Bible conspiracy theory
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A Bible conspiracy theory is any conspiracy theory that posits that much of what we know about the Bible is a deception created to suppress some secret, ancient truth. Some of these theories claim that Jesus really had a wife and children; some claim that Freemasons have secret information about the true descendants of Jesus; some claim that there was a secret movement to censor books that truly belonged in the Bible, etc.
Not all theories involving a conspiracy of deception affecting the Bible or its interpretation are "fringe". For examples, mainstream Islam teaches that the Bible was deliberately corrupted by both Jewish and Christian leaders to hide the truth, and that only with the spread of the Qur'an (Islam's holy book) was God's truth finally revealed. Also not all of them are necessarily meant to be taken all that seriously; a number of bestselling modern novels have incorporated elements of them, more to flesh out their storylines and to tickle the public's fancy than in all earnestness.
Bible conspiracy theories form the cornerstone of some relatively modern Christian religious movements. Most notably The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (see Mormonism), The modern day United Pentecostal Church (see the Jesus-Only doctrine of Oneness Pentecostalism) assert that the Bible was deliberately modified (or at least carelessly allowed to be copied sloppily) to edit out what they consider to be the theology that supports their religious viewpoint. These groups have published their own Bibles that differ from Bibles used by other Christian groups. In addition these groups publish new books, which they hold are divinely inspired revelations, to support their translations.
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Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses believe that some Bible translations have been deliberately modified, but that the Bible itself is incorruptable because Jehovah God would guarantee the message He prepared for mankind was available always. They have published their own translation, which they naturally feel is the best translation available. However, Jehovah's Witnesses quote liberally from other translations in their publications as they feel the majority of translations contain renderings which help to more fully understand the original text. Jehovah's Witnesses have published much literature for the purpose of Bible study, none of which they hold as divinely inspired revelation.
Oneness Pentecostal/Jesus-Only churches
In the various Oneness Pentecostal/Jesus Only Churches, some recent bibles published by some organizations contain the word "Jesus" in the New Testament where "God" or "Lord" is normally used. These publications support the Modalist theology that Jesus is the Father and the Son. Like Islam, they assert that many Trinitarian verses in the Bible were added in by dishonest scribes, and verses supporting Modalist viewpoints were taken out. The modern Modalist position came as a result of R.E. McAleister's experiences at the Azusa Street Revival movement in Los Angeles, California in 1906.
Mormonism and The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints
According to the Latter-day Saints (LDS; see Mormonism), the Bible was incorrectly translated in several places, some of which differ from "The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ" and other new or newly-discovered revelations. Because of this belief, Joseph Smith re-translated some portions of the Bible, which are known as the JST (Joseph Smith Translation). Joseph Smith did not use ancient manuscripts to support these revisions, but rather translated by "revelation" or "inspiration." The Latter-day Saints currently use and publish an edition of the King James Version of the Bible with footnotes which include cross-references and the JST.
Currently the LDS Church has in their possesion ancient Egyptian papyruses that they claim Joseph Smith translated into what is now part of the Pearl of Great Price (PGP) sometime after the JST manuscripts were mostly finished. Like the JST, the translation was more of an inspired revelatory process than a direct translation from Egyptian.
In the PGP Facsimiles #1, #2, and #3 Smith further describes the Cainite curse, its relationship to Egypt, and identifies the subjects in the pictures as the patriarch Abraham and the Egyptian king Pharaoh, his wife, and a black-skinned slave named Olimlah. In the middle of another of the Facsimiles, God is said to reside near Kolob, a star "which is above all stars", and some take that as meaning it is near the center of the universe. Interestingly enough, the arabic word "Qalb" also means "center" or "middle", and Arabic was the language most widely spoken in Egypt at the time of the finding (but not at the time of the writing) of the papyrii -- it is a known fact that Smith took some Hebrew lessons from a Jewish Rabbi shortly before publishing this material, and many Hebrew words have similar counterparts in Arabic. The Mormon faith asserts that the JST -- as far as Smith managed to finish it before his death -- contains the accurate and original content of the Bible, and that it was revealed to their founder Joseph Smith by God sometime after 1830.
Israel was not in Israel
The Lebanese scholar Kamal Salibi has written several books advocating the "Israel in Yemen" theory. In this view, the placenames of the Bible actually allude to places in Arabia, and were later reinterpreted to refer to places in Palestine when the Jews moved to Palestine after the Babylonian Exile; and the ancient Jews actually came from Yemen, on the Arabian peninsula.
As far as this hypothesis goes, claims of this nature do not constitute a true Bible conspiracy theory. Such hypotheses would become a conspiracy theory if they additionally claimed that this came about as a deliberate corruption of the Biblical text, which later people then tried to hide, which Salibi does not assert. This issue is discussed in Israeli-Palestinian history denial.
Freemasons
Freemasonry is a worldwide fraternal organization; it often calls itself "a peculiar system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols." Its members are joined together by high ideals, of both a moral and metaphysical nature (and, in the majority of branches, by a common belief in a Supreme Being). This organization is sometimes considered to be the possessor of ancient esoteric knowledge about the Bible and/or of ancient anti-biblical rituals.
The Knights Templar
The Knights Templar were organized as a monastic order in the 12th century, following a rule created for them by Bernard of Clairvaux, the founder of the Cistercian Order. The Templars were well-connected and quickly became prime movers in the international politics of the Crusades period, but were suppresed and dissolved in the early 14th century. Many conspiracy theories have emerged linking them to the supposed lost teachings or relics of Jesus, Solomon and Moses.
Some conspiracy theories about them state that they have hidden away the Holy Grail and/or the Ark of the Covenant. See the article on the Knights Templar for more detailed information.
Lost books of the New Testament
See the main article on Apocrypha
The Apocrypha are texts which are not considered part of the Biblical canon by a particular denomination, despite their resemblance to Biblical books in terms of form, content, etc. Some of these were still available in the libraries of the medieval period and survive until today, and many more were circulated before a number of Councils in the late 5th century mostly agreed on the currently recognized canon. While those were strictly speaking local councils with no universal jurisdiction, their results were broadly accepted, at least in the Western church; with regards to the New Testament which is the main concern in the conspiracy aspect, most Eastern churches eventually arrived at the same canon list.
Many of the apocryphical New Testament books contain Gnostic content. The church leaders in Rome were hostile to Gnosticism and considered it heresy. The Church was largely successful in suppressing Gnosticism -- most of the Gnostic texts we have today had disappeared from the record until the late 19th and early 20th century. This could be labeled a Church conspiracy, and may be so labelled by neo-Gnostics.
Besides the Gnostic issue, some say that certain books weren't included in the New Testament because of sexism. The Gospel of Mary was allegedly written by Mary Magdalene, a woman who was among the group to whom Christ's resurrection was first revealed. Today, the Gospel of Mary is known only in fragmentary form, in a text which surfaced in 1896 (this is also the only known copy). The Sophia of Jesus Christ mentions seven women disciples alongside the Apostles.
Concurrent with the "lost books" conspiracy theory is the claim that the Bible has been heavily edited or selectively translated in order to excise scripture which would undermine those in power; the editing is often purported to have been ordered by the Pope or some Council. However it is highly unlikely that any power in the 1st millennium would have had the power necessary to get away with this, since knowledge of the Bible was still very widespread among ordinary believers during this early age. Also the fact that breakaway churches that exist until today, some having had no contact with the Imperial church from as early as ca. 400, use essentially the same Biblical texts, speaks against any large-scale removals.
Note that the term "apocryphal" is used by Protestants to describe the "deuterocanonical books" (Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Jesus Sirach, Baruch, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, parts of Daniel, and parts of Esther) that are accepted as canonical by Catholics and Orthodox Christians and which had been included in the Jewish Septuagint (the "LXX"). Though they had been considered more or less a part of the still open Jewish canon for varying numbers of years, the Pharisees removed these books when they closed their canon at the Council of Jamnia (ca. 100), held under the auspices of the Flavian emperors. Many Protestant denominations followed suit in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail
Some common hypotheses are that:
- Mary Magdalene was one of the disciples of Jesus, but this fact was suppressed by the early Church (in fact this is an accepted belief in most Churches, far from suppressed).
- Jesus had an intimate relationship with Mary Magdalene.
- Jesus had an intimate relationship with Mary Magdalene and they had children; their continued bloodline is then said to be Christianity's deepest secret.
See the articles on The Da Vinci Code, Holy Blood, Holy Grail for modern books dealing with those theories.
See also
Conspiracy theory Mary Magdalene was one of the disciples of Jesus, but this fact was suppressed by the early Church (in fact this is an accepted belief in most Churches, far from suppressed).
That Mary Magdalene was one of the disciples of Jesus is not an accepted belief in most churches.