Why did the Catholic church try to stop the Bible?

Question

Why did the Catholic church try and stop the Bible being translated into common languages? For instance when William Tyndale translated it into English they had him strangled and burned at the stake? They also bought as many of his translation as they could and burned them. A church burning the Bible. Why does the Catholic church fear the Bible? Is it because it proves many of their traditions false?

patrone07 - Tyndale was burned at the stake in the mid 16th century. A time when literacy in England was increasing greatly.

I love St. Boniface - History. Look it up all I have said is true. The Catholic church hunted Tyndale because he dared translate the Bible into English. Bishop Tunstall bought copies of the Tyndale Bible up and burned them ceremoniously at St. Pauls. This is history.

I love St. Boniface - God gave us the Bible. Yes the Catholic church put it into one form but God gave it to us. He is the protector of it. Not the Catholics. Secondly the Catholic church tried its best to keep it from laymen. Read history. It is clear.

Pastor Billy - The Bible a catholic book? I have never heard anything so funny. If the Bible were truly a Catholic book it would support their traditions more fully.

cristoiglesia - Catholics wrote the Bible? Sorry but not true. It was written mainly by Jewish men. With the possible exception of the book of Luke and the Acts of the apostles. Both believed to have been written by Luke who was believed to have been a gentile. None of them were Catholics.

cristoiglesia - the Catholic church is the master of revisionist history. Just look at calling Peter a pope. When he never claimed the title.

Answer 1

The New Testament records the history of the church from approximately 30 A.D. to approximately 90 A.D. In the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries, history records several Roman Catholic doctrines and practices among early Christians. Is it not logical that the earliest Christians would be more likely to understand what the Apostles truly meant? Yes, it is logical, but there is one problem. Christians in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th centuries were not the earliest Christians. Again, the New Testament records the doctrine and practice of the earliest Christians…and, the New Testament does not teach Roman Catholicism. What is the explanation for why the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th century church began to exhibit signs of Roman Catholicism?

The answer is simple – the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th century (and following) church did not have the complete New Testament. Churches had portions of the New Testament, but the New Testament (and the full Bible) were not commonly available until after the invention of the printing press in 1440 A.D. The early church did its best in passing on the teachings of the apostles through oral tradition, and through extremely limited availability to the Word in written form. At the same time, it is easy to see how false doctrine could creep into a church that only had access to the Book of Galatians, for example. It is very interesting to note that the Protestant Reformation followed very closely after the invention of the printing press and the translation of the Bible into the common languages of the people. Once people began to study the Bible for themselves, it became very clear how far the Roman Catholic Church had departed from the church that is described in the New Testament.

Answer 2

Pastor Billy says: false on all counts. The Christian bible is in fact a Catholic book. It was early Catholic practicing Christians who wrote the NT and it was Catholic bishops who decided upon the final compiling of the bible into a closed canon. In addition the Catholic Church encouraged authorized editions of the bible in the venacular language of many nations long before Protestantism. There was already an English version of the bible authorized by the Church long before Tyndale. Oh and you have your villians mixed up Edge my boy, it was Henry VIII the head of the Church of England who had it out for Tyndale the most as Tyndale attacked the king on his immorality hence one of the reasons Henry prohibited the use of Tyndale's bible in Protestant England.

The first books off the printing press son were Catholic bibles and thats a fact!

addendum: Edgy if the bible is all we need explain what the Church at Pentecost used without Paul's epistles which form half the NT? you are putting the horse before the cart little man. Scripture itself calls the Church the pillar of truth. When you have an argument with your neighbour and it goes unresolved were are you to take it?

Edge you have little knowledge of the early Christian Church to say it wasn't Catholic. Without Catholicism there would be no bible as Catholicism has been the instrument of God that has provided you scripture today as a Christian

Answer 3

LOL!! Unbelievable ignorance of the history of the Canon.

The Catholic Church wrote the Bible under the inspiration of the Spirit and approved it as Canon under the authority given to His Church by Christ.

The Church did not approve incorrect vernacular translations of the Bible but had already translated the Scriptures into other languages other than the original Greek and Hebrew. Centuries before St. Jerome had translated it into the language of the Church. The Bible is the testimony of the Church and supports the doctrines of the Church completely.

In Christ
Fr. Joseph

Edge, you say it is history but what you say is revisionist history and is not based on facts.

Answer 4

It was the secular authorities who proved to be the end for Tyndale. He was arrested and tried (and sentenced to die) in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor in 1536. His translation of the Bible was heretical because it contained heretical ideas — not because the act of translation was heretical in and of itself. In fact, the Catholic Church would produce a translation of the Bible into English a few years later (the Douay-Rheims version, whose New Testament was released in 1582 and whose Old Testament was released in 1609).

Answer 5

They wanted interpretations to be held by their priest only because they knew that there were elements of the Catholic religion that were in great conflict with Biblical Christianity and if this got out there would be an uprising. In fact the Catholic church killed people who even tried to read the bible for themselves and if you raised any questions in the early Catholic church you were also killed. Basically you had a better chance of living as a pro-democracy advocate in communist Russia then as a bible believer during the Dark ages when the Catholic Church ruled

Answer 6

NO.
Maybe it was because over 95% of the population was illiterate in those days and vernacular (common language) translations of the Bible wouldn't have helped solve the education crises in those poverty-striken times.

The Roman Catholic Church compiled the Holy Bible with 73 books in the 4th century.

Martin luther took out 7 books to form the Protestant Bible!

Answer 7

Who or what gave you the idea?

The Catholic Church Made the Bible

Christ nowhere told men to go to a book to learn his doctrine. He himself wrote nothing down. But he did say to Peter, "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church" (Matt. 16:18), and to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Go ye teaching therefore all nations" (Matt. 18:19). "He that heareth you, heareth me, he that despiseth you, despiseth me, he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me" (Luke 10:16).

The apostles went forth and taught according to Christ’s command. They ordained others to succeed them. Much of his teaching they handed down in their tradition only, that "divinely protected living memory of the Church." Much they committed to writing and collected together by degrees.

Though collections of sacred writings, varying in extent, existed in the various local churches of Christendom, the canon or official list of Scripture was compiled by the Church only toward the end of the fourth century at Hippo in 393 and Carthage in 397, whence it was sent to Rome for confirmation in 419. The Bible may be called the notebook of the Church, and she has always claimed to be the guardian, exponent, and interpreter of it.

The early Fathers—the disciples of Christ’s disciples—take this view. Some instances may be quoted:

Irenaeus (140–202?—a disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of John the Evangelist): "Where then the gifts of God have been set, there we must learn the truth from them with whom is the succession from the apostles. . . . For these guard our faith, . . . and they expound the scriptures to us without peril" (Iren. Iv. 26,5).

Answer 8

The Catholic Chrch wanted to keep its members in the dark about Bible truth. If the common people could read what the Bible said, they could clearly see that their religious leaders were not living by Bible standards.

Answer 9

I think maybe you might be the person that should look up some history

Answer 10

because it exposed them for what they truly are.