In all fairness to Clara's priest, the "telephone game" theory of the accuracy of the New Testament was offered (by a man who is now an atheist) and commonly circulated and taught in universities in the 20th century. Not the 19 centuries before. I heard it myself in college in the 70's. Current Bible scholars who have studied and take into account the ancient Hebrew and Greek languages and the customs and cultures of that time, do not subscribe to this theory.
As for the execution of anyone who had a Bible in his possession, I had never heard this. But considering that there were no printing presses and the very few Bibles in existence were laboriously hand copied, valued and treasured, I would guess that someone who had a Bible had stolen it. And even in the relatively recent history of our country, horse thieves were hung. Perhaps the execution was for the crime of stealing?
In all fairness to Clara's priest, the "telephone game" theory of the accuracy of the New Testament was offered (by a man who is now an atheist) and commonly circulated and taught in universities in the 20th century. Not the 19 centuries before. I heard it myself in college in the 70's. Current Bible scholars who have studied and take into account the ancient Hebrew and Greek languages and the customs and cultures of that time, do not subscribe to this theory.
As for the execution of anyone who had a Bible in his possession, I had never heard this. But considering that there were no printing presses and the very few Bibles in existence were laboriously hand copied, valued and treasured, I would guess that someone who had a Bible had stolen it. And even in the relatively recent history of our country, horse thieves were hung. Perhaps the execution was for the crime of stealing?