You've become interested in the Bible. Perhaps you're a student of Mediterranean history. Perhaps you're thinking of becoming a Christian. More likely, you used to be Christian or Jewish, but you've recently noticed aspects of the Bible you don't like. Wouldn't you like to dig deeper?
This happened to me. I've had my run-ins with fundamentalists; I've gone to Bible camp; I've had to sit through compulsory chapel services. In college I had a Christian girlfriend, who informed me that her friends did not approve of her involvement with a non-Christian dualist. I caved in, although I hassled everyone for months with strange ideas on how to be Christian, logical, and morally Good at the same time. After we broke up, I was once again free to envision a heresy outside the church. (Specifically, atheist with dualistic tendencies... as before.)
But this is not a site to explain why you should question. That is your decision. It won't pose the questions. It assumes you have the questions already. This is the site for those who won't accept the easy answers; these are the tools to start hacking the Bible for yourself.
Bible hackers, like the computer kind, have their own slang.
Apocalypse: Revelation; that which is revealed. This came to refer to the revelation of the end of days.
Apocalypticism: Belief in revelatory prophecy. Usually tied up in expecting a coming end. What was "revealed" depended on when it was revealed; for example, Enoch predicted the Greek empire would be the last great power, while David Koresh predicted that of the US.
Critic: One who evaluates a text. When you compare translations of the Bible for use in Bible study, you are engaging in textual criticism. When you compare the Revised King James with the old King James with a view to seeing what's changed and why, you're engaging in redaction criticism. When you study Mark in high school Religious Studies, trying to figure out what Mark was saying and to whom he was saying it, that's source criticism.
Source criticism shows you what the author wanted the readers to see. Redaction criticism too often shows you what in the original the author didn't want the readers to see; but sometimes the reasons are more innocuous (an anachronism needed to be explained to a later generation, for instance). Redaction criticism also gets you back to an earlier author, who may be more relevant to your chosen thesis. Redaction criticism is a powerful tool in evaluating different manuscripts; but sometimes there aren't manuscripts, and you have to use the tool to construct one.
Masoretic Text: The Hebrew Bible. The base text of Protestant and Jewish translations. Remember that the MT is not "the original Hebrew". The MT was finalized in centuries AD, after it had already been translated into Greek and other tongues. You will find in some cases, an "inferior" translation will bear witness to an older and therefore better text than is the Biblical standard.
This differs from the Protestant Old Testament only in order (and, obviously, language). It is divided into Torah, Prophets, and Writings. It remained fluid for some time; Hebrew legend borrowed frequently from outside the modern MT, and the book of Ben Sira remained Scriptural up to the time of Talmud. Within the canon, Daniel was demoted to Writings and Jonah promoted to Prophets after many centuries of wrangling.
Messiah: Also "Christ", "Anointed". In Egyptian and Canaanite custom, a king anointed his deputies with oil. In theocratic Judah, the king was anointed by the priests, symbolizing the king's subservience to the national deity. Prophets and priests were God's deputies too, and were also anointed. Cyrus the Great of Persia was declared "Messiah" by the Jews; in fact, Josephus announced this of the general-to-become-emperor Vespasian. When there was no king accepted by all the people, there was an opinion that one or many Messiahs would appear, possibly of direct divine descent.
Old Testament: Christian propaganda term for Hebrew scriptures. What Christians deem true Hebrew Scripture remains in dispute, as if Jews should care. The Church laid down the Old Testament canon at the same council as they did the New. This canon included some books which contemporary Jews had already discarded, and others which their descendants would discard. During the Reformation, the Protestants generally moved the discarded books into a section called "Apocrypha", second-class status.
Pentateuch: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Attributed to Moses against evidence to the contrary.
Pericope: A contiguous passage or selection, preferably one which makes sense on its own. Thomas 14:1-5 is a pericope, as is Thomas 14:5.
Prophet: One who is claimed to speak on behalf of a supernatural entity. The prophet tells you what to do. He usually adds what will happen if you obey - or if you don't. Predicting the future is therefore conditional upon the decisions of the listener. Later, an idea developed that all time was fixed, and that a prophet could see into the future (see Apocalypse). This was effected with the help of forged documents such as Enoch, using a figure of the far past to "predict" the recent past. Keep this in mind when studying the book of Enoch's contemporary, the book of Daniel.
Recension: Version. The Revised King James is a recension of the King James, itself a recension of Tyndale's work.
Redact: To edit, consciously. A redaction is always a recension, but not vice versa. For instance, when they redacted the King James Version, they created a new recension. But when a fool copyist misplaces pages in a Bible, creating a new recension, he is not involved in redaction.
Septuagint: Latin: "seventy", also LXX. The translation of the Pentateuch into Greek. The name derives from a legend that those books were translated by a group of seventy-two elders. The remainder of the Greek Bible is often called "Septuagint" by association.
Torah: Hebrew "Law". The MT recension of the Pentateuch. For Jews it is the core of the Bible.
Familiarize yourself with Assyrian and Babylonian campaigns 900 BCE to 600 BCE. Learn about the rise of the Medes and Persians. Also try to find out what the Egyptians were doing during this time (particularly Sheshonq, Psamtik, and Necho). Once you have a conceptual time-frame, check out the archaeology.
Daniel's a special case. For Daniel, you'll need to look at the Hellenistic period; Alexander the Great to Antiochus Epiphanes. This will be more documented, but much more complicated.
Protestant fundamentalists will insist you use the King James Bible. Catholic orders insist on Latin. The Orthodox point to the Greek version, the Jews demand Hebrew Massorah, etc. etc.
Truth be told, the King James is not a bad place to start. It's a literal translation of the best recensions as of the 16th century. Its language is an English of Hebrew idiom; but it became so influential that we don't notice it. (It and Shakespeare created the language.) It's not afraid to label a soldier by what he does best ("them that pisseth against the wall"). So if a word-for-word, uncensored translation of the Hebrew Massorah is what you want - one done in literary English style - by all means go with the KJV. And of course it is especially important to students of classical English literature.
So what languages will the freethinker want in his/her arsenal? It depends on what part of the Bible, obviously...
Hebrew and Aramaic should be enough. Just learn enough so you can pick out the words with an alphabet.
Greek should be enough, in a perfect world. But until Greek copies of the Secret Book of James and the Gospel of Thomas surface, you're going to want some understanding of Coptic. Latin, you can get away with reading in translation.
Hopefully that gives you a place to start. There's a lot of information out there. The secrets of the Bible are limited only to your desire to find them.
Any thoughts? e-mail me :^) zimriel@sbcglobal.net