Who gave us the Bible?

Question

The Roman Catholic Church claims that it gave us the Bible. This claim does not stand up to the test of history.

The Old Testament was written by God's inspired prophets, patriarchs, psalmists, judges and kings.

The New Testament was written by Jewish-Christian apostles and none of them are Catholics because there was no Roman Catholic Religion at the time.

The fact is that the Catholic Religion did not exist at the time of Jesus so Peter had nothing to do with something which did not exist.

So Catholic Church did not give us the Bible. However, Catholic monks helped preserve the Bible by copying it and you will see, the Catholic Church kept the Bible in Latin.

This prevented people from reading the Bible in their own language.

Answer 1

The last of prophets in the order of time was Malachias.

Latin Vulgate
Douay-Rheims Bible

Second Epistle Of Saint Peter
Chapter 2

1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there shall be among you lying teachers, who shall bring in sects of perdition, and deny the Lord who bought them: bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many shall follow their riotousnesses, through whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you. Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their perdition slumbereth not. 4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes to the lower hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judgment

11 Whereas angels who are greater in strength and power, bring not against themselves a railing judgment. 12 But these men, as irrational beasts, naturally tending to the snare and to destruction, blaspheming those things which they know not, shall perish in their corruption, 13 Receiving the reward of their injustice, counting for a pleasure the delights of a day: stains and spots, sporting themselves to excess, rioting in their feasts with you: 14 Having eyes full of adultery and of sin that ceaseth not: alluring unstable souls, having their heart exercised with covetousness, children of malediction

Answer 2

History plainly shows that the present day Catholic Church, and that Church alone, can trace its history directly back to Jesus Christ and His apostles. The Apostles were the first bishops of the Holy Catholic Church, which called itself by that name before the end of the First Century. The Bible contains two groups of writings - Jewish (Old Testament) and Catholic (New Testament). Further, it was the bishops of the Catholic Church gathered in council who finalized the Canon of Scripture, determining once and for all time which of the 180 or so New Testament writings they had in their possession would actually go into the Bible, and then bound these writing into a book for the first time. This was the first time the term "Bible", or more accurately biblios - Greek for "the Book" - was used. The bishops of the Church compiled this book of inspired writings for the use of the Catholic Church and no-one else. Of course at the time they didn't know that centuries later men would found unauthorized churches of their own, and attempt to make private interpretations of that book the source of their beliefs.

As for Latin, the Church had Saint Jerome create the great Latin Vulgate version of the Bible - the most accurate translation ever made in any language - for one reason, to make it universally available to all who could read. 95% of the population of Europe at the time were illiterate, so Bibles in the vernacular would have been utterly useless to them, even if there had been printing presses to print them; and the educated minority who could read at all were thoroughly schooled in Latin. Still, the Church did translate the Bible into fifteen vernacular languages before Martin Luther was born.

Answer 3

The Bible is a compilation of journals and other writings of those called the prophets (some of whom were not Christians), various others who were fortunate enough to have an education back then, and even 100 or more years later by educated men who were writing it down from hear-say, which is even less reliable. Years later (about 300 or so years later, if I'm not mistaken), some clergymen started compiling these writings, adding only those that they felt should be a part of the Bible, which means that a LOT got left out including those scriptures about Jesus' childhood, most of the women involved, and those pertaining to what really happened after Jesus was crucified.
All of this said, it was written by many people over hundreds of years by men during times when testosterone ruled.

Answer 4

How do you define Church? The congregation of followers of the 1st and 2nd centuries had already been operating within a framework of bishops and priests even before Peter was crucified (with Peter having primacy), celebrated the Eucharist in nearly identical ways as is done in the Catholic Mass, observed 7 sacraments, prayed to saints and regarded themselves as ONE universal (Catholic) Church. The first Church councils merely solidified this into formality. The apostles Creed, which dates back to early second century (~125 AD), is almost identical to the Nicene Creed of the which is the "Cliff notes" for the Catholic Church.

The Church that Christ established in the early 1st century has a continuity reflected in the Catechism, Creed, Sacraments and Mass of the Catholic Church, because it is one in the same! To state otherwise is either a result of extreme ignorance or grasping desperation.

God Bless,

MoP

Answer 5

The term "canon" is used to describe the books that are divinely inspired and therefore belong in the Bible. The difficult aspect of determining the Biblical canon is that the Bible does not give us a list of the books that belong in the Bible. Determining the canon was a process, first by Jewish rabbis and scholars, and then later by early Christians. Ultimately, it was God who decided what books belonged in the Biblical canon. A book of Scripture belonged in the canon from the moment God inspired its writing. It was simply a matter of God convincing His human followers which books should be included in the Bible.

Compared to the New Testament, there was very little controversy over the canon of the Old Testament. Hebrew believers recognized God’s messengers, and accepted their writings as inspired of God. There was undeniably some debate in regards to the Old Testament canon. However, by 250 A.D. there was nearly universal agreement on the canon of Hebrew Scripture. The only issue that remained was the Apocrypha…with some debate and discussion continuing today. The vast majority of Hebrew scholars considered the Apocrypha to be good historical and religious documents, but not on the same level as the Hebrew Scriptures.

For the New Testament, the process of the recognition and collection began in the first centuries of the Christian church. Very early on, some of the New Testament books were being recognized. Paul considered Luke’s writings to be as authoritative as the Old Testament (1 Timothy 5:18; see also Deuteronomy 25:4 and Luke 10:7). Peter recognized Paul’s writings as Scripture (2 Peter 3:15-16). Some of the books of the New Testament were being circulated among the churches (Colossians 4:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:27). Clement of Rome mentioned at least eight New Testament books (A.D. 95). Ignatius of Antioch acknowledged about seven books (A.D. 115). Polycarp, a disciple of John the Apostle, acknowledged 15 books (A.D. 108). Later, Irenaeus mentioned 21 books (A.D. 185). Hippolytus recognized 22 books (A.D. 170-235). The New Testament books receiving the most controversy were Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 John, and 3 John. The first “canon” was the Muratorian Canon, which was compiled in (A.D. 170). The Muratorian Canon included all of the New Testament books except Hebrews, James, and 3 John. In A.D. 363, the Council of Laodicea stated that only the Old Testament (along with the Apocrypha) and the 27 books of the New Testament were to be read in the churches. The Council of Hippo (A.D. 393) and the Council of Carthage (A.D. 397) also affirmed the same 27 books as authoritative.

The councils followed something similar to the following principles to determine whether a New Testament book was truly inspired by the Holy Spirit: 1) Was the author an apostle or have a close connection with an apostle? 2) Is the book being accepted by the Body of Christ at large? 3) Did the book contain consistency of doctrine and orthodox teaching? 4) Did the book bear evidence of high moral and spiritual values that would reflect a work of the Holy Spirit? Again, it is crucial to remember that the church did not determine the canon. No early church council decided on the canon. It was God, and God alone, who determined which books belonged in the Bible. It was simply a matter of God convincing His followers of what He had already decided upon. The human process of collecting the books of the Bible was flawed, but God, in His sovereignty, despite our ignorance and stubbornness, brought the early church to the recognition of the books He had inspired.

Recommended Resource: The Canon of Scripture by F.F. Bruce.

Answer 6

Who assembled the scriptures into what we know as the Bible? You guessed it: The Catholic Church. Not the Gnostics, not the Aryans, the Catholic Church. The reason it was translated into Latin is because that was the common language to Europe at the time. You can cry conspiracy all you want, but keep in mind that amateurs who attempt to translate the Bible into their native tongue are prone to error, and can pervert the original message. This happens in John 3:16 where one version says you MAY have eternal life, and another says you WILL have eternal life.
This is a subtle but VERY important difference!

Just imagine if Gnostic heresies were allowed to creep into the Bible. The Bible was assembled with great care and protected from corrupting false scriptures for this very reason.

Answer 7

DUDE! The Catholic Church (there are 21 kinds of Catholic, not all are roman...) NEVER claimed to give anyone the bible.

Why so angry? Please see the link below from Catholic Encyclopedia for the Catholic version of how the bible came to be. Please note - the Catholic Church does not, as you state, lay claim to it...

And all you people claiming the Catholic Church does not want people reading the bible? Stop with all the anti-Catholic propaganda. That's just SO untrue. CENTURIES ago a pope dedicated a plenary indulgence given to Catholics who read the bible DAILY.

Answer 8

The bible is just a book of a bunch of hear say it's not like the bible came in one whole written by one person..it came from stories told by many people...imagine if you had 8 people sit in a circle,one person told the person sitting next to them for example"the white wolf ran south to it's prey" then the story continued to get passed along to the people in the circle,when it finally reaches the original person who told the story it is a guarantee that the story has changed atleast 4 times same as with the bible so who's to say the bible and all of it's content is fact or fiction,there are many discrepencies in the bible if you read what is written instead of what it means...nobody in the bible has their story straight...so basically I wouldn't worry about who gave who the bible first it's just a book of stories told by many people long time ago.

Answer 9

And it wasn't until the 16th century when they allowed translations into other languages -- after the Martin Luther revolt!

I'm surprised that anyone other than Jews can claim that honor. The Dead Sea Scrolls prove the accuracy of the Hebrew scrolls copied by Jews throughout the centuries.
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Answer 10

I think you answered your own question? But go one further and the Catholic church actually tries to keep the Bible away from it's followers because they are only supposed to study the catachism.