Understanding The Difference Between Scripture and The Bible (Part 1)
By: Reno Omokri
Tags: Christianity, Christian Living, Leadership, Life, Christian

Understanding The Difference Between Scripture and The Bible (Part 1)

By Reno Omokri

Sequel to my thesis ‘Who Is The Messiah, Jesus or Yeshua’, published in my ThisDay column, some of my readers have emailed me and given me some rather annoyed feedback, insisting that the Messiah’s Name is Jesus, because that is the name used in Scripture.

The fact is that much damage has been done to the Body of Christ, because many Christians accept hook, line and sinker what they are TOLD (rather than what they studied). Many do not even know what Scripture is. Scripture is not The Bible.

Let us take the Gospels. There is nothing like The Gospel of Matthew, or The Gospel of John etc. However, there is The Gospel According to Matthew, or The Gospel According to John, etc.

Why is this? It is because, with the probable exception of Mark, none of the Gospels were directly written by Christ’s Apostles. Yes, I just stunned you. Alarm bells are going off in your head. Is this the anti Christ talking and writing?

Not at all. Each of the 12 Apostles went on to have communities, some in Judea, others outside Judea.

Some of them could not read or write. Others could read and write, but only in Aramaic and Temple Hebrew.

This is not to say that the Gospels are not accurate. They are. Very accurate. However, this must be put in context. Initially, the sect of the Nazarenes (the original name for Christianity. The word Christian was a word used by pagans to describe Nazarenes) was only made up of Hebrews (or Jews, although Hebrew refers to the ethnicity, while Jew refers to adherents of Judaism. You can be a Jew without being a Hebrew).

Eventually, due to God opening up the faith to Gentiles by Cephas’s (not Peter. Peter is the Latin for Cephas. In fact Cephas would not have recognised Peter) ministry in Acts 10:45, the Nazarene sect began to expand to include Gentiles (although Philip converted the Ethiopian eunuch first, but he was likely a Jew).

Now, it was the community around of each of the Apostles that actually wrote the Gospels according to the accounts taught to them.

Luke was written in Greek by a historian and believer, to a Roman Governor who spoke Greek. Luke was not an Apostle. It is not an eye witness testimony. It is an account of a man who had spent time with the Apostles. It was written in Greek, because that was the language that Theophilus (the Roman Governor) spoke.

Let me explain here that when you hear or read of Rome, it is not referring to Rome the city. It is referring to Rome the Empire, which spanned Europe, Africa and Asia. There were many Romans who could not speak Latin. They were called Hellenists. They spoke Greek. Theophilus was a Hellenist.

The Gospel According to John could have been written by the Apostle himself. However, it was most likely not written by John himself, but by the community around him, which was centred in Ephesus, a place I visited, and where he was a Bishop. In fact, his name is (was) not even John. It is Yohannan.

If you read John 21:24, it says:

“This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and WE know that his testimony is true.”

The WE being referred to here is the Yohannan community.

Now, if you consider the Gospel according to Mark, the shocking truth is that while it is possible that Mark wrote his own Gospel by himself (he could read and write Greek, and this is the first Gospel written in Greek), the Gospel of Mark that we have today has structural differences from the earliest manuscripts written by Mark or his community.

The oldest known Gospel according to Mark ends at Mark 16:8. Everything from Mark 16 verse 9 to verse 20 are only found in more recent manuscripts. Alarm bells are again going off in your head. You see, as I said earlier, most Christians believe what they are TOLD, not what they study, and Scripture tells us to “Study to show yourself approved unto God”-2 Timothy 2:15.

Having communities amongst prophets and apostles of prophets was common for thousands of years, and is still common today.

For instance, Waraqah ibn Nawfal, a companion of prophet Mohamed, had a community around him. Waraqah was a Christian priest and he translated Scripture into Arabic, and he was one of the first people prophet Mohamed consulted about his revelation. Waraqah was a lifelong Christian.

Even prophet Mohamed himself recited the Quran, but he did not physically write it. Islamic authorities agree that It was the members of the community around the prophet that actually wrote his recitations down. And his remarkable ability to memorise the Quran, is itself considered a miracle by many scholars.

There is a major difference between The Bible and Scripture. The Bible is the translated work of SOME Scripture, but not all. Scripture is the full inspired word of God written by holy prophets. There are 66 books in The Bible chosen by men, not by God. Different councils, ranging from the Council of Nicea, to the Council of Trent, and other lesser Councils, came up with the 66 books.

However, Scripture contains more than 66 books, and the funny thing is that some of the 66 books that make up the Bible actually quote from books of Scripture that did not make it into The Bible.

It is very clear from Scripture that the choice of the books these men (not God) chose to be in The Bible is wrong, because they inadvertently included the Book of Jude, which, unknown to them, included two verses were Jude (the brother of our Lord the Christ), quotes from The Book of Enoch in Jude 1:14–15:

“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.”

The part of those verses, starting from “See, the Lord…” is a direct quotation from the Book of Enoch. Why did the various councils not include that book in The Bible? It was obviously believed to be Scripture by Christ’s brother and His apostles.

Incidentally, 1600 years AFTER these Councils, The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1946–7 at Qumran. Along with the en-Gedi Scrolls, which were discovered in 1970, The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest Scripture in existence, and they contain the Book of Enoch! They also contain other books.

The oldest surviving COMPLETE New Testament Scripture are the Garima Gospels of Ethiopia from 400AD. And there 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 that are 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.”

I have been to Ethiopia 9 times, and they are the oldest Christian nation on Earth bar none. Sadly, many Christians, especially Black African Christians look to Europe, and the Latin or Greek manuscripts. Unbeknownst to them, apart from the incomplete, business card sized, Rylands Library Papyrus P52 fragment of the Gospel according to John, the earliest Christian manuscripts and traditions are to be found right here in Africa. In modern day Ethiopia to be precise.

In fact, the first non Hebrew to receive Christ is not Cornelius, as has been propounded by the European churches, but actually the Ethiopian eunuch. The Ethiopian Eunuch gave his life to Christ in Acts 8:38. Cornelius gave his life to Christ in Acts 10:44.

But of course, Black Africans swallow whatever is vomited to them from Europe due to our very 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 it were written by a White European Christian. Because they have been conditioned to believe that Christianity came from Europe to Africa.

So, what is the purpose of this writing? It is to expose to you, the believer in Christ, that Scripture is not The Bible. Scripture is the undiluted word of God, and The Bible are translations that include verses that are not in Scripture (1 John 5:7, and Mark 16:9–20) and exclude entire books and verses that are in Scripture.

Why did the European religionists do this? Your guess is as good as mine. Obviously, they had their own agenda. But, we as Christians have a duty to discover the truth, because, as Christ said:

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

So, I, Reno Omokri, urge you to do what Christ said in John 5:39:

“Search the SCRIPTURES; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.”

Child of God, please, search the Scriptures! However, when I say search the Scriptures, I am not referring to evil books like the Sixth and Seventh Book of Moses, (those works were NOT written by Moses) etc. Those are occult books, that have no place in the minds of God’s children.

I am referring to all the Books of the Old Testament Hebrew Bible and the books of the New Testament. Not those authorised by a church.

When you study these texts, you will understand why I have been teaching my followers about the accurate Name of the Messiah and other elementary doctrines of our faith, which have been suppressed in favour of dogma.

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. It is dogma that make people argue and say that there is nothing wrong if you change the Name of our Lord and Saviour from Yeshua to Jesus.

Yeshua. That Name came DIRECTLY from God!

We forget that Romans 9:20 teaches:

“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?’”

Some other people emailed me and asked me why I do not respond to people who disagree with me, and those who argue over my writings. Look, I do not argue the Word of God. I teach it. I have a following. If you do not like what I write, ignore me. Stop following me. I depend on inspiration. If I start arguing, my inspiration will disappear. If Noah had argued with his neighbours who thought he was crazy for building an Ark, he would have failed to build the Ark on time and as a result would have perished with them.

Reno Omokri

Gospeller. Deep Thinker. #1 Bestselling author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years. Avid traveller. Hollywood Magazine Film Festival Humanitarian of the Year, 2019.