edwardmurphy wrote:How many Christian denominations are there scattered around the world? Hundreds, anyway. They're all based on the Bible, so presumably they've read it. So...
Just coming in off this point...
Well, no, they're not really all based on the Bible.
In fact, I'm not sure it is right to say any form of Christianity is based upon the Bible,
although certainly such is considered an important source to many Christians.
Hmm... how can I illustrate what I'm getting at?
Perhaps our birth date is based upon our birth certificate. It's like, ok, such can be an important source to verify our birth date, but such isn't responsible for our actual birth date.
Or perhaps something like... all science is based upon scientific books. Yes, books can be important sources of scientific thinking, but such are ultimately derived from actual science and not really the other way around.
So too, Scripture is considered an important source, because well, Christianity is a Jewish sect if-you-will which endorses the God of Abraham as the one true God. Therefore, the Tanakh becomes an important source. And then we have Christ Himself, the bringer and revealer of the New Covenant, with his own teachings and the like.
Therefore Christ is the true basis of all Christ
ianity. So then, we have followers of Christ writing the Gospels and Paul with his epistles, and these writings gained authority for their authenticity in who they came from and as such valued amongst early Christendom as authoritative sources to Christ himself. So, we have an early tradition of Christians authenticating certain books of Scripture, and such Scripture becoming adopted as an authoritative source within Christianity, not foregoing other valuable sources within Christian theology such as experience and reason...
But, in any case... it just isn't as simple as saying all Christian denominations are based upon the Bible.