first of all, the bible is different from christianity, for the least reason that christianity as a movement preceded the council of nicea (325 AD), where the bible was "officially" compiled (excluding various "apocrypha"). the bible was also largely monopolised in its reading by the priests (the same way the hindu brahmin kept scriptures for themselves). mass literacy was obviously non-existent before modernity, but moreso was a lack of personal possessions of bibles, not just because the printing press was not yet invented (est. 1440), but because the elites saw it as improper that the public should interpret the bible for themselves (the official doctrine of the catholic church is called "dogma" and this is what determined interpretation). in 1517 however, the "protestant" reformation is said to begin, where martin luther puts 95 theses against the church. this revolt spreads everywhere, combined with new interpretations of scripture and personal readings of the bible (a political radical at this time was the reformer thomas muntzer, who supported peasant revolts against the royalty, while luther as a conservative spoke against the peasants).
the most famous bible is created in 1611, the "king james" version, or "authorised" translation. what is interesting is that this "seal of approval" by the king gave it a form of intellectual property over publishers (e.g. "crown copyright", which is still in effect today). this allowed revenue for the state (hitler actually did the same thing with mein kampf, where he forced the state to distribute it, granting himself wealth). the reformation clearly inspired later politics, with oliver cromwell having a war against the catholic king (1642-51), and later "liberating" ireland from the catholic church. political radicals at the time like gerald winstanley (1649) also used biblical references to advance a form of socialism, with john locke (1680-95) also using christianity in explaining various aspects of his liberal philosophy. of course, its also the puritans who travel to the new world. later radical christians are people like john brown (1800-1859) who used the bible to argue against the enslavement of negroes in the US, acting as a terrorist - this is said to contribute to the origins of the american civil war (1861-65). of course you bring up a point that interpretation is inherently relative; what causes one man to support or not support slavery from the same book? but Jesus confronts the pharisees
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