The bible is as referred to as the holy book full of heavenly love and goodness.  It’s a manual telling mankind how to treat one another. God even says tells readers to point blank in Revelations 22 not to add anything to the holy bible or take anything from it.

Slave owners ripped that reference out of the bible along with just about every other chapter because they didn’t want the slaves to know everything God said.

A copy of the “Slave Bible” is on display at Washington’s Museum of the Bible.  The book was pared down to a mere portion of the original stories because slave masters wanted to control slaves and not let them have any sense of who they were created to be.

  The book given to slaves was a mere 232 chapters…less than a quarter of the actual Bible. The Bible as we know it today actually contains 1189 chapters with 929 of them in the Old Testament and the remaining 250 chapters in the New Testament.  It’s comprised of 66 books with close to half of it being written by Moses, Ezrah, Luke, Jeremiah, and Paul. Paul alone wrote a total of 12 books of the Bible. About 90% of the Old Testament was removed from the “Slave Bible” and about half of the New Testament was omitted. 

Slave owners edited the book to instill obedience and try to prevent rebellions by excluding any chapters or pages that might inspire thoughts of liberation.  Verses like this one from Galatians which reads…

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28

 It’s a plot so unbelievably evil that it actually belongs in the pages of the Old Testament right alongside the story the bear unleashed to kill all the evil children who bullied the prophet Jeremiah. 

The slave masters justified their actions as a way to keep control over their property…to maintain peace.  In order to do so, they had to violate just about all the biggies on the list of sins like lying, changing words of the Holy Book, putting themselves before God.  They punished slaves who dared learned to read and when they realized that plan wouldn’t stop the slaves they decided to lie to them and hide the truth of what God says.

The insidiousness of this plan is only superseded by the hubris of it all. The slave masters weren’t just keeping the inspiration of liberation from the slaves.  They were also keeping love, hope and  redemption from them.  Basic rights given to them by an almighty creator…the same God who created them.  When Satan challenged the Creator, he got booted from heaven.  Wonder what awaits those so-called Christian masters who did the same?

Rare ‘Slave Bible’ Was A Powerful Mind Control Device and Spreader of Fake News

A rare and extremely controversial 19th century Bible on display at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., was a powerful tool of propaganda, a mind control device, and a generator of ‘ Fake News’ once used by British missionaries to convert slaves to Christianity.

The rare Bible is on loan from Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee and been exhibited in the Washington museum since it opened in November 2017. According to a Fisk University paper, “Only three copies of this Bible are known to exist” and the example on display in Washington is “the only copy in the U.S.”

Anthony Schmidt is associate curator of Bible and Religion in America at the Washington museum and he told reporters at NPR “the first instance of this abridged version titled,  Parts of the Holy Bible, selected for the use of the Negro Slaves , in the British West-India Islands , was published in 1807.” It was compiled with the intention of being read to African slaves in the British West Indies; the modern day Caribbean.

Slave Bible is Mass Editing of The Holy Book

In our modern society the term ‘ Fake News’ describes not only the reporting of inaccurate facts, but also the omission of important facts that are essential in forming a balanced view of any given story. The Slave Bible is a special historical artifact because it has been so gravely editedthat any stories which might have inspired the slaves to rebel, were completely omitted.

Among the omitted verses was:

“Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.” Ephesians 6:5.

And,

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus .” Galatians 3:28.

And we are not talking about editors just dropping a word here and adding a comma there. They wholly altered the entire structure of the Christian holy book . Schmidt estimated that about “90 percent of the Old Testament” and “50 percent of the New Testament” are missing. In terms of readable content, while a protestant Bible has 1,189 chapter the Slave Bible has a mere 232!

The title page of the Slave Bible. Passages such as the Book of Exodus are removed. (Blythwood / Public Domain )

What Inspired The ‘Editing’ of the Bible into the Slave Bible?

Several theories exist to account for the inspiration behind the omission of so much of the standard protestant Bible, but most specialists agree that farmers in the West Indies were probably opposed to the arrival of the Christian missionaries who worked with the enslaved Africans on their plantations. Schmidt says, “Coming in and being able to educate African slaves would prepare them one day for freedom, but at the same time would not cause them to seek it more aggressively.”

An article on Ghanaweb presents another, even more sinister angle on what was essentially a mind control program. The editing exercise was a double edged sword and not only were rebellion inspiring verses omitted, but pro- slavery verses were ‘deliberately’ left in to enhance the propaganda machine .

For example, Ephesians 6:5:

“Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ.”

The Slave Bible was edited to enhance propaganda of submission and for mind control. (Internet Archive Book Image / Public Domain )

Washington Raises Awareness And Does Not Hide From The Past

The museum in Washington decided to exhibit “The Slave Bible: Let the Story Be Told,” in response to the amount of attention visitors gave the artifact. Schmidt believes “people don’t look at the Bible or approach the Bible or read the Bible in a vacuum, but that it always has “social and economic context.”

This Bible is intended to give people a chance ‘to reflect’ and visitors are being encouraged to write down their reactions with prompts from the museum such as “What questions does the Slave Bible raise about how the Bible is used today?”

Brad Braxton, the director of the NMAAHC’s Center for the Study of African American Religious Life, said “This religious relic compels us to grapple with a timeless question: In our interpretations of the Bible, is the end result domination or liberation?”

An article in RNS (Religion News Service) quotes Holly Hamby of Fisk University. Hamby, a United Methodist, who suggested that the exhibit should include videos of people questioning the controversies of the Slave Bible.

• Forgery or a Lost Account? Examining the Authenticity of the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife
• The Benin Bronzes: A Tragic Story of Slavery and Imperialism Cast in Brass

The Slave Bible does not include Exodus where God said, “Let my people go.” 

Hamby’s ‘favorite question’ is the last and most thought provoking one on the list, which is: “Do you think that this Bible is still the good book?” She is quick to add “It’s a good book. I still believe in the Bible on the whole but not this version of it.”

Taking all things into account, in the dry light of reality, this ‘book’ can hardly be called a Bible. If I was to take an apple and throw 90% of it in the bin and give you a handful of pips, would you thank me for giving you an apple? If I was to take a bicycle and throw 90% away and gave you a wheel, would you high-five me for giving you a bike?