



Produced by David Widger from page images generously
provided by Google Books







THE BIBLE UNVEILED

By M. M. Mangasarian


1911


When I seriously believe a thing, I say so in a few words, leaving the
reader to determine what my belief is worth. But I do not choose
to temper down every expression of personal opinion into courteous
generalities. Let us learn to speak plainly and intelligibly first, and,
if it may be, gracefully afterwards.--John Ruskin.

|TO make it possible for a man to be as honest in his religion as he
would like to be in his business; to make him as unafraid in church as
he aims to be anywhere else, and to help make him as impatient of a lie
on Sunday as he is on any other day of the week, is the object of these
studies on the bible. I wish to be able to kindle in the breast of every
free citizen of this free country the love of truth, irrespective of
whether it helps or hurts; I wish to shame cowardice and cant out of
every man and woman who speaks the English language.




CONTENTS

An Extraordinary Book

A Word with the Reader--Protestant and Catholic

A Word with the Jews


PART I.

I. The Neglected Book

What Makes a Book Inspired?

The Sects and Their Bibles

Catholic and Protestant Bibles

Catholics Make Their Own Bible


PART II.

I. The Tercentenary of the English Bible

Some Lay Defenders of the Bible--Bryan's Challenge

Bryan's Defense of the Bible

II. Roosevelt on the Bible

III. "Let Them Produce It"

What Is the Best Thing That Can Be Said in Favor of the Bible?

IV. How to Test a Book

Speak According to Knowledge


PART III.

I. The First Chapter of the Bible

The First Verse of the Bible

Theologians Discover That Six Days Means Six Periods

The Great Tragedy

II. Taboo and Totem.

The Totem

III. The Bible and Magic

The Unbelievable in the Bible

IV. The Strangest Story in the Bible


PART IV.

I. God and His Book

The Deity Demands Human Flesh

II. The Portrait of God in the Bible

A Bible Saint

III. The Bible and Judaism

IV. Bible and Talmud

V. The Masterpiece of the Bible--Solomon's Temple


PART V.

Contradictions in the Bible

Serious Discrepancies in the Story of Jesus

One Writer Makes Jesus Affirm What Another Made Him Deny


PART VI.

I. What Was The Bible Meant to Teach?

II. The Bible and Religion

III. Does the Bible Teach Morality?

IV. Righteousness in the Bible

V. The Ten Commandments

VI. The Commandments Broken

VII. Thou Shalt Despise Women

VIII. The Sermon on the Mount

IX. The Parables of Jesus


PART VII.

I. A Better Bible

Conclusion. The Book of God and the Book of Man




An Extraordinary Book

|A BOOK which claims infallibility; which aspires to absolute authority
over mind and body; which demands unconditional surrender to all its
pretensions upon penalty of eternal damnation, is an extraordinary book
and should, therefore, be subjected to extraordinary tests.

Neither Christian priests nor Jewish rabbis approve of applying to the
bible the same tests by which _other_ books are tried.

Why?

Because it will help the bible?

It can not be that.

Because it might _hurt_ the bible?

We can think of no other reason.

But why devote so much space and time to the discussion of a book in
which the educated world no longer believes? Why not take up issues that
are more alive and more useful? I am of the opinion that the people who
leave the bible alone do so, not because they think the book has ceased
to hurt, but because they are still afraid of it, or its clientele. The
generality of reformers would rather fight giants than the great _paper_
idol of the churches--because it is _safer_.

Clergymen with liberal tendencies seek to dull the edge of all criticism
against the bible by admitting in advance the conclusions of scholarship
in reference to it, but still pretending to find a unique use for the
book as "literature." Indeed! And since when has the bible, from being a
divine revelation, fallen to the level of mere letters? If the bible is
mere literature, would the mails accept it in its present form? Would it
be tolerated in the homes of the people? And why should there be a paid
army of men in the service of a book which is only literature? Why so
many priests and rabbis to do its bidding, and why should so many costly
and untaxed temples and cathedrals be built for a book which is no more
than any other literature? Why should missionaries be maintained to push
the sale of this one book if it is nothing but literature? Why is the
world broken up into sects and creeds without number in the name of this
literature? Peculiar literature, this!

_The veil lifted!_ I am not going to give new names to the bible, or
find new _hidden_ meanings in it. That is not my profession. Occultism,
which enables a reader to find in any book whatever he is seeking, has
never commanded my respect. By lifting the veil, I mean a very simple
thing--showing up the bible.

All idols are veiled. The _veil_ is the idol. Uncovered, they scare
nobody. I shall try to do to the great idol of Christendom what the sun
does to the earth--coax it into the light.




A Word with the Reader--Protestant and Catholic

|LET me assure the prospective Catholic and Protestant readers of this
volume that I do not harbor a single feeling toward them which is not
of the kindest and the most respectful. I have no quarrel whatever with
individuals, or with parties. It is altogether foreign to my nature to
take pleasure in giving pain to others. If the truth gives pain, it is
not the fault of the teacher, nor of the reader who hears it for
the first time, but of error, which stabs and stings before it will
surrender its victims.

Having been a Christian believer myself, I have the warmest sympathy for
all who still wear the yoke of superaturalism. But I have no pity for
error. I will not consult its pleasure. I will not spare it. Before any
of my readers condemn me for speaking openly, and without reservation,
I trust they will think of something else I could have said about the
bible which would have been better than the truth. And as I am going to
make the bible speak for itself, I am sure no one will charge me with
misrepresenting the facts.

But I have no business to be concerned about either pleasing or
displeasing anybody. I am going to tell the truth, even if it hurts. If
telling the truth hurts me, it is I, and not the truth, that has to get
out of the way; if it hurts _you_, it is you, and not the truth, that
has to be sacrificed.

Not "truth for truth's sake," but "truth for humanity's sake," is the
better motto, argue certain teachers; but is there a better way of
serving humanity than through truth? Even as "Art for art's sake" will
give humanity the highest art, "Truth for truth's sake" will give to the
world the only bread it can live by.




A Word with the Jews

|AS the bible is the work of Jewish authors, and as I say quite a little
about Jews and Judaism in this book, I wish to take the pains to explain
my position in advance. Rationalism is much indebted to the educated
Jew. Even more is the Jew indebted to Rationalism. The only miracle
in the history of Israel was performed by Rationalism. All the bible
miracles are nothing in comparison. Rationalism has saved the Jew from
his greatest enemy--the bible. It is to the great credit of the Jew that
he has survived his "holy" book. No people have suffered more from it
than the chosen people. The bible has made the Jew a wanderer and an
alien in every country. When thinking of the martyrdom of this race
through the centuries, the poet Heine exclaimed: "Judaism is not a
religion; Judaism is a misfortune." * The same poet congratulates
himself upon the hastening departure of Jehovah: "It is the old Jehovah
himself that is preparing for death. Hear ye not the bells resounding?
Kneel down, they are bringing the sacraments to a dying God."

     * Heine: _Philosophy and Religion in Germany._

The great strides which the modern Jew has made in culture as well as in
commerce, he owes to his emancipation from the influence of the bible.
The more he disobeys the bible the more universal he becomes in his
sympathies and tastes. With the crushing load of the bible taken off his
shoulders, the Jew is swift in responding to the most beneficent
influences of environment. Away from Judaism lies the salvation of the
Jew. It was in Europe and America, among the Gentiles, and not in
Palestine, that the Jew discovered himself. Not until he turned his back
upon Jehovah and his book did the Jew leap forth to conquer in art, in
literature, in science, and in all the graces that help to make genius
and virtue attractive. I do not say that all persecution and prejudice
will end when Jew and Christian cease to follow the teachings of the
bible, but surely the most formidable obstacles to the fraternization of
the races shall be removed. It is a service to humanity to try to free
the Jew from the rabbinical yoke, and the Christian from that of the
priest. The rabbi is as much a schismatic as the priest. The parent of
both is the bible.

Once for all, I beg the readers of this book to know that I do not
believe for a moment that the Jews ever taught the absurdities, or
practiced the atrocities, with which the bible credits them. I do
not believe they ever started on an expedition to murder babes and
sucklings, or to capture girls for their harems, for which acts the
bible praises them. Like the Catholics and the Protestants, the Jews,
inspired by these same scriptures, have committed many follies through
the centuries, but I am positive in my own mind that the terrible Old
Testament picture of the Jew is a libel against humanity, as well as
against the Jews.

Not until the Jew has completely parted with bible and Talmud; not until
he has completely surrendered to Rationalism in mind and _body_--for as
long as he practices the Abrahamic rite upon his children as a religious
duty he will continue to be an alien in every land--will the Jew end his
wanderings in the wilderness and enter the land of promise.

The Messiah of the Jew, as well as of the Christian, is come. It is
Rationalism. And what is Rationalism? The authority of Reason.




PART I.




I. The Neglected Book

|THE bible is a sort of national pet in this country. We are taught from
the cradle to revere, and almost worship it. In time, the bible comes to
be as near and dear to us as our own mothers. When anybody praises it,
we applaud him; when anybody criticizes it, we feel toward him as we
would toward one who has betrayed his country, or insulted the national
flag.

When, recently, President Taft praised the bible by saying that "Our
laws, our literature and our social life owe whatever excellence they
possess largely to the influence of this, our chief classic," he was, I
am sure, quite sincere. But, evidently, all he knows about the bible is
what was taught him in the nursery, the Sunday-school, or the church.
The majority of people who exalt the bible above all other books have
not studied the book--not even read it, except a chapter here and a
passage there. If the bible had been a smaller book, people would have
been more familiar with its contents, but being a book of ponderous
size, the generality of people have only a _dilettante_ acquaintance
with its contents. Really, the size of the book has been its best
protection. There is scarcely any other book which is more reverenced,
and less known, than the bible.

The bible societies, however, claim that for long centuries the bible
has been the best seller. About twenty million copies a year have been
disposed of during the past three hundred years. But selling a book, and
getting it read, are not the same thing. There are reasons which explain
the enormous traffic in bibles. A great deal of money is expended every
year to push its sale. Great legacies are devoted to the translation and
dissemination of the bible in every country. Powerful corporations
exist all over Christendom to introduce the bible into new territories.
Besides, the book is sold at a nominal price, often below cost, which is
made possible by large endowments and legacies.

Another reason which explains the vogue of the bible is the fact that it
is protected against all competition. The king is behind the book; the
press is behind it; and a halo of divinity is thrown about it to scare
people from examining their own holy book with the same freedom that
they examine the holy books of other countries. What other book has ever
received the patronage which the bible commands, even to-day? And what
would have been the fate of the bible had no more been done for it than
has been done for Shakespeare, for example? Not until all artificial
helps and props have been removed, will we be in a position to say
whether the bible sells on its own merits, or whether it is indebted for
its popularity to special privilege.

But, as already intimated, notwithstanding these enormous sales, the
bible is read so little by the present generation that it may well be
called _The Neglected Book_. To prove this, we are not going to quote
Rationalists, but clergymen. The complaint from every pulpit is that the
bible is being ignored by the people more and more every day. The Rev.
Lyman Abbott read, at one of his lectures, a chapter from the bible,
without, however, mentioning the name of the book to his hearers. He was
addressing an _elite_ audience; on the platform were judges, bankers and
the "first citizens" of the town. At the conclusion of his lecture two
of the gentlemen on the platform, one of them a judge, asked him for the
name of the book he had read from. Lyman Abbott himself tells this and
other similar stories to show how ignorant the American public is of
the contents of the book they venerate so piously and gush over so
spectacularly.

The very people, however, who are so ignorant of the bible, would be the
first to throw up their hands in horror should the least criticism be
directed against its contents. The same complaint, namely, that people
are neglecting the study of the bible, is made by other clergymen. In
schools and colleges, even, great ignorance has been discovered among
the pupils about the bible. Professor Hamilton reports that, in visiting
certain schools in New York, he found among pupils preparing for
college, and nearly of an age for entrance, whole classes that could not
answer the easiest questions about the contents of the bible.

It is my opinion that the complaining clergymen themselves are not so
well acquainted with the bible as they should be. Of course, no harm
is done either to science or ethics by this general ignorance of the
stories in the bible; personally, I am pleased at the indifference of
the public to a collection of writings which has to be labeled "holy" to
command respect.

The above facts are quoted only to prove that, despite its enormous
sales, the bible is a stranger in the home, the school, the study, the
shop, and in all the assemblies of the people. But the less some people
are acquainted with the bible, the more they seem to believe in
it. Indeed, ignorance of the bible is indispensable to faith in its
inspiration. Moreover, it is this ignorant veneration which makes it
dangerous for any one to read and tell the truth about it. Formerly,
when the church had the power, such a man was either hacked to pieces,
or burned to cinders; to-day, even, he is persecuted as much as public
opinion will permit. It is a matter of history that in the name of
this Jewish-Christian volume, which people do not read and are but
superficially acquainted with, nearly a hundred millions of lives have
been destroyed in Europe alone. Could anything be more appalling? In
modern times, the church can no longer do to the unbelievers in the
bible what it did to them for over seventeen hundred years, but it does
to them as much as public sentiment will allow.

The reader will be interested in examining with me the book in the
defense of which, I regret to say, nearly every imaginable crime has
been committed. It gives me pain to say this, but who can hide the
truth? Moreover, my sole purpose in telling the plain truth is not to
offend, or give pain, but to encourage everybody to approach the book
without fear. I am not going to praise the bible; but I am not going to
denounce it either; I am going to explain it.

It is my desire not so much to talk about the bible--when, and where,
and by whom, it was compiled; how it was lost and discovered; burned in
the destruction of the temple, and later restored by the scribe Ezra;
how it has been edited and revised again and again * --but to lift the
veil and show the book to the world.

     * These questions are discussed in the author's pamphlet,
     _How the Bible Was Invented._




What Makes a Book Inspired?

|BEFORE proceeding to read the book, may I explain that an _inspired_
book must be different from uninspired books. If it has excellences and
defects like other books, then it is in no sense different from any of
the works of man. An inspired book must be a perfect book, else what
advantage is there in being inspired? Again, an inspired book must
contain original matter, to justify its inspiration. If the bible
needed the help of inspiration to say what other books have said without
inspiration, then, instead of being a greater, it must needs be a more
ordinary book. Is there anything in the bible which can not be found
elsewhere? While there is not a single idea in the bible which was