Did really the Roman Catholic church give us our Bible?

Question

Roman Catholics often say that it was their church that gave us the Bible. They sometimes claim this when defending their "sacred tradition" so that they might support extra biblical teachings such as purgatory, penance, indulgences, and Mary worship. They often say the only way the Christian church knew what books are to be included in the Canon of Scripture was because it was revealed by word-of-mouth in the early church; that is, by the tradition of the Catholic Church.

Answer 1

Yes, they did.

Cheers :-)

Answer 2

Pastor Billy says: oh dear people do love to twist their questions and answers on here. Earl can I call you that? Love the name Earl, Earl first off Catholics don't claim that the Christian bible comes from the Catholic Church to support what you label "extra biblical teaching" because how would that make any difference if these teachings are truly "extra biblical"? Catholics make this pronouncement because it is frankly true. Even non-Catholic historians and Protestant theologians are hard pressed not to admit it was because of the Catholic Church that we have Christian bibles today Old Testament and New Testament. The Jews do not use a New Testament at all and today's Jewish communities with the exception of African Jews and some other remote groups rely on a Jewish canon established after the time of Jesus Christ by 60-80 years. They rely on the Massoratic text of the 9th century which is the oldest remaining copies of their ancient scripture. Catholic texts however are much older and for the Old Testament portion rely on the Jewish Alexandrian Septugint texts written some 250BC before Christ. Learn about the fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls you might be surprised at what you find ;)

Error correction #2 the Christian Church is the Catholic Church I think you mean to say Protestant Churches when you use the title Christian church. These are not Churches they are communities or denominations as there is but one ture visible and spiritual Church created by Jesus Christ

Error correction #3-6 although the terminlogy of purgatory, penance, indulgences and Marian worship are not in the bible the reality of these doctrines are. Did you know I can receive an indulgence by merely spending time "in the word".
and what are the words of Mary from scripture "all generations shall call me blessed" now which non-Catholic community does that?

Instead of attempting to disarm Catholics from their correct understanding of Christian history I suggest you dig deeper from independent sources so as to discover the truth of this reality you question and thereby become a better educated Christian yourself

Pastor Billy says"can I get an, Amen?"

Answer 3

Officially, yes. Unofficially, the development of the canon was influenced by the early church fathers before the fourth century and by the church in general by their use and acceptance of certain books.

For example, Eusebius who lived in the fourth century said that many objected to the book of Jude because the writer quoted from an apocraphyl book, the Book of Enoch. Nevertheless, he said that it was known and read by many in the church which made it acceptable to enough people that it was eventually included among the books that were labeled as inspired.

The Letter of Barnabas, on the other hand, was accepted by some, but not by most, so it was not included in the Bible.

Until the fourth century, the sacred writings of the New Testament were not "set in stone", so to speak. The books and letters that were written, even by the apostles, did not contain an endorsement written by the Holy Spirit saying that this book or letter had the inspiration of the Holy Spirit behind it. That is why ultimately it fell to the church leaders to make a ruling on what should be considered Scripture, and what shouldn't.

Eusebius and later, Athanasius, were influential in determining which books were canonized. Still, debate continued, especially about the books of James, Jude and Hebrews, until the Council of Carthage in the 5th century. By that time, the Christian community was known as the Roman Catholic (universal) church.

Even after that, the debate continued. The churches in Syria did not accept the approved canon for another 50 years. The Book of Clement is still recognized today by the Ethiopian church, but overall, it was the Catholic Church that determined which books were 'officially' admitted into Scripture.

Answer 4

The Bible is the tradition of the catholic church. I can certainly see why many non-Catholics would want to think that the Bible fell off a Turnip truck. If is hated Catholics I would be bashing them to get rid of this history that the Catholic church existed the 1st though 4th centuries and is the conduit use by God to give us the Bible.

Answer 5

the bible is a catholic book and its contents were decided by the catholic church. i find it weird how protestants accept our decision on all the books of the new testament yet tell us we are wrong on everything else. the church that gave us the bible and that was unchallenged in its teachings for some 1500years would be in a better position to teach properly from it, especially considering the authority was given to us by jesus and he also promised that the holy spirit would guide and protect his church and that not even the gates of the nether world would prevail upon it. after all scripture tells us that the church is the pillar and bulwark, it not once states that scripture alone or faith alone has all authority,which i think we can see from over 28,000+ denominations who still can't agree from what was first taught and even first protested. these sites may help

www.scripturecatholic.com
www.salvationhistory.com
www.catholiceducation.org
www.newadvent.org
www.fisheaters.com

more importantly the bible.

Answer 6

Yes, the Catholic Church gave us our bible. You can leave religion out of it and just look at history. There were many writings in the early church; I read one encyclopedia that stated there were about 50 different gospels, but we only have 4 in our bible. It was around the year 400 when the Church convened, and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and Her God-given authority, decided on the canon of scripture we have today.

For information on the other issues you pointed out - purgatory, penance, Mary, etc. - go here: www.catholic.com.

God bless.

Answer 7

Yes and no.

The Jews gave us the Jewish Scriptures (New Testament).

The Catholic Church, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, selected the 27 books of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament) from the dozens of available early Christian writings.

All modern Christians (that I know about) use the same 27 books of the New Testament that the Catholic Church decided were inspired by the Holy Spirit around 400 A.D.

With love in Christ.

Answer 8

Sacred tradion is how Jesus spoke to the Apostles, how He passed along His teaching and the scripture(OT). The Apostles did the same they spoke what Jesus said to them and spread the word of God.Jesus nor the Apostles had secretaries or stengraphers sitting by taking notes and there was not a Barnes and Noble bookstore on the corner.
For sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit. To the successors of the apostles, sacred Tradition hands on in its full purity God’s word, which was entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit.



We do not worship Mary. We ask Mary to pray for us, just as you would ask a friend or family member to pray for you.


The Bible as a whole was not compiled until the late 4th century and then it was compiled by a Catholic saint (St. Jerome) at the request of a Catholic pope (St. Damasus I).

Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer, state about the Bible? In his "Commentary On St. John," he stated the following: "We are compelled to concede to the Papists that they have the Word of God, that we have received It from them, and that without them we should have no knowledge of It at all." Regardless of what non-Catholic Christians may think or say, according to secular, objective historians, the Catholic Church alone preserved Sacred Scripture throughout the persecution of the Roman Empire and during the Dark Ages. All non-Catholic Christian denominations owe the existence of the Bible to the Catholic Church alone. Why did God choose the Catholic Church to preserve Scripture if It is not His Church?

Purgatory....Jesus speaks of sins to be forgiven in the life to come (Matthew 12:23). Saint Paul speaks of those saved in the next life "through fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15). Saint Peter speaks of the "spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:18-20) and of the Gospel "preached to the dead" (1 Peter 4:6). The Bible explicitly tells us to pray for the dead (2 Maccabees 12:44-46). Besides being found in Sacred Tradition, which explicitly affirms the existence of purgatory, it is clearly that the doctrine of it existence is also found in Sacred Scripture. Paradise is purgatory. The thief on the cross went to Paradise, not heaven. Jesus went to Paradise, not heaven. One must remember Jesus did not ascend to heaven until 40 days AFTER His resurrection

Answer 9

The Catholic Church did make the Bible, it was the only Christian Church around.

A Jewish counsel first rejected the 7 books that are in the Catholic Bible Old testament (Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach and Baruch) that do not appear in other Bibles today.

Martin Luther pulled these books from the Christian Old testament. He also wanted to pull more books out of the New Testament (including Revelations) but was overruled.

Answer 10

What we call the New Testament was never expected to happen. Jesus was supposed to return next week, so why would there need to be Christian "scriptures"? The "scriptures" were the JEWISH scriptures, specifically the Greek translation known as the Septuagint. And that version had ALL the books integrated into it.

But Jesus DIDN'T come back. When the apostles began to die off, people got concerned that the Christian message might become lost or distorted. So they started collecting some of the better letters from Paul and other missionaries for circulation. And some people started organizing collections of the sayings and deeds of Jesus as the community remembered them. Communities, leaders and theologians eventually made lists of their favories, not always agreeing. When Christianity was finally legalized in the Fourth Century, a council of bishops decided what the final New Testament list would be.

The contents of the "Old" Testament were never in doubt. The only people who had expressed an opinion was a council of Rabbis in about 90 CE. They were determining where to draw the line on their revelation. They decided to exclude anything that they couldn't find a Hebrew "original" for. Somehow, the Septuagint had ended up with some "extra" books and parts of books that no longer existed in Hebrew. (How does a translation end up with more material than the source?) The official objection was authorship. In large part, their provenance was not well established. (One book, Ecclesiasticus, proclaimed that is was written by the grandson of Yeshua ben Sirach, whoever he was.) So the the rabbis determined that anything apparently written after the time of Ezra (c. 400 BCE) was not inspired.

But Christians are not Jews. They didn't see any problem. No doubt the books in question WERE of later composition than most (not all) of the others. They showed a literary and philosophical sophistication that reflected post-Exilic theological development. (One might even argue that their outlook was proto-Christian.)

It wasn't until Jerome translated the Bible into the common tongue, Latin, that any Christian was aware of a distinction among Jewish books. In the late Fifth Century, Jerome realized it made no sense to translate from a translation, so he sought out Hebrew manuscripts for the Old Testament, discovering the books without Hebrew sources. Not sure what to do, he included the Greek books (and portions) but segregated them into a different section he called "Apocrypha". It was a source distinction, not a doctrinal one.

A thousand years later, Luther discovered a need to craft a theology that categorically condemned the abuses that had crept into the Church's institutions, most egregiously, the selling of "indulgences" (divine favors). The concept known as "sola fide" necessarily repudiated ANY human effort toward salvation, including intervention by other humans. With this, Luther could pull the legs out from any Roman claim to divine authority and efficacy.

Luther's source was the Bible, the only Christian artifact that was arguably older than the Church itself. But there were some problems. The Letter of James made a fairly strong argument for the value of "works". And 2 Macabees 12 depicted a Jewish commander praying on behalf of dead soldiers. James could be interpreted (work only as a sign of faith), but Maccabees was less ambiguous. But it was also part of the Apocrypha. With that whiff of dodginess about if, Luther solved his problem by rejecting the whole batch. Of course, the reasons Luther had for tossing the books became the very reasons that Rome hung on to them.

The "man-made" institutions and traditions of the Catholic church developed out of its experience, solving practical spiritual problems as they developed, even though they were abused at various other times. Protestants believed they were getting a fresh start by shedding all these corrupt human accretions. But they soon began to encounter the same old problems, often fracturing them into more and more particular denominations as a result.

There was only one Christian church in Western Europe before the 16th Century, the "Catholic" church, as it came to be known. So the answer to the question is "yes". It can be a problem when the source of one's validation is derived from the tradition of an opposing institution. Luther felt he solved the problem by, apparently, appealing to the decision of an even older, more opposing faith.

Answer 11

The bible is a product of the tradition of the Catholic Church.

Even Martin Luther admitted as much.

The authority of the Catholic Church is superior to that of scripture, and there's lots more to the authentic Christian faith than that which is printed in the bible.

Even the bible admits as much.