left from before the Catholic Church "altered" it to fit their agenda?
- That's the Bible I want to read
2007-03-11 07:40:39 · 17 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The Catholic Church constructed the bible we know. It's their arbitrary selection of texts which tended to support their claim to Authority. All subsequent versions were merely edits or revisions of this - including King James. Now there ARE many other "gospels" written at about the same time, or only slightly later, than those in the official canon, which have recently come to light and are being analyzed by scholars. See the wonderful books of Elaine Pagels on the topic.
2007-03-11 07:45:53 · answer #1 · answered by jonjon418 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Check http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/
The catholic church didn't "alter" the Bible in the way you mean. Translations were impacted and texts copied with a few changes which can be directly related to the catholic heresy, but the "books removed" were NEVER considered authentic by the REPUTABLE scholars of the time. Many of these belong to a class of documents called PSEUDOPIGRAPHA, that is, "false author." The writer would attach the name of an apostle or someone closely associated with them in hopes of having the document accepted as inspired.
... The "Dead Sea Scrolls" are OLD TESTAMENT RELATED (Scripture and commentary) MANUSCRIPTS. These were NOT Christian documents.
... The so-called King James Version contains HUNDREDS of DELIBERATE MISTRANSLATIONS, that is, the translators HAD accurate manuscripts and yet CHOSE to use some other reading instead of the BEST to which they had access. This makes it a very poor choice for someone who wishes to UNDERSTAND scripture.
The 3 best relatively complete early New Testament manuscripts (Alexandrinus, Sinaiticus, and Vaticanus) which we now know were not available to the translators of the KJV. If you want to read something as close as possible to the original texts, Learn Greek and read those manuscripts.
2007-03-11 14:44:32 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The contents of the Bible are reliable and complete. The only difference is that the Catholic church has about 7 extra books that were not considered "inspired". I believe there are 66 books inspired by the holy spirit with tons of evidence that it is the final and only Word of God
2007-03-11 14:46:11 · answer #3 · answered by Disciple 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The King James Version is probably the oldest in english language that is your best bet. I do not believe that the catholic church altered the bible, but I do think they have added things to the book such as their saints. Beyond that, get a bible that has both greek/hebrew and English in it.
2007-03-11 14:46:32 · answer #4 · answered by VW 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Yes, their is the King James Version---it is taken from the Texus Receptus; to those that do not like this version there is a Galilean version called the Disciples BIBLE it very closely mirrors the kjv and just for note, every bible taken from original texts were studied to see if they differed, amazingly there was only a 90% difference and there where none found in actual meaning. now that does not include the Catholic Bible just the texts part of it was taken from.
2007-03-11 14:50:39 · answer #5 · answered by ALEIII 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Okay - the Dead Sea Scrolls have been published. Go read them.
Have faith my dear brother. We serve a Lord that no matter what the catholic church did, it wouldn't be anything that He couldn't fix. If God said "not one jot or tittle would change until all is fulfilled," believe in the Lord. God is not limited to man's scheming abilities to where He can't change His word back to what He wants said. If the Lord says, "The Scriptures cannot be broken," believe Him.
2007-03-11 14:49:42 · answer #6 · answered by Jeancommunicates 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The KJV is from the RECEIVED TEXTS.
One has to learn 30 new words to understand it though.
It has NOT been distorted by the Horte and Westcott conspiracy.
Be CERTAIN to get a copy of the KJV from a Christian Book store.
Since it came off Copyright the JW's have published thousands of ALTERED Copies. Altered to reflect their Cult beliefs.
2007-03-11 14:50:40 · answer #7 · answered by dondutkowski 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Read a King James Version Bible
2007-03-11 14:44:58 · answer #8 · answered by Maurice H 6 · 1⤊ 3⤋
King James 1611 Bible
2007-03-11 14:45:12 · answer #9 · answered by thanks 3 · 1⤊ 3⤋
We have lots of documents from the 2nd century through history, and there were too few alterations to worry about.
2007-03-11 15:00:06 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋