so why was the Bible banned by the Church?

Question

Yes its true translated copies of the Bible was banned by the Church. Up till the modern day.

The funny thing is Latin Vulgate held officially acceptable was itself translated from the original Hebrew and Greek.

I wonder what they were trying to hide?

What I find most amazing is that people would convert to a religion (likely by force) without even knowing what its holy texts said.

So why did the Church do it?

Answer 1

Keep in mind, too, that it wasn't such a big deal then because hardly anyone but priests could read. Nobody else had much need to.

Answer 2

First anyone can translate a book for money (if the one paying you doesn´t know what it originally said how could them tell you wrong) Bibles were rather rare before Gutenberg, so not every dude and gal held the possibility to even look at one let alone read it, so there were many fake bibles or mistranslations around.
Also the church like from 339 selected the books to be canonic and every other one was set away to avoid annoying contradictions among the books (they do have already too many problems putting in context the ones they left in the holy book)
by the way you may not have read the whole bible and still know what a religion is about (and you can red the holy book and still don´t understand why cristianity behaves the way they do)
catholic church presents several compilates that are more near to the idiology of the church than the bible itself, like the cathechism, the treats that popes release in special ocassions and many other documents avalible

Answer 3

Unity and Control.

The Bible has a lot of "hard to understand" passages. For example "Poisoner" in the old testament was mistranslated to "Witch", thus "Thou shall not suffer a poisoner to live" (Leviticus, I believe). This lead to oh so many witch hunts. Mostly for old women and Jews, kinda like the word "Terrorist" is thrown around today.

The Catholic Church (at least my religion teacher) admits that the church felt its members were to uneducated to properly understand the message. MYSTERY, a word that means more to Catholics, was an essential part of the faith esspecially in the middle ages.

The other "Reason", more publically delivered, is that it allows the church Unity. You can go to mass anywhere in the world and hear it in the same language. Latin is still the official language of the mass by the way and the language of the vatican.

While many scholars did learn latin, like Martin Luther, I am sure there was more punishment for heresy amoung the clergy than the church would ever admit.

I am sure Rome had just as much to do with all of this initially.
You see, the problem with religion is that it is an excellent political tool (George W. Bush owes his win to this) and thus not only is it easily exploitable, but worth it!

The Romans were using christianity as a means to spread and maintain there cultural authority or control. Christianity, unlike Judaism or Hinduism, is spreadable like margerine.

So there were multiple reasons they abhorred non-latin language use until John Paul 23's Second Vatican Council.

They were trying to hide a lot more...Most of the Bible didn't make the second, third...final cut. Gospels of Thomas, Judas, Mary Magdalene. Even the Apocalypse of St. Peter, which the church always has claimed was authentic, didn't make it.

More over, there are 2 creation stories in Genesis. So if God created the Universe twice in the Bible...?...?...?

Yes, many converted by force. However, Catholics were great at adopting other religion's highest beliefs. The Celtic Great Goddess was turned into the Virgin Mary. Jesus became a Herculean Son of God. The Idea of the Resurrection was slightly more appealling to some than Reincarnation (Something also alluded to in the Bible.

The Church still bans "mistranslated" bibles, or rather dubs other legitimate.

BY THE WAY, PROTESTANTS...Why do you have even fewer books in you Bible than the Catholics.

Gnostics examine all works, regardless of validity. The Gospels mentioned above holding many core teachings. They have been available for 2,000 years albeit on a limited basis.

Answer 4

To be fair, Latin was much more widely understood in medieval times than it is today. Even if had failed as a native language, it remained the lingua franca of commerce, scholasticism, and international relations, and was widely understood even by peasants in the era prior to the Council of Trent.

And also to be fair, it should be pointed out that, until the dead sea scrolls turned up, the oldest extant complete copies of the bible were of the Latin Vulgate, centuries older than any other complete manuscript witness. I'd point out that the Vulgate witness is centuries older than the Masoretic text currently used for Torah scrolls.

Claims about "banned bibles" are a bit over-hyped, as well. Yes, the church was over-militant about banning certain specific translations, such as Tyndale's. But there was no ecclesiastic policy banning translations per se. That is a modern fiction. The church did, after all, emit the Douay Rheims bible in English.

Answer 5

To keep a people in ignorance is to overpower them. Most people were considered ignorant in that the majority were illiterate.
The literate if given the opportunity would take the bible as a means of overshadowing the populace making themselves kings.
Kings don't share!

Without the knowledge or understanding of the bible the people were kept in that ignorance for the purpose of lording over them.

The bible was considered to be too holy for just anybody to read let alone own a copy. The Jews were very meticulous when it came to writing or translating the old testament and this was carried on through Christianity.

So the people were told that only the priests could own or discern the secrets of the bible.

Literacy is no longer just for the wealthy but for everyone so we make our own choices as to read and believe making us more accountable then those who cant read.

The Bible says "Faith comes from hearing the Word of GOD".
Faith is amplified by the ability to read scripture and discern for ourselves the truth.

Answer 6

they didnt want people to read it and find oput that what they were being told was a load of manure all tradition and church history and pkilosophy and whatever else they thought they could coon the people with some even went to extremes like the catholic church burning people at the stake for possesing a copy of the Bible and the inquisitions where if they dared to disagree they and their families were tourtured to death or they if they were wealth they could recant and give all of their wealth to the church and the interesting thing is that some brave people despite bans and persecutions were able to smuggle copies of the Bible to the people under much secrecy is it any wonder that people rebelled weel their day is arriving very soon Rev 18:1-4 and you are right many people in many lands were told be catholic or die or to some starving people if you onvert we will give you some rice so once a week they would go to the church get their rice and go home and practice their own religion in times past the local priest or bishop if you were going to get married would check out your wife first to see if she was a virgin of course when he was done with her she wasnt one any more untill one day a courageous man stood up to him and said no not with mine you dont I could gon on for years with examples bu5tt the point is made i tthink now there is a vast difference between "christendom" and TRUE CHRISTIANITY GORBALIZER

Answer 7

Because, giving common man the bible meant a few things. For one, it meant the people would have to learn how to read. And we wouldn't want the people to rise out of ignorance.

Also, picture how great it would be. You could make up ANYTHING and say that it's written in the bible. Or exclude certain parts of the bible when it's in your own interest to do so.

Banning the bible gave the church absolute power over it's ignorant religious masses.

Answer 8

This "church" for hundreds of years kept the scriptures from laymen. I can't think of any other reason other than they wanted to put themselves in a lofty "God-like" position and could be free to say and do whatever they wanted and no one could say "The Bible says we shouldnt do that" That same "church" still tends to do that today but in a different way. They would much rather their parishoners follow what THEY say regardless of what the Bible says. If any laymen confronts their "holy men" with a valid discrepency between what they teach and what the Bible says, they claim God has given them the authority to change the rules.

Answer 9

History reveals that the Bible was not banned at all, private interpretation is forbiden then, because they said that only the catholic priest could interpret the holy scripture. They even banned the translation of the bible, because during that time very few had the knowledged of language.

The things they hide from the people is the truth that was spoken of in the scripture.

Answer 10

You already know the answer to that. They had the people under their power believing their wrong interpretation of it and in fear they wanted to keep them there. It's a terrible thing. Did you know the catholic religion murdered many of the early bible translaters? It's true.

Answer 11

A - Which church?
B - Which bible?

There are many church denominations in the world, and there are many different translations of the bible.