According to its promoters, the Kolbrin (not really a “Bible”) can be traced back to a large collection of manuscripts salvaged from
Glastonbury Abbey during an arson attack, which supposedly happened when there was a great suppression of monasteries. Even so, the event described is actually a conflation of events between the 12th and the 16th centuries: the fire of 1184 - which proponents claim was started on purpose to destroy this “secret knowledge” - and the suppression of the Abbey in September 1539 as part the
Dissolution of the Monasteries in England.
It is claimed that the fire - or rather, in their view, arson - of 1184 was started by King Edward I, who saw the “Bronzebook” as a heretical work, a rival of the Bible and a potential threat to his claim as King of England. Even so, Edward lived much later than the Glastonbury fire (he was born in June 17, 1239!), so could not have suppressed the book in 1184.
Note though that some supporters now claim that the “fire” happened in either 1181 or some such date - while omitting any mention of Edward I. For example, the version of the Kolbrin published by Janice Manning and Marshall Masters (under the name “The Kolbrin Bible”) claims thus:
The manuscripts were stored in Glastonbury Abbey until a fire nearly destroyed it in 1181. According to their official website,
glastonburyabbey.com/, Glastonbury Abbey is “traditionally the oldest above-ground Christian church in the world.” The ruins of Glastonbury Abbey are located in the town of Glastonbury, the county of Somerset, England.
The “history” of the Kolbrin actually relies on the well-known story - supported of course by that book - that Joseph of Arimathea supposedly went to Britain and founded the very first Christian community in the world at Glastonbury there.
Note that while Tertullian (AD 155-222) already mentions the Britons being “subjugated to Christ” in his lifetime, he does not say how the Gospel came to Britain before 222 AD. St. Hippolytus (AD 170-236), meanwhile puts names to the seventy disciples whom Jesus sent forth in Luke 10, includes Aristobulus of Romans 16:10 with Joseph, and states that he ended up becoming a pastor in Britain. Eusebius of Caesarea (AD 260-340) taught in his
Demonstratio Evangelica that of Jesus’ disciples, “some have crossed the Ocean and reached the Isles of Britain.” In none of these earliest references to Christianity’s arrival in Britain is Joseph of Arimathea mentioned.
The very first connection of Joseph of Arimathea with Britain that we have is found in the 9th century work
Life of Mary Magdalene by Rabanus Maurus (AD 766-856). Rabanus states that Joseph was sent to Britain, and he goes on to detail who travelled with him as far as France, claiming that he was accompanied by “
the two Bethany sisters, Mary and Martha, Lazarus (who was raised from the dead), St. Eutropius, St. Salome, St. Cleon, St. Saturnius, St. Mary Magdalen, Marcella (the maid of the Bethany sisters), St. Maxium or Maximin, St. Martial, and St. Trophimus or Restitutus.”