What qualifies the writings of the New Testament as being considered " Holy Scripture " ????

Question

I know the writings of Moses and the Prophets .... are considered the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament but .... what qualified christians to refer to letters by the Apostles as Holy Scripture or the New Testamant ? What about the books that Catholics use .... that have additional books and writers ?

Answer 1

To learn how the books of the bible came to be assembled as such see: http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/canons.stm

Catholic and Episcopal bibles have the same number of canonical books. The Catholic and Episcopal bible also includes some non-canonical books, grouped as the Apocrypha.

Many versions of the bible existed before the King James and the advent of mass printing.
See: http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/

For an analysis of the various translations of the bible see:
http://faith.propadeutic.com/questions.html

For accurate translations of the bible at the literal level use the NASB or ESV translations.

If you run across what you think is a biblical contradiction, please study the two sites' content below for a comprehensive list of so-called biblical contradictions.

http://kingdavid8.com/Contradictions/Home.html
http://www.bringyou.to/apologetics/bible.htm

Accuracy of bible:
http://www.carm.org/questions/trustbible.htm
http://www.carm.org/demo2/bible/reliable.htm

Answer 2

The books that Catholics use and Protestants do not are all Old Testament books. The New Testament is the same books in all Bibles. Many years after the Ascension of Christ and the death of all of the original Apostles confusion was entering the Church. The NT books were scattered around with the various churches that they had been addressed to (the book of Ephesians in Ephesus, Corinthians in Corinth, etc.) and there were many varied "Gospel" stories with contending teachings, some quite heretical. The Catholic Bishops got together and with a combination of scholarly research and prayerful guidance of the Holy Spirit, they came up with the current New Testament that we know today. The seven disputed books (Tobit, Sirach, Baruch, Judith, 1&2 Maccabees, Wisdom) were previously in the Jewish canon and were put into the Latin Vulgate by St. Jerome. After Judaism and Christianity had become distinctly separate faiths, Jewish rabbis chose to remove these books from their canon. They did so because these books were written in Hellenistic Greek during the diaspora. They decided that since they are God's chosen people anything not written in their original language could not have been divinely inspired. However although decanonized by Jews, Jewish people still use them for teaching and historical purposes(the Hannukah season comes from the story in 1&2 Maccabees). The Catholic Church has retained these books because they were in the Bible that Jesus used in His time. Protestants have varying views on these books. I hope this helped. Peace be with you.

Answer 3

This is a great chart which gives the author of each book, time written, period covered and place written. http://agards-bible-timeline.com/q1_bible_who_wrote.html

This site gives a mammoth amount of information on the historical complexity of the formation of the Bible: http://www.godandscience.org/beliefs.html.

However, on your specific question on the New Testament, Wikipedia has a good article “The Canonization of the New Testament” that identifies elements of the history of the New Testament here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Testament#The_canonization_of_the_New_Testament

Trying to get everyone concerned to agree on what is the Word of God was no easier then than it is now. But the Early Church - with all its struggles - did a lot of work for us and we have God’s Word to us compiled in the Bible – some people call it Basic Instruction Before Leaving Earth.

Answer 4

The Bible says that God spoke to the writers of the New Testament and gave them the words to put down. The Holy Spirit was used to move these men to write the gospel. Also, because these are God's words, they are Holy and they are Scriptures cus they're put together in a book. As to the writings of Paul and the rest of the New Testament, that was up to the men that King James put in charge of compiling the Bible together. What the Catholic Church has and the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witness have are twists off of that. They tend to change it to what they want to hear and what they're willing to obey. If you look in a Bible you'll see italizied words. These words are the words that King James' men put in to help clear up certain parts of scripture. The rest of it are the original fragments that were found.

Answer 5

God himself founded, authorized and empowered the only church he ever founded, by giving it the power to bind and loose, both on earth and in heaven.

Jesus also provided his continuing personal guarantee, as well as that of the Holy Spirit, that the official church would never be allowed to be overcome by the forces of evil, or to teach in error.

The church authoratively wrote and defined the documents making up the new testament, and compiled and authorized all those of the old testament, as well.

Jesus also commanded the apostles to go out teaching and baptizing, in God's name.

The Catholic Catechism is an authentic document of the church's official, God-mandated teaching office, which is called the Magisterium.

So, in the end, it is God who gave his church the authority to do what it must, to lead all men to salvation in Christ.

Answer 6

I am catholic and I can tell you there is nothing in the bible that qualifies it to be a holy scripture, it is simply a story told to the scribes, and it is their interpretation of that story, It is the wisdom in it's contents that all humans basically live by today, mankind has always needed something to believe in we chose it to be God, and from there the rest is history.

Answer 7

many counsels of religious leaders like the disciples, decided the most important letters.
There was a counsel of Nicene but I just don't remember.
The Catholic church oversaw the accuracy of the translated text for each book of the bible. until King James rewrote the divorce guides. then hell broke loose and now you can write your own bible.
Keep watching the history channel, documentary channel, Discovery channel and the new Jesus Bones movie
and the Mary Magdalene story

Answer 8

The books of the Bible were written by men inspired by God, no doubt. But unfortuanetly a lot of the messages have been lost due to the ravages of time. Centuries of translations and many generations of people have diluted what was there. Ultimately, the Bible is a record of celestial-events that happens to correlate with real people, events and messages.
Though it now pales to its original text it is still one of the worlds most amazing literary works.

Answer 9

Because all the book of the "True" Bible was INSPIRED BY GOD...

Over 1/2 of the Catholic book are not inspired by God and a few major and have plenty of minor contradictions to each other.

Answer 10

Because what was in the writings agreed with what the editors wanted people to follow.