The Unholy Truth

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The “Invention” of Original Sin from a Mistranslation

For most of the time people have been reading the Eden story, nobody found inherited guilt in it. Then a Latin rendering of two Greek words changed that.
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The Books Behind the Articles
The Books Behind the Articles
Every piece here stands on real scholarship. These are the books I cite most, from Bart Ehrman's work on the New Testament to Israel Finkelstein's archaeology of ancient Israel. If you want to check my sources yourself, start here.

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Why Pastors Feel Their Congregations Aren't Ready for the Truth About the Bible
Your minister spent three years in seminary learning that Moses didn’t write the Torah and Paul didn’t write half his letters, then took a pulpit and…
 • Tanner | Religion & History
The Jesus Stories the Church Threw Out and the Quran Kept
Clay birds, a palm tree that drops dates on command, and a crucifixion that only looked like one. The bishops called these stories fakes. Centuries…
 • Tanner | Religion & History
The Gospel of Mary, the Lost Gospel the Church Desperately Tried to Erase
Jesus leaves, the apostles panic, and the one who steadies them is Mary Magdalene. Peter’s reaction shows what the early church was fighting about.
 • Tanner | Religion & History
The Apocalypse of Peter, the Lost Book That Built Christian Hell
A second-century book gave Christianity its torture chambers, came close to making the New Testament, and quietly let the damned out
 • Tanner | Religion & History
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas: Introducing Little Jesus, the Notorious Killer
In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a volatile toddler God uses divine power to punish bullies—and answers a terrifying question canonical scripture left…
 • Tanner | Religion & History
Most of Humanity Got By Without the Bible, So Why Did God Think We Couldn't?
Holy books cover a thin slice of human history. Most people who ever lived prayed to rivers, ancestors, and animals, and their stories turn up on every…
 • Tanner | Religion & History
Jesus Didn't Know He Was God. The Church Had to Fix That
Matthew and Luke copied Mark’s words, but they couldn't stand his portrayal of Jesus.
 • Tanner | Religion & History
How a Syrian Farmer's Plow Rewrote the Bible
In 1928, a buried library of clay tablets revealed that the Bible’s greatest monsters, hymns, and storm gods were stolen from Israel's worst enemies.
 • Tanner | Religion & History
When Yahweh Divided the World Among Other Gods
Deuteronomy 32 once split the world among the sons of God, and a scroll from a Dead Sea cave kept the older wording for two thousand years
 • Tanner | Religion & History
The Unholy Truth
The Unholy Truth
Biblical scholarship and church history for people who were never told the Bible has a complicated backstory.
Recommendations
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Paper Connections
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ILLUMINATION Library for Freelance Writers
Dr Mehmet Yildiz
Discovering Early Christianity
Discovering Early Christianity
Rob Norton

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Biblical scholarship and church history for people who were never told the Bible has a complicated backstory.
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