2006-09-09 04:40:01 · 17 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Many Christian(you might call them Catholic) scholars sought the Lord fervently and prayed and put their heads together and compared them to each other and to other historical documents of the time to verify their facts and authenticity.
The Gospels that were rejected were not authenticated or were found in many cases to be written by enemies of Christianity to confuse and confound them. They often had names that were anathema to the Christian cause which let you know they were from the opposition. Like the Gospel of Judas is a real tip off since Judas was considered quite evil for many centuries and The Word Judas is a watchword for a traitor.
The amazing thing is that even though the Bible was handed down orally or copied by monks for centuries the oldest texts we had were not as old as the Qumran Scrolls that were discovered around 1945. Known as the "Dead Sea Scrolls" they are from the 2nd century and confirmed that the writings that we had were very accurate. Quite a miracle I think.
2006-09-09 04:46:46 · answer #1 · answered by Makemeaspark 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The Catholic Church commissioned Jerome, a linguistics expert and Priest, to translate the ancient holy scrolls into the common language of the people, Latin. The Catholic Church then sifted through these and determined which were inspired by God and set the Canon of the Bible at 73 Books. The Catholic Church then declared that these 73 Books, with nothing added or detracted, were the Holy Bible--the Written Word of God.
NOTE: The Bible does not make this claim for itself; it was the Catholic Church who declared the Holy Bible to be the Written Word of God. The New Testament (John 1) tells us that Jesus is the Word of God.
H
2006-09-09 11:48:59 · answer #2 · answered by H 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I love your question!
I study Christian History so let me start off by saying that to answer your question it would take volumes.
In a nutshell I'll try to explain it as clear and understandable as possible.
The Old Testament was around during Christs time, after all He did quote from it. The early church adopted the 'Torah' or Old Testament as the 'inspired Word of God' and many of the New Testament authors use it in their books or letters. The Old Testament WE read now is the exact Old Testament Jesus and the Apostles read and quoted from. The Catholic Old Testament has other books which the Protestant Old Testament does not, the Apocryphal books. These books aren't excepted as 'authentic' because Jesus nor the Apostles ever quoted from them, among other arguments. So the Old Testament was around during the time of Jesus and chosen to be those books by the Apostles and the Jews of that time period.
The New Testament books HAD to be written by people who walked and saw Jesus Christ in the flesh. With the exception of St. Paul the Apostle because He has a unique calling and himself walked with direct contact with the other disciples.
During the end of the first and beginning of the second centuries many church figures agreed which books belonged in the New Testament, it really wasn't completely finalized until the beginning/ mid third century. It wasn't a meeting or statement of faith which early Christians chose these New Testament books, it sort of just happened with time. The early church often read the letters of the Apostles and disregarded the other early writings based on the fact I pointed out earlier. That they who wrote these other books or letters did not have direct contact with Christ or His Apostles.
I hope this was informative to you, if you have any other further questions on this subject please feel free to e-mail me.
2006-09-09 11:56:55 · answer #3 · answered by stpolycarp77 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The bible was put together by men. These men also decided what books to eliminate from the bible and tried to have those books destroyed because they didn't fit with the religion they were trying to promote. (The Dead Sea Scrolls)
2006-09-09 11:48:57 · answer #4 · answered by Gypsy Girl 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Constantine compiled the first official Bible some 300 years after Christ's death. That's a long time to keep the facts straight. Hmmm...
My bad, I'm not Christian.
2006-09-09 11:42:06 · answer #5 · answered by bc_munkee 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Holy men of old wrote as the Holy Spirit gave them the words to write. The part about canonizing is Catholic and I'm not one .
2006-09-09 11:44:43 · answer #6 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The Universal (Catholic) Church compiled the first Christian bible.
2006-09-09 11:51:55 · answer #7 · answered by Robert L 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Pope Damascus I
2006-09-09 11:42:24 · answer #8 · answered by Scott L 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
"God" sent the bible to mankind using a holy mystical fax machine.
2006-09-09 12:24:13 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
the old testament was preserved by the jews.... the new testament writings were preserved by the early church and passed on from generation to generation.... cannonization just made what was there official..
2006-09-09 11:47:13 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋