The Bible has a long and fascinating history. Since its inception it has influenced kings and world leaders and common folk and become the most published book in the world.

And in the latest development of that history, in 312 school districts in 37 states including Ohio nationwide, it’s a textbook.

Meet the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools. Established 1993 in Greensboro, N.C., the council works to get its Bible curriculum accepted by schools across the country as an elective course. A brochure produced by the council says that 92 percent of the schools where the curriculum has been presented chose to adopt it.

The brochure states, ‘‘The NCBCPS uses the Bible as its textbook (the King James Version is recommended) and, through a study of the Old and New testaments, focuses on its comparisons with and impact upon, history and literature.’’

On first glance, it seems a great idea. Ask any AP English student: If you don’t know the Bible, you’ll be lost when you try to read English and American literature.

But the curriculum strays from its motives into Constitutionally murky territory: It does not merely teach the Bible; it teaches a Bible, the King James Version, which is not accepted by either the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox churches. Though students may use other Bibles, it’s likely that students would use the King James version since the text is based on it.

In fact, the curriculum text appears to be of solely Protestant origin, with its references to the Apocrypha (books and sections of the Catholic Bible which Protestants do not accept as legitimate) and belief in Biblical inerrancy (citing an urban legend that NASA has proof that the earth halted twice in its orbit, to support the stories in Joshua and II Kings).

‘‘This curriculum is simply an attempt to use public schools to interfere with the freedom of families to practice their own faiths and pass on their own religious values to their children,’’ said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, an organization for religious freedom, in a press release.

A study by Mark A. Chancey, professor of biblical studies at Southern Methodist University, commissioned by the Texas Freedom Network, found several implications of Biblical inerrancy.

‘’(The text) confidently dates the Exodus to 1446 BCE and presents no other scholarly views, such as those that place the Exodus in the 1200s BCE,’’ the study noted. ‘‘The date of 1446 BCE is derived by a literalistic reading of a passage in 1 Kings 6:1.’’

Another passage reads, ‘‘Respected scholar, Dr. J. O. Kinnaman, declared: ‘Of the hundreds of thousands of artifacts found by the archeologists, not one has ever been discovered that contradicts or denies one word, phrase, clause or sentence of the Bible, but always confirms and verifies the facts of the Biblical record.’’

The Bible council is not above a little self-promotion, either. Viewing Bible council Board of Advisers member David Barton’s video is encouraged. His video, Foundations of American Government, ‘‘argues (among other things) that increases in sexually transmitted diseases, teen pregnancies, divorces and violent crimes can be attributed to the Supreme Court’s 1962 church-state separation ruling in Engel v. Vitale, which struck down official prayer in public schools,’’ the study stated.

A January 2003 article in the Journal of Law and Education is critical toward the curriculum and its motives.

‘‘Those districts whose Bible study courses are based on NCBCPS materials are at substantial risk of litigation,’’ the article said. ‘‘The primary effect of this curriculum is the promotion of conservative, evangelical Protestantism.’’

All six versions of the Lord’s Prayer used by the course are from Protestant Bibles.

‘‘The NCBCPS materials fail to make even the most rudimentary attempt to expose students to the different Biblical interpretations,’’ the article states.

The article notes several instances in which the textbook fails to live up to its literary goals, such as ignoring popular allusions, such as the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, or the psalms’ influence in literature.

The real goal here, folks, is not to teach your Johnny and Suzie to recognize the Biblical allusions in Shakespeare or understand the Bible’s effect on the world. It’s not about doing well in your English class. It’s a conservative Protestant ploy to bring back religious indoctrination to schools.

As the Rev. Ragan Courtney of The Sanctuary, a Baptist congregation in Austin, said in the Texas Freedom Network press release, ‘‘This curriculum is disrespectful to families who do not share a specific brand of Christian faith. No public school student should have to have a particular religious belief forced upon them.’’