Everyone thinks they know how the Bible goes — as it turns out, though, there might be
more to this sacred text than anybody realizes.
Wanna know how time travel factors into God's plan, or which Biblical villain might actually
be a hero?
Keep watching to find out.
The Bible is split into two main sections: the Old Testament, which also constitutes
the Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament, which compiles the teachings of Jesus and serves
as the foundation of the Christian religion.
The Bible is also a collection of stories, songs, poems, letters, and apparent historical
accounts — basically, it's all over the place.
And while many of the people and events discussed in the Bible can be verified by examining
surviving documents and monuments, others can't.
Some figures have long been mysterious, albeit backed up by more recent research.
For example, until 1961, there was no historical evidence that Pontius Pilate actually existed.
Some people believe there's insufficient evidence to support the idea that even Jesus Christ
existed.
The so-called Jesus-Myth theory suggests that Christ was invented along with most of the
events in the New Testament.
The earliest sources that refer to Jesus of Nazareth were written decades after the alleged
events of the Bible took place, and these writings fail to provide any detailed evidence
to support their versions of events.
The Jesus-Myth theory argues instead that the Bible was written as a way to manipulate
and control people… which would certainly change everything for the billions of people
who have placed their faith in it.
There can be little doubt that the Bible is kind of a confusing book.
The good book was composed over the course of thousands of years in several languages,
using different styles and forms, and codified via committees with their own competing agendas.
The Bible may have had one editor, though: God.
The theory that everything in the Bible was specifically dictated by God using his "mysterious
ways" is an old one, and some scholars believe that God literally dictated the Torah to Moses
letter-by-letter.
This has given rise to various theories that the text of the Bible isn't just a symbolic
compendium of God's laws and teachings, but also an incredibly complex code.
"Woah."
An 18th-century rabbi named Elijah of Vilna argued that all of creation is encoded in
the first five books of the Torah, including everyone who will ever live and the details
of their lives.
Scientists have even used a technique called Equidistant Letter Sequence to spot strange
language patterns in the Bible, which seem to reveal coded messages.
Then again, this technique also yields hidden coded messages in Moby Dick and War and Peace
— so unless God also dictated his will to Leo Tolstoy, it's probably fair to say the
jury's out on this one.
Most of us are familiar with the concept of reincarnation.
This is the idea that, when you die, you are reborn into a new life, usually without any
memory of your previous existences.
Many major religions, including Buddhism and Hinduism, hold reincarnation as one of their
core tenets.
But not Christianity.
In the Christian church, you are given only one life.
After that, you pass into the afterlife, where you are judged and sent either to heaven,
hell, or possibly purgatory.
You're never reborn again.
However, there is a theory that the earliest teachings of the Christian church did indeed
include reincarnation.
According to some, these teachings were removed when the Church began organizing the texts
that would later become the official Bible.
Unfortunately, reincarnation was seen to undermine the spiritual system of judgment that the
Church taught, and so any reference to it was removed from the Bible entirely.
However, many early Christians openly believed in reincarnation, and the Gnostic Christians
specifically included it in their teachings.
Mary Magdalene is one of the most fascinating characters in the Bible.
For thousands of years, the popular image of Magdalene was that of a former sex worker,
a supposed "fallen woman" who found salvation through faith in Jesus.
"Let him among you who is without sin cast the first stone."
But in 1969, the Catholic church admitted that this interpretation wasn't actually supported
by the text of the Bible.
In fact, many believe that the Bible explicitly supports the idea that Magdalene wasn't just
a female follower of Jesus, but his most important follower — that she was, in fact, an Apostle.
This theory argues that Magdalene's status threatened the patriarchal structure of the
Church.
Reworking her public image into a wretched sex worker, whose sole connection to Jesus
lay in his mercy towards her, underscored the idea that women and the sexual temptation
they represented were to be controlled and oppressed.
In fact, Magdalene's stature in the Bible has often been used to justify calls for women
to be admitted to the priesthood.
These calls were amplified when the Church later admitted Magdalene had probably not
been a sex worker at all.
If the theory that Magdalene was an Apostle gains further ground, it could change everything
for the greater Christian church.
If you've ever read Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code — or seen the movie adaptation
— then you probably already know how this one goes.
"Who is she?"
"My dear, that's Mary Magdalene."
In this story, the terrible secret covered up by the Catholic church is that Mary Magdalene
wasn't simply a follower of Jesus.
Rather, she was his wife — and after his death she fled to what is now modern-day France
and gave birth to his daughter.
As it turns out, there are plenty of people who think that this might not be fiction.
Indeed, there's a large gap of time in Jesus's life that we know almost nothing about — from
when he was about 8 days old until he was in his early 30s.
There is just one mention of Jesus during this time, as the Bible mentions that he traveled
with his parents to Jerusalem when he would have been about 12.
But an ancient document known as the "Lost Gospel" allegedly fills in some of Jesus's
story, and tells us that he married Mary Magdalene and had two children with her.
It's not the only reference to Jesus being married, either — an ancient Egyptian scroll,
known as the "Gospel of Jesus's Wife," also alludes to his mysterious wife.
The Book of Revelation is one of the strangest parts of the Bible.
It's written in a style completely different from the rest of the book, it's filled with
horrifying imagery, and it follows a strange, dream-like logic.
This has led to a wide variety of interpretations, with some arguing it's a coded description
of events that were current at the time, or events much further in the past.
The most popular interpretation, however, is that the Book of Revelation is about the
Apocalypse.
That places the events of Revelation firmly in the future, which is where most people
like their end-of-the-world scenarios to remain.
But some believe in a theory that the events described in Revelation aren't in the past
or the future.
Instead, they're unfolding all around us, and they have been for centuries.
The historicist view of Revelation states that the events described in this book won't
happen all at once, but over the course of a very long time, as part of a process that
began long, long ago.
And if they're right, well — who knows what might happen next?
There's one golden rule about any historical mystery: eventually, someone — somewhere
— will speculate that it's all about aliens.
From the pyramids of Giza to the lost city of Atlantis, there’s always someone who
writes a lengthy treatise insisting that ET was behind it all.
"E.T. home phone…"
And the Bible is no exception.
The prevalent theory goes that the Bible is actually about a race of super-advanced aliens,
and Jesus was actually an alien-human hybrid.
Bizarrely, plenty of biblical details apparently lend themselves to this theory.
The Star of Bethlehem can be seen as the arrival of a spaceship, the missing decades of Jesus'
life were a period in which the aliens taught Christ what he needed to know to control humanity,
and his resurrection and rise into heaven was him being beamed back to the mothership.
You can even read the Prophet Ezekiel's description of angels flying in a chariot made of "wheels
within wheels" as clear evidence of a vehicle piloted by aliens.
In fact, some people actually regard this as the earliest recorded UFO sighting.
The name Judas has evolved into a handy byword for treachery.
Even non-Christians know that Judas sold Jesus to the Romans in exchange for 30 pieces of
silver.
But there's one theory that claims Judas wasn't a traitor or a villain.
On the contrary, he was a hero who sacrificed himself to ensure Jesus could return to heaven.
In this reading of the story, Judas was acting under Jesus' instructions, and his soul was
the one sacrificed in order to save the world.
This theory is rooted in the apocryphal Gospel of Judas, an ancient text excluded from the
Bible that shines a much different light on Judas's story.
The nature of Judas's heroism is tied up in the complex beliefs of a Christian sect known
as the Gnostics.
That's also why the text was excluded in the first place, because the Gnostics were suppressed
by the mainstream Church.
But the Gospel of Judas suggests that Jesus knew of Judas' betrayal and allowed it to
happen.
The Bible is actually somewhat ambiguous concerning Judas' status as a traitor.
Jesus speaks of him warmly even in the midst of his betrayal, and the other Apostles aren't
exactly heroic, either, abandoning Jesus at the crucial moment of his arrest.
As with so many other elements of the Bible, the strength of Judas' character is very much
open to interpretation.
Some pretty incredible stuff happens in the Bible.
You've got angels, resurrections, and burning bushes that speak to people.
So it probably won't come as a surprise to hear that there is a theory that the Bible
pretty explicitly describes time travel, too.
"Great Scott!"
“Doc!”
This theory pivots off of a story involving the prophet Jeremiah.
One day, Jeremiah is sitting with some friends and tells a young boy named Abimelech to go
fetch some figs.
So the kid goes to a nearby hill and promptly blacks out.
When he wakes up, he's still a kid, but 62 years have somehow passed.
It's worth pointing out that this particular story is apocryphal — meaning you won't
find it in the Bible, as it's considered spurious by most modern Christian churches.
Of course, a key factor in the time travel theory is the idea that God exists outside
of time, as well as the notion that God can do anything he likes…
including manipulating time when it suits him.
The tale of Cain and Abel is one of the best-known stories in the Bible.
The sons of Adam and Eve, Cain becomes jealous of Abel when God takes Abel's sacrifice in
preference to Cain's.
Enraged, Cain kills his brother, so God marks him and exiles him.
The term "Mark of Cain" comes from this story, generally used to convey shame and guilt.
The theory that has grown around this mark stems from the fact that nowhere in the Bible
is the mark actually identified or explained.
Unfortunately, this has led some people to concoct some pretty horrendous theories of
their own.
For example, the Mormon Church at one point believed that the mark was dark skin, which
provided an argument for refusing non-white people into their priesthood, while also conveniently
excusing their own racist beliefs.
The Church of Latter-Day Saints admits that this was once the case.
Brigham Young put the restriction in place in 1852, citing the Mark of Cain as one reason.
Then again, Young also believed the curse would someday be lifted, and non-white people
would eventually be afforded full privileges in the Mormon Church, which officially occurred
in the 1978.
Let's be honest, though — that doesn't make this any less of a messed-up theory.
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