I have lots of questions and need lots of answers

Trusting Jesus for salvation, and believing and taking and trusting Him at His Word, go hand in hand. Ask yourself why Jesus would give us any untruths in His own Word. We either believe it all, or not at all. The more you read God's Word, you will see there are no contradictions. God is no liar and he does not contradict Hisself. The so-called "contradictions" that people bring up, are because they have not read scripture in context nor the history of it, what was going on at the time, and all these things make a big difference, including who was being spoken to. There are no contradictions in God's Word. Only what people make up in their own minds, because they have not read the Word nor understand it. If you can't believe all of God's Word, then how can you take him seriously about His standard for salvation? God is incapable of lying. He does not make mistakes nor errors. This is why God said to study His Word diligently, so we are not confused or have to guess. Satan is the author of confusion. There's no speculation in the Word of God. He said what He meant and meant what He said. This is why Bible study is so important. It is God's literal road map for mankind in life. We just can't pick out parts we're going to believe, or not. It's either true or it isn't. Satan is a liar. God did not entrust His Word to just anyone, but the Bible says to holy men of old, were taught and told what to write as the Holy Spirit led them.

You can look to outside religions all you want, but when Jesus said He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that's what he meant. You can stray from God and His Word, but Jesus said there's only one path that leads to salvation and eternal life in heaven. Be careful who you listen to because those who are not believers, will lead you away from Christ and His Word. We either believe God or we don't. You have to make up your mind. All you will find in all religions, which are nothing but man-made philosophies, are what God teaches AGAINST in His Word.... worshiping idols and praying to statues and believing that the way to heaven is by doing good deeds. Man did not get the privilege of setting the standard for salvation FOR God. Sinful man does not know the way. Who better knows the way of salvation and who set the standard for salvation, but God? Tell me what "religion" died on the cross for your sins. None of them and none of their gods. But Jesus did. Living for Jesus and salvation, have nothing to do with denominations. It is trusting in the Living God, Jesus, that God approved and appointed to be our Savior to the world.

I grew up hearing that the real bible is written on the heart. And I think that is true as most of us have a conscience. But of course the bible is written by humans so it's fallible. Many Christians make it into a god itself. And that is idol worship. The bible is meant to be a general guide not a thing to replace your own heart.
It has lots of good in it but it also has caused great suffering as well which should act as an indicator of it's non divine status. If you have studied lots of religious as you say then you should see a common thread through all of them. And even the bible admits that the greatest commandment is love of god and others. And also against love there is no defense. And that God IS love. It then goes on to give a description of love 1 Corinthians 13:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a ringing gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and exult in the surrender of my body, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no account of wrongs. Love takes no pleasure in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be restrained; where there is knowledge, it will be dismissed. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial passes away.
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I set aside childish ways. Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love."

But you will have many Christian preach fear and hate and pride. None of these are love. In fact fear is:
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love."
So all those people that cast their enemies into hell are not made perfect in love. And since god is love they are not made perfect in God.

You might also check out the Nag Hammadi scriptures which was another early branch of Christianity that was killed off by the early church so that all that has currently come down to us is literally church propaganda from a monopoly. And one should never trust an organization that has had over 1000 years of a monopoly which we call the dark ages.

Also books by Bart D. Ehrman are really good and he picks up a lot of stuff the biblical reader never even notices because the bible is frankly a lot to take in and fine details can get muddled.

Also finally check out people that have had near death experiences. An author by the name of Betty Eadie is a good one in her book Embraced by the Light. Just remember a lot of people will be liars and charlatans as well. They will try to scare you with demons and hell and various other monsters. But just keep the scriptures in this post in mind. Are these people acting in fear or love. Because again: "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love."

The Bible IS God's mind/thoughts. It is Satan who would have us believe that we have to know the answer to every little thing before we can come to Salvation. He doesn't want even one of us coming to God for Salvation. That's why he puts all these doubts in our minds. He would have us to dwell on detail instead of God's Plan of Salvation which God said not to put off. Will we listen to Satan, to unbelievers, or to God? I don't think any human being that can compete with God's wisdom and knowledge. Who better knows what it takes to have salvation, than one who died so we could have salvation and eternal life in heaven? He has been there, on both sides, not man. There are no variations nor contradictions in God's Holy Word. That is a devil's lie. That is what he would have us to believe. You say you trust God. If you trust God then you must also trust His Word.

This is where your research skills come in. Find out for yourself because with religion and especially Christianity there’s so many different variations and ideas about what actually happened. There is historical information, some real, some speculation.

I’ve studied many different religions and philosophies. Figuring it out for yourself is where you decide to trust the information or not, trust your feelings or not.

@Diotrephes careful showing any love for my comments. Apparently they earned me being blocked.

Jehovah God’s active force, God's holy spirit inspired the apostle John to pen descriptions of certain events that took place. John was also an eyewitness to many of the situations that took place in Jesus' life. He was a close companion of Jesus.

I heard someone say once that you cant fit God inside a box. The bible was written by people. I would encourage you to study other religions. Not to convert you but to open your mind. Learn about Judaism and Muslim and Buddhism and Paganism. If you want to know who God is you need to look past the four walls of the bible.

Many of the soldiers became Christians as did some of the Pharisees. Paul was a pharisee. He may well have been at the meeting.

I'd say that you're looking for contradictions rather than answers. In the bible there's no shortage of information being left out from the reader which with an imaginative mind can make up any sort of contradiction they want. One example is that people communicate with each other and you wouldn't have to be present to know what happened, you'd just need someone who was there to tell you. This conversation between the people behind the writing of the scriptures would not be mentioned. I'm not sure if that's the explanation to exactly the scripture you mentioned, maybe there's an easier or more complex answer. However, it is not important. It's a minor detail that doesn't teach you anything. The scriptures, after all, are about teaching you faith.

God says that he inspired the Bible, and so it is Gods words in the Bible. And God knows everything. I believe it!

Using any event that may happen today scenario - people still gather around look and listen and gossip about what was said and done - people in decades centuries eons past did the same thing - the the only difference is they they didn't have cell phones to record it. And before the inventions of cell phone Word of mouth / eyewitness accounts was always used.

John 7:43-53 explicitly mentions Nicodemus as he was a partaker of that conversion. Nicodemus had visited Jesus before and had also assisted with preparing Jesus' corpse for the funeral. He would be a very obvious possible witness.

Decearment..,

Maybe one of the soilders later became a Christian... So many paths to a solution to this one.. 😊 Easy peasy...

"όλοι οι πιστοί πάνε στην κόλαση"
Kiblamagon, 23.6.2

I like Jesus, but I’m an atheist.

He didn't. He couldn't. He wasn't there. None of the Gospel authors personally witnessed any of the events that happened in the gospels. As such, what you have in the Bible is actually a mythologized version of events.