Diplomat Assembly

just for the records

Do You Know Your Bible?

I recently encountered someone who told me that the oldest book in the Bible was Genesis. I gently corrected him and said no one knows which book is the oldest book in the Bible, but it is generally considered to be the book of Job. And he began to argue rather dogmatically instead of going to research. And this is what we do. Especially in Black Africa. We like to believe what we are told instead of what we studied. And that is why we are the race most prone to believing superstition.

Anyway, going back to the young man, he tried to impress me by telling me he knew the Bible more than I did and could recite the names of the 66 books of the Bible. I said to him that whilst living in Sokoto, I encountered children who could recite the entire Quran. He was stunned.

There is actually so much ignorance around the subject of the word Bible. So, let me attempt to shed more light on it.

The word Bible simply means book. The number of books in a Bible depends on the denomination. While the Protestant Bible has 66 books, the Catholic Bible has 73, and the Orthodox Church has 81 books. There is no Holy Spirit-authorised Bible. The only authorised Bibles are those authorised by men, like the official King James Bible, which contains verses that were made up, for example, 1 John 5:7.

And besides these books included in these Bibles, there are other books not included but which were quoted in The Bible. For example, in Jude 1:14, the brother of our Lord and Saviour quoted from the Book of Enoch. But that book is not included in The Bible.

"Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones. to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”-Jude 1:14-15.

Incidentally, 1600 years AFTER these Councils of men selected which books to add and exclude from their Bibles, The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1946–7 at Qumran. Along with the en-Gedi Scrolls, which were found in 1970, The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest Scripture in existence, and they contain the Book of Enoch! They also include other books. In addition, the Book of Enoch is contained in the Ethiopic Bible in Ge'ez.

Also, Paul gave the names of Pharaoh's magicians as Jannes and Jambres in 2 Timothy 3:8. You will notice that the Old Testament you have does not name them. So, where did Paul get those names? He got them from a source not included in the current Bibles available to the different denominations.

The oldest surviving COMPLETE New Testament are the Garima Gospels of Ethiopia from 400AD. And they are written in Ge’ez, an ancient Ethiopic language of the Kingdom of Axum. (The Dead Sea Scrolls are actually a Jewish Scripture). They contain the Gospels, and in their Gospel of Luke, there are extra pages not in The Bible approved by the various European Councils.

These all are corroborated by John 21:25, which states:

“There are also many other things that Yeshua did, which if they were to be written, each one, I suppose even the world would be insufficient for the books that would be written.”

But of course, Black Africans swallow whatever is vomited to them from Europe due to our deep-seated inferiority complex and the sad fact that we hardly study. In fact, some Black Africans will read this research and insult me. But they would unquestioningly accept it if a White European Christian wrote it. Because they have been conditioned to believe that Christianity came from Europe to Africa.

As a follower of Yeshua, you must expand your mind beyond your denomination. Yeshua did not found or establish any denomination. Schisms are a human construct. Don't say things like we believe. Grow to the point where you can say 'I believe'. Stop following dogma. And in case that small word befuddles you, dogma means the result of other human thinking. Dogma is not always divine.

Again, let me reiterate that dogma, the religious teachings of a denomination, is not Scripture. Defend Scripture, not dogma. Dogma is such a terrible thing. Dogma makes people argue that there is nothing wrong with changing the Name of our Lord and Saviour from Yeshua to Jesus.

Yeshua. That Name came DIRECTLY from God! Let us remember Romans 9:20, which teaches as follows:

“Who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’”

Reno Omokri

Gospeller. Deep Thinker. . Ruffler of the Feathers of Obidents. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Globetrotter. Hollywood Magazine Humanitarian of the Year, 2019. Business Insider Influencer of the Year 2022.