Wulfila's Gothic Bible consists of only 4 testaments
I have gone to Uppsala in Sweden to view Sweden's greatest book treasure, the so-called Silver Bible, or Codex Argenteus in Latin. It is a magnificent Bible made with silver and gold ink around 500-525 AD. in honor of the Ostrogothic emperor Theodoric, who had conquered all of Italy from the Romans.
The special thing about the Silver Bible is that it is written in Gothic and based on the semi-Gothic bishop Wulfila's translation of the 4 Gospels from Greek into Gothic. He must have made the translation between the year 348, when he had to go into exile due to the Roman persecution of Gothic Christians, and until his death in 383. The time is difficult to get closer than that.
The dating is important because it shows that the early Christians considered the 4 Gospels to be Jesus' core teaching, and that the 4 Gospels were therefore the Bible. We will come back to that, because I have a number of pieces of evidence to assert that it is true.
The early Christians did not have to missionary with the sword in one hand and the Bible in the other
From Jesus' death until the church synod in 393 AD. the message of Jesus’ teachings expanded throughout the known world. It spread like wildfire without the missionaries having to use weapons and force, as the Roman Church later did, after the Synod of Hippo in 393.
Today's historians call all the early Christian denominations Arianism, which is a huge misnomer. But it gives an understanding that there were earlier Christian congregations than the Catholic ones. Arian Christianity was already excommunicated as heretics at the Synod of Nicaea in 325. When the Catholic Church therefore boasts that it has fought heretics for over a millennium and a half, it is often Christians they have persecuted and killed. I wonder where in Jesus' message the Catholic Church found evidence for this? The Roman Church has had to lie and deceive in order to use Christianity to usurp wealth and power. And the church has killed right and left, even in Jesus' name.
Against this background, it is not surprising that we do not know much about the early Christian communities, because the Roman Catholic Church simply wiped them out, in the same way as the Ostrogoths were wiped out. Everything that was not Catholic was heretical and, according to the Romans, had to be destroyed. And the victors, as you know, write the history, which means that not many words are left about anyone else's interpretation of the truth other than the victor's own story.
Arian Christianity survived for a long time, despite the persecutions of the Romans and the Catholic Church
Although the Roman Catholic Church has done everything it could to hide the history of its persecution of other Christians, and burned all the non-Catholic writings it could get its hands on, a lot of Arian Bibles have appeared, in over a thousand years after the Romans began the persecution of the Arian Christians and other non-Catholic Christians.
The common understanding of the Bible says that "The oldest Bibles are Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus. But this is simply not true. First, the dating is obviously wrong. Next, it is dishonest not to mention Codex Washington, Papyrus Codex (Papyrus 45), Codex Syraiacus, Garima Gospels, and Codex Vercellensis which are all temporally BEFORE the mentioned three Bibles.
It seems that the Roman Catholic Church is trying to embellish history so that the early Arian Bibles, which only consisted of the 4 Gospels, do not get the attention they should. But the truth about this deception is also getting out. Listed below are the many Bibles which only consist of 4 Gospels, and which both existed long before the synods in the fourth century and which were reproduced right up to the Middle Ages.
Early and later Bibles that only consist of the 4 Gospels:
Codex Bobiensis (Note: only Matthew and Mark gospels!)
Codex Fossatensis (Insular Gospels)
Codex Curiensis (Fragmenta Curiensia)
Codex Usserianus secundus (Garland of Howth)
Liber Moliensis (Book of Mulling)
I've put the links in so you just have to click on the names above to verify what I'm saying is true: the Bible only consisted of 4 gospels until the Roman emperors tamed Christianity and made it a 'kingdom/state religion'. And this original form of Christianity lived on for many centuries, despite the Roman Catholic very deadly persecution of everything non-Catholic.
It is worrying that the Roman Catholic Church is even extra demanding in persecuting these early Christians. You may know the story of the Cathars, who were persecuted for hundreds of years and were last burned at the stake in the 14th century. The Cathars are an example of a Jesus-believing sect which was considered Arian Christianity by the Catholic Church.
It was actually this Arian dispute which in the fourth century caused the emperors to press the accelerator in terms of taming Christianity, so it is in the Roman Catholic nature to call all non-Catholics Arians. After the annihilation of the Cathars, the term heretics (which is derived from Cathars) is used instead, which just shows how screwed up the church's propaganda is.
Where's the beef? - and what about Paul?
The 'beef' in this problem, which a distorted Bible causes, is that the Catholic Church has used Jesus' message to shape a church that became a state religion, and a state religion, which could in turn be used as a tool of power towards the population.
The 4 gospels come as close to Jesus' message as we can probably get it today. The 4 apostles, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were all disciples and had walked with Jesus. Paul didn't have that.
But that does not necessarily make Paul inferior, because he has written so many passages in the Bible that Christians for almost two millennia have greatly appreciated.
But when he writes specific letters to specific congregations, the letters are intended to deliver a message in that context. What the Roman Catholic Church has done is to elevate it to the side of Jesus' words and actions. It is a cat's limb to fuse the state and the church together.
The Roman Catholic Church takes Paul to task in order to fuse church and state into a divine unity. This happens in the Bible canonized in the year 393. First come the 4 Gospels. Next, the Acts of the Apostles. And right after that comes Paul's 'Letter to the Romans'. In chapter 13, verses 1-7, Paul tells how to submit to authorities and authorities:
Being subject to authorities (Romans chapter 13, verses 1-7)
1 Everyone must submit to the authorities he has over him; for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are appointed by God,
2 so he who stands up against the authorities stands against God's order; and those who stand against it will incur judgment upon themselves.
3 The rulers are not there to frighten those who do good, but those who do evil. If you want to be free from fearing the authorities, then do good; then you should get praise from it.
4 For it is God's servant for your benefit. But if you do evil, fear; for the authorities do not bear the sword for nothing; after all, it is God's servant who, as a punishment, lets wrath fall on the one who does evil.
5 Therefore it is necessary to submit, not only for the sake of anger, but also for the sake of conscience.
6 For the same reason you also answer dear; for those who take care of this very thing are God's servants.
7 Give everyone what you owe them: whoever you owe tax, tax; the one you owe customs duties; the one you are guilty of fear, fear; the one you owe honor to, honor.
BUT, Paul is writing to a specific congregation in Rome, which has the Roman emperor very close, and which must balance the concepts in order to survive as a congregation.
Paul did not write a new gospel! He has simply written a letter specifically to a congregation that was in a difficult situation. He did not write a doctrine of submission to every power, however just or unjust it might be.
But, as with everything, you can interpret a text loosely (as I am doing now). The fact is that Jesus' words and actions showed that one should not blindly submit to all authorities. He asks Simon Peter to hide the sword as the Romans want to arrest him, but he just shows with his actions how wrong decisions the authorities make, thereby depriving them of both ethical and moral authority. Even if in the end they get to carry out their desired action, and crucify him in a conspiracy with the Jews, history also showed that it was actions that went against the Romans that they crucified him (but only until they hijacked his message in the year 393 ).
The core of the problem is that Paul's letter to the Romans must not be placed next to Jesus' words and actions, as the Gospels describe them.
The investigations by Free Church pastor Jon Knudsen
A priest who has investigated these conditions for much longer than I have is Løkken Frikirke's Jon Knudsen. He has made a summary of his research into the origins of the Bible, which he shares at the link below (in Danish, but with various illustrations).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UWT7dhTIp93q3kioAdpkLWhXbXJ5ri2N/view
You can read (in Danish) in Jon's document how the Catholic Church tries to withhold information about the history of the Catholic Bible and its distorted relationship to the 4 Gospels.
Much of the information about the early Bibles that I share in this post comes from Jon's fantastic deep-digging into the history. Thanks to Jon for all that he so generously shares with the rest of us!
Is the Bible a 1600 year old lie?