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) by TheReanuKeeves@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

I mean in the sense that it was written for entertainment

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[-] NateNate60@lemmy.world 31 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

The collection of texts today known as the Bible were not written at once. There's actually a lot of interesting history about how it came to be, but the short of it is that there were a multitude of maybe-canon Christian texts floating around during the early period of Christianity. These texts were written decades or even centuries apart, and often falsely attributed to authors who did not write them. There was also the Septuagint, a Greek text which was a translation of various Jewish scriptures, many of which now form the Old Testament.

The early Christian church decided which of these were deemed to be canon and which were non-canon. The canon texts were compiled together to form what is now the Bible. Everything else that was deemed not canon is called the Apocrypha. Many of these texts were also deemed heretical or blasphemous to read, publish, or teach by the various ecumenical councils.

Each Christian denomination has a slightly different version of the Bible depending on which decisions and ecumenical councils they accept.

The most interesting difference would be the Bible of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (also known as the Mormon Church), which has an additional text called the Book of Mormon. That was written in the 19th century by a guy named Joseph Smith, an American religious leader who founded Mormonism. According to Mormon theology, it contains the revalations he received from God about various other unknown saints who lived in America and other holy happenings which took place, making the US a second holy land of sorts. His group travelled to the western United States to find their own promised land and establish a Mormon theocracy (they were successful; it's now the US state of Utah).

There's no historical evidence that any of these texts were intended to be read as anything other than religious scripture, but keep in mind that in Biblical times, people seemed to have had a really difficult time differentiating texts written by people having fever dreams versus actual genuine accounts of observed events or legitimate attempts to write scripture. If you want a fun time, you can read some of the Apocrypha, which are often similar in style to the canonical gospels but are slightly... weirder. The line between religion and insanity was not so easily found back then. Regardless of their authors' original intent, the Apocrypha certainly can be read for entertainment in the 21st century.

[-] okmko@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

That was such a revelation that it most certainly was divinely ordained. We must tell people about it.

I'll start.

"We're no strangers to love", NateNate60 decreed.

"You broke the rules and now must I"

"A full repentance is what I'm thinking of"

"You wouldn't get mercy from that other guy"

[-] luthis@lemmy.nz 12 points 14 hours ago

In a sense, yes. Orally, not written. And sharing stories is what humans do for entertainment

[-] zdhzm2pgp@lemmy.ml 3 points 14 hours ago

That's a question only Uatu can answer.

[-] notsosure@sh.itjust.works 1 points 14 hours ago

I’m pretty sure this piece was written as a serious attempt to create some law and order, which may have made some sense back in the day.

[-] MutantTailThing@lemmy.world -4 points 14 hours ago

I’d have to say people back then had to be pretty fucking bored to consider the bible entertaining.

[-] calmblue75@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

The bible is entertaining if you consider that it is a collection of folklore across centuries. The problem with bible is the pedestal it is being kept on, not the stories themselves.

[-] shapesandstuff@feddit.org 4 points 11 hours ago

it had murder, sex and intrigue. probably more interesting than hearing about your uncles harvest again

this post was submitted on 13 Mar 2026
38 points (93.2% liked)

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