Why did the churches use to try and ban people from possessing Bibles?

Question

To have a Bible was a death sentence.

DougLawrence, the catholic church did not produce authentic Bibles. Unless they were written in ancient Hebrew or Greek. Else they were translations.

DougLawrence, the catholic church did not produce authentic Bibles. Unless they were written in ancient Hebrew or Greek. Else they were translations.

Answer 1

The Roman Catholic church taught that only the priests could understand and translate the Bible to the common people. The Waldenses traveled throughout Europe as peddlers with handwritten pieces of the Bible sewed in secret places of their clothing to share with interested people they came across!

Answer 2

Over time Bibles began to become more common, but fewer people could read the scriptures in Greek and Hebrew.

At first the Catholic church felt that people should only read the scriptures in its original languages because they thought that is what God had intended.

But after several hundred years, some of the church leaders saw that if the people could not read the Bible them selves than they would become more dependent on the Church.

A number of people used the peoples ignorance to take advantage of them and become rich and made rules that would protect their position, including putting people to death for having a Bible in their own language.

Answer 3

There was never a problem with people possessing authentic bibles.

Heretical bibles were prohibited by the Catholic church. Nothing else.

And since the Catholic church originally produced the authentic bible, it was well within it's rights, and it also had a sacred duty to protect the written word of God from such profanation.

Answer 4

That was when Catholicism was the only form of Christianity. They didn't want the common man to have a Bible because then they would no long need the clergy. In short, the Church would lose most of its power if people were allowed to interpret the Bible in the manner that best suited them. It would also make it possible for people to realize that there were parts of the Bible that the Church was interpreting in a biased manner in order to make everyone dependent on the clergy for salvation and forgiveness.

Answer 5

Two reasons.

One reason is that if people could read the bible for themselves, they would be less inclined to go to church, and the church would lose its authority. Also, there were rascals then as there are now, and since people couldn't confirm what the preacher was saying, they pretty much had to believe whatever came out of his mouth. This allowed unscrupulous priests to control people with fear, extract exhorbitant tithes from them, and force them to bend to the authority of the church, because "the bible says so". This wasn't a problem when the majority of the people could neither read nor write, but when people began to be educated, there was the risk that the truth would be told.

So, people were banned from possessing a bible because it was "Holy" and could not be "defiled" by unclean hands. Everyone, it seems, had unclean hands except for the priests. Also, no one except a "man of God" was able to "correctly" understand the words of God. This bought the church enough time to re-write the bible so that it coincided with their "teachings". Enter King James.

Answer 6

Catholics did about thirty years ago. They banned reading it not possession. That was the most blatant case.

Overall they don't want people actually reading it. They might stumble onto the truth. That they were being taught false doctrines. That would effect the clergies pocket and their power in politics.

Something as simple as the staement in Eccles. 9:5,10. It shows the condition of the dead. They are not capable of any feelings or thoughts. Someone reads that and they start thinking. That preacher told me I was going to a fiery burning Hell and be tortured for eternity if we did not do as he said. How can that be? I have been worried about all my family that have died for nothing??

Such thoughts are dangerous for the clergy.

Answer 7

The Roman Catholic church used to be run by power mad individuals.
Actually many of the monks that would go about preaching didn't even have a copy.
The Catholics are not like that anymore, but, Catholic or Protestant, there are people within each branch of the church that get the mind-set that they should force others to believe EXACTLY like their denom. says.

Answer 8

Because the Lord has placed quite a few commandments into the New Covenant which the authorities of those churches were suppressing. "Love your neighbor" and "love your enemy" are two which churches are still trying to suppress, particularly those who are not ashamed of a lust to force the whole world into a fake quasichristianity. In those years, a great many churches were eager to have Muslims killed in order to force the so-called "Holy" land to accept their carnal lordship, and the Holy Scriptures speak against those efforts quite clearly.

Answer 9

Well, I believe it was to keep power in the hands of the church hierarchy. Like only saying mass in Latin. I THINK what you're talking about was during the middle ages. I don't know of any Christian groups banning bibles anymore.

By the way...it was JUST Martin Luther! MLK came centuries later.

Answer 10

It was a control tactic from the Catholic church. Martin Luther tried to change that. The Christian churches never have tried to restrict the people from have the bible.