Has any Christian noticed the gap between the Apostles and the Bible?

Question

The Apostles and Paul preached and converted gentiles to Christianity in the 1st century. They died in the 1st century. The Bible was put together in the 4th century. For 300 years there was no Bible. There had to be oral tradtion. They had to follow and learn from Bishops.

TZ: There are Apostles in the world today: they are the bishops who are there sucessors and the Pope, the successor of Peter.

There was no Official Cannon, Christians did not have copies of the letters. It was through the Bishops and priests that they heard the writings.

Shaun kennedt: There was no official cannon until the 4th century. The Bible as we know it, was cannonized in the 4th century.

The history proves that sola scriptura is absurd.

Answer 1

Since the letters were letters, there was still a written word.

Answer 2

Taking a defensive position, many people say that activities of the early church were "long time ago," and therefore, don't matter any more. The point is not necessarily that someone wants to rub people's nose in history.

The Bible is a cannon. For those who don't know what that means, votes were taken by church officials as to what would be included in the cannon and what would not. If the fact that the church (up to the 20th century) was fanatical and often brutal (burning "witches" and heritics, ect.) is not enough to convince anyone that there is room for doubt, as far as the infallability of the cannon, consider one other problem:

The differant gospels have numerous places where their stories don't match. How can that be? If no one tampered with written accounts, which are ABSOLUTELY TRUE to begin with: how can two opposites be true?

A case in point:

According to one account about the famous Palm Sunday scene (where Christ rides through the town on a donkey and the people spread palm leaves on the path) Jesus was soon to be annointed. Another says that this had already taken place.

This annointing, for those versed in Hebrew tradition of the day, is hardly incidental. Annointing (pouring oil on the head) was how Hebrews coronated kings and high priests. In their tradition, Christ could have been either one of those because of his blood line, as his father, Joseph, was from the House of David; Mother Marry was from the House of Aaron. But the ceremony described in the Bible was that used for a king.

The fact that Jesus WAS or WAS NOT a king, at least in the eyes of Hebrews at the time, would give the Palm Sunday scene an entirely differant significance altogether. It makes the differance between Old Testiment prophesy coming true or not coming true, at least in the context of the story's time frame. It's also interesting that the church today totaly avoids the idea that Christ could have ever represented an earthly king to anyone, at any time.

A recent documentary book, MISQUOTING JESUS, sites numberous places where similar problems show up in the Gospels. These are not simply "someone's take" on "something they read somewhere." He gives passages that you can look up for yourself and compare. He also includes a lot of info about politics and history of the day, which conflicts with the traditional church's picture of the way things were, and supports his evidence. Much of this points to obvious agendas of a church that was also an arm of government in the days of European monarchy.

This book WAS NOT WRITTEN BY A NON-CHRISTIAN. HE IS A WELL VERSED CHRISTIAN THEOLOGAN who has become convinced that the present version of the cannon IS ALTERED.

I don't believe in wild theories like the Da Vinci Code. The fact remains, not all the info is irrefutably there and intact in the present day VERSIONS of the cannon. (Notice that VERSIONS is in the plural. There are six major Bibles today, not to mention many other less mainstream ones. They derive from 12 major versions from differant countries and differant times.)

Answer 3

Your knowledge of history is clouded. All the manuscripts in date have all been dated to the 1st century and early second century. Historians date the latest manuscripts as being around the year 100-130AD. This means that the manuscripts where written and recorded only 67-97 years after Jesus died. That is a short time frame. Keep in mind that all the others where written before this. This means that the manuscripts where written within the first or second generation of Jesus.
Constantine organized a meeting of all the Bishops to discuss the deity of Jesus, not the canon of scripture. The canon was already well established among believers.

Answer 4

When John was on Patmos, he sent letters to the churches, which are at the front of the book of Revelation. When the letters were sent, he was one of the few people who had actually met Christ. His vision, has served as the template for the 'Bible'. Each book of the Bible has a theme. And each theme is symbolized it the Revelation. It took many years to understand the significance of the last book of the Bible.There was much literature, and drama concerning Christ in the centuries before Gutenberg. It just did not fit the template of Revelation. Even though the books of the Bible existed, they were closely guarded, and very few people read them. And they were not bound in one volume, as the Book is today. It really wasn't a book, until the printing press was invented.

Apocolyptic literature was the vehicle that spread the word. But Apocolyptic literature was not at all a Christien media. It's hard for many to accept, but Apocoliptic literature was more like Saturday morning cartoons. It's only the longevity of the Gospel, that makes it sound so ominous, forboding, and frankly, spooky.

Answer 5

Well, it's not like the books of the Bible just appeared. They were there from fairly early on, but there were quite a few more books that we attribute to in the New Testament. Some of those books are very good and some were false. It was not until the Bishops met to answer the question, which books are inspired, which are not. And what would be the basis for judging these books? Simple, Oral Tradition. If they didn't represent the Jesus that everyone knew and loved, they were 'out of there'! Good question.

Answer 6

Although the bible was put together in the 4th centuries the books had already been written. Most were letters written by the apostle Paul and some were written by others. Luke was a friend of one of the original desciples and is the only non-Jew to write books of the Bible; he wrote the book named after him and Acts. All of the Gospels were written within 90 years of Christ's death.

Answer 7

Outside the bible. I heard or was told or read that Jesus ascended in the year 33, and that the New Testament was dome by about the year 98. That the Roman Catholic has began in the year 64 to claim the writings. So where is a gap.

Abraham was given the covenant 2083 and Moses in Exo.12:40,41[430 years]; was on time as promised to take half a million heirs into the promised land and they were there in 40 years, so where is a gap, if it was a plan?

Answer 8

Did you know the apostles wrote much of the Bible, at least the New Testament? Did you know the Old Testament preceded the Apostles and that it is a part of the Bible? You need to feed your inquiring mind with some facts. I recommend reading: A General Introduction to the Bible by Norman Geisler and William Nix.

Answer 9

The epistles were written by the apostles approximately 30 years after the death of Jesus. The whole bible is a collection of writings by different people. The writings were there long before they were all gathered together and put in one book called the bible.

Answer 10

I'm not sure what you mean by "there was no Bible" None of the books of the Bible were written after the close of the first centruy, except maybe Revelation. Since they were all there, then the Bible was there, unless you're trying to argue that the Bible is more than the sum of its parts, which I'd disagree with.

Answer 11

It is a huge gap that very few will admit to. Even the old testament has large gaps between occurance and writing. Needless to say, like in a game of telephone, you have to wonder what got lost each time the gospel was passed on via word of mouth.