re: #1 Dangerman

Read Misquoting Jesus
The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why

About the time as a teenager when I had a Baptist girlfriend who was trying to get me interested in Jesus (and we were all listening to Jesus Christ Superstar on our cassette players) I was also fortunate enough to have a History teacher who taught us about the Historical Method and the importance of relying on authentic original source materials and to view even those critically.

So when I came to look into the Bible, the first thing I noticed was this fundamental lack of original authenticity and hence I read them in that sense. Now I see why so many people found Dan Brown’s Da Vince Code such a revelation to them: most of what we call Christianity is at best third-hand, while the rest made up entirely - decades and even centuries after the fact.