Fun Bible Facts

Great entry from author Jeffrey Mark's Amazon Blog . . . . .

Make sure to check out his new book as well.

Here are some things I cover in my book, Christian No More.Did you know:

Of the 31,000 verses in the Bible, Hell is only mentioned in 62 of them?

When combined, all the verses that give reference to Hell barely fill a single page?

What we know of as Hell actually referred at times to graves and at other times to a trash dump?

The name Lucifer is only mentioned ONCE in the Bible and it refers to a Babylonian king?

The story of a beautiful angel falling from grace is also actually referring to a Babylonian king?

The word "Satan" actually refers to an angel who is an adversary to God and by no means the devil figure we know of today?

And thus there is no Devil as we know of it mentioned anywhere in the Bible, and our ideas of this "devil" actually come from a novel written long after the Bible?

The story of the Garden of Eden is almost identical to an earlier Babylonian myth which Christians today discount as myth?

The early Hebrew people had multiple gods just as other people did and were hardly "monotheistic"?

That many of the names of these other gods are common with other myths from the area, showing a clear overlap of religions?

Instead of halting belief in these other gods, they were simply demoted to "demons" and many still believe in them today?

One Canaanite god in particular, Baal, was absorbed by the Hebrew religion and even mentioned in the New Testament?

The opening verse to the Bible in its original Hebrew was plural: In the beginning the gods created the heavens and the earth?

The Bible mentions God interacting with the other gods?

The God of the Old Testament probably originated as a child to a Canaanite god named El?

The Bible says dragons, unicorns, satyrs, giants, talking donkeys, and other odd creatures exist?

Many themes in the Bible (seven day creation; the flood) are copies of earlier, more ancient myths from other religions?

In the Bible the God character at times appears frightened of the people?

There is no physical evidence whatsoever of any of the supernatural events of the Bible?

A competing religion developed around the same time as Christianity which worshipped a man named Mithra who was shockingly similar to Jesus?

There are places where the historical events in the Bible place the supposed events at the wrong time?

The earliest copies of the gospels make no mention of the virgin birth or the resurrection, and these were only added later to add familiarity with Greek religions featuring such themes?

The concept of Original Sin is never mentioned in the Bible and the idea was invented in the 4th century AD?

The Christian Bible instructs followers to kill nonbelievers?

Prior to the last century, almost all Christians took the Bible literally, and only now that we see contradictions with science are people inventing their own "interpretations" of the Bible?

There are actually two sets of "Ten Commandments" and most people conveniently ignore one of the sets, and few people believe in the punishment for violating any of the two sets?