Experts believe it was made by one scribe as the writing is uniform. It is almost entirely written in Latin but has Hebrew and Greek as well. There are no mistakes in the entire work. And it is a most odd collection of works like the old and new testaments with Greek philosophers as well.
But it is called the Devils Bible for a reason.
The legend is that a monk who had sinned greatly and was to be put to death but promised he would write a book that would bring honor and prestige to his order.
As midnight approached the monk knew he could not finish by morning and in a desperate attempt to save his life he prayed to Lucifer for help. And in exchange for his soul Satan finished the book and as a token of the monks appreciation he put a large full page picture of Satan in the book.
The reason for the books longevity is both the legend of its origin and its focus on Lucifer.
But it is a product of its time and culture, christianity at the time was more about thwarting Satan than searching out God.
Many people make their focus more on Satan than on God. It's not that we shouldn't be on guard against the Devil, we should be on guard against the darkness within us as that where problems most often start.
God is the source of light, knowledge, peace and wisdom. And seeing those divine qualities in others and loving them as Christ loves us is the core of the Gospels message.
But Lucifer makes for an awesome villain. He is the perfect counter point to God. And many church leaders in and out of the LDS Church have used the fear of Satan to scare their flock straight. Which I feel is unhealthy.
Jesus did speak of Hell more than heaven but He did not fear monger His flock. He warned them and compared and contrasted Heaven and Hell for the edification of all who learned His teachings.
Jesus taught much more about what we should do than what we shouldn't do. But just barely because He compared and contrasted the good and the bad to make His point. And He focused on being good in order to make doing good easier and more natural.
If one focuses on the negative you allow negativity into your life and mind but if you focus on the good then you allow the good into your life and your mind.
What you look for you see. And if we look for the negative in others we will fail to see the good.
There are good people and there are bad people but the flaw is in thinking all people are one or the other. We don't need to make excuses for evil works by evil people. But we don't need to be hyper sensitive to sin. And in so doing seeing sin where is does not exist. And missing the good in people who have both good and bad in them as most of us do.
We have enough evil in this world we do not need to invent more than there is. What we need is a Savior not a boogeyman.
