Features

Perhaps……Bibles and Bulls

By Sankofie | Published December 31, 2025 | 1 Comment

The declaration ‘I am confused’ is becoming a place of refuge for me.  It is a declaration that is being increasingly relied upon as a place to seek refuge when the con-versations and pro-versations, in the space within my sphere, begin to seriously obscure, leaving me with so much less clarity than before.  These ‘versations,’ to borrow some language from one I call my SpiritSister, are from, between and among those we consider the learned in our nation.  Why then do they present such illogic, groundless-ness and simple ignorance, seeming to lack intelligence, common sense and even a scent of critical thinking?But let me not get ahead of myself.  Let us see if we consider, perhaps, Bibles, Bulls and Bucking we could arrive at, perhaps, some simple but clear choices of perspectives we could reasonably hold and even locate God somewhere in the conversation. So, the Holy Bible, first existing as the Hebrew Bible, has come down to us from antiquity, as the sacred book of Christians compiled from stories and teachings that first existed in orality.  Note that the Bible existed before the birth of Jesus the Christ.  It was accepted by the first Christians, the Jews who were the first ones to follow Jesus the Christ, as the word of God.  This would have been in the 1st century of what we call the Common Era.  So now, today, we are two thousand and twenty (2,025) years later.  Much has happened in that time.  By the 4th century the Bible had already been expanded to include additional stories and divided into Old and New Testaments.  The Old Testament contained all of the Hebrew Bible plus a few more stories while  the New Testament was focused on Jesus the Christ’s virgin birth, life, teachings, death and coming back from the dead.  By the time my ancestors were enslaved, there was a Holy Bible consisting of the Old and New Testaments and, by then, the powers that be, had generously decided that Christianity and its sacred text was not only for Jews and those who chose to be Christians, but that it needed to be multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, the one and only spiritual culture in existence.  In simple language everything that was human or looked human needed to be Christian or Christianized.   What started out as the sacred texts of the Jews should now visit and claim residence on all continents. No efforts to be spared. No holes barred. 

If you have never heard of Papal Bulls, please do not be confused. They are not a herd of religiously and other wisely extremely dangerous male animals belonging to and instructed by the Pope.  Or were they?  Papal Bulls were/are very formal documents developed to make publicly known the desires, intentions, privileges and so on and so forth of the Pope/Catholic Church.  They give permissions to do and not to do.  For example a Papal Bull (Exsurge Domine 1520), (Exsurge Domine – Papal Encyclicals), was used to condemn the teachings of the German theologian Martin Luther (1483-1546) who maintained that faith and not works was the path to salvation and that the Scriptures, do you think he meant the Bible?, should be the only authority in the Church. He also wrote and talked out against the giving of donations to the Catholic Church to gain favours.  This is the man who founded the Protestant Church after being excommunicated from the Catholic Church and after whom Martin Luther King Sr renamed both himself and his son.

So if the Catholic Church could not even have been of one accord at home? No, let me not digress. 

Some Papal Bulls of interest to us as Jamaicans should be for example: 

“Dum Diversas (1452) – Gives permission to Portugal to convert west Africans to Christians by means of conquest and enslavement.

“1. As we indeed understand from your pious and Christian desire, you intend to subjugate the enemies of Christ, namely the Saracens, and bring [them] back, with powerful arm, to the faith of Christ, if the authority of Apostolic See supported you in this. Therefore we consider, that those rising against the Catholic faith and struggling to extinguish Christian Religion must be resisted by the faithful of Christ with courage and firmness, so that the faithful themselves, inflamed by the ardor of faith and armed with courage to be able to hate their intention, not only to go against the intention, if they prevent unjust attempts of force, but with the help of God whose soldiers they are, they stop the endeavors of the faithless, we, fortified with divine love, summoned by the charity of Christians and bound by the duty of our pastoral office, which concerns the integrity and spread of faith for which Christ our God shed his blood, wishing to encourage the vigor of the faithful and Your Royal Majesty in the most sacred intention of this kind, we grant to you full and free power, through the Apostolic authority by this edict, to invade, conquer, fight, subjugate the Saracens and pagans, and other infidels and other enemies of Christ, and wherever established their Kingdoms, Duchies, Royal Palaces, Principalities and other dominions, lands, places, estates, camps and any other possessions, mobile and immobile goods found in all these places and held in whatever name, and held and possessed by the same Saracens, Pagans, infidels, and the enemies of Christ, also realms, duchies, royal palaces, principalities and other dominions, lands, places, estates, camps, possessions of the king or prince or of the kings or princes, and to lead their persons in perpetual servitude, and to apply and appropriate realms, duchies, royal palaces, principalities and other dominions, possessions and goods of this kind to you and your use and your successors the Kings of Portugal.”  1452 – Dum Diversas – issued by Pope Nicolas V to Alfanso v of Portugal | The Complete Doctrine of Discovery 

Now Jesus and his initial handful of Christians were well aware that they were not the origin of creation and that prior to their existence, since human kind seems to have a predisposition to seek divinity, that spiritual and religious relationships must already have been established between God and the previous human beings created by God or by whatever name/word they used.  That the Popes had knowledge of this is irrefutable.  Look at the language they used above.  Saracens it is said, was used to refer to Muslims, Pagans referred to those who were of polytheistic or indigenous spirituality. The word infidels as used refers to the Saracens and Pagans mentioned and then to generally anyone (and I am tempted to say everything) who or that was not christian. They wanted to make sure.  

So this Bull, prepared by the Pope, the spiritual head of the, I said universal before now let me say worldwide, Catholic Church, who claims, because of Saint Peter, who was the first Pope, and who had ‘Jesus given authority’, to be the representative of Jesus the Christ on earth, grants permission to King Alfonso of Portugal to “to invade, search out, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens and pagans whatsoever, and other enemies of Christ wheresoever placed, and the kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, dominions, possessions, and all movable and immovable goods whatsoever held and possessed by them and to reduce their persons to perpetual slavery, and to apply and appropriate to himself and his successors the kingdoms, dukedoms, counties, principalities, dominions, possessions, and goods, and to convert them to his and their use and profit…”  What was he interpreting? Whose doctrine was he postulating? 

So again I am confused. How does Matthew 22:36 – 40 KJV claim that Jesus the Christ said that the love of God and the love of our neighbour are the two greatest commandments in law and them Mark 15: 15-16 tells us that the same Jesus the Christ instructed that they, the Christians, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”  Now note it says here “every creature,” not just human kind or beings but everything living or existing and here comes the carrot and the stick, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved;”  Saved from what? I am not sure, but Mark 16 goes on to say that Jesus said that all, including, perhaps, the Saracens, Pagans, infidels and yes, enemies of Jesus the Christ, who became, become or would become Christians, would now be able to cast out demons, speak in new tongues, use their bare hands to pick up serpents, and drink any deadly poison without it hurting them.  They will also, like Jesus the Christ be able to lay their hands on the sick and heal them.  Of course they will do all of this in the name of Jesus the Christ.  A nice little package of benefits, yes? Obeah…perhaps?   The joy and power of Christianity! Perhaps.