Did Jesus not command the Apostle John to write?

[Catholic_Tom]

"Perhaps if we read the Bible for ourselves we will not
accept the apologists’ presupposition that Christ never commanded his apostles to write anything! Did Jesus not command his apostle John to “write… write… write… write… write… write… write… write…write… write”? (Revelation 1:11; 1:19; 2:1 ; 2:8; 2:12; 2:18; 3:1; 3:7; 3:14; 21:5).

This person claims that Catholic Apologists never commanded the aposltes to write anything. The above references to Scripture show Jesus giving such a command to one of His apostles, John. He claims that the Catholic apologists who make that claim are wrong - and to verify that, all you need to do is to check the references above in your Bible.

What is the correct way to respond to this?

 

[hlgomez]

Well, it seems to me that it is only in the book of Revelation. Not a very good argument, though. However, it is this same John who said in the Gospels that “there are so many things that Jesus did, but the whole world will have no room for it had it been written.” So oral tradition fits in. The Gospels can be spread by using the basic senses of the body, mainly: hearing and seeing. For books doesn’t count for people who can’t read. Remember, there are millions upon millions of people around the globe who doesn’t know how to read. They prefer to hear things and see them.

Pio

 

[PaulDupre]

It is a red herring to say that Catholic apologists deny that the apostles were commanded to write. No Catholic apologist worth his salt would say that. The mere fact that the apostles wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit means that in a sense they were "commanded’ to write what they wrote. It’s a silly argument.

On the other hand, the apostles were never commanded to restrict the spread of the gospel to the written word, as the “bible-only” Christians would have us believe. Many bible passages clearly indicate that the ordinary means of handing on the gospel to future generations was oral tradition. Just one example:

2 Timothy 2:2
The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

Paul passed the gospel on to Timothy and commanded him to teach others who would teach others…, but there is no evidence that Timothy ever wrote anything down.

Grace to you,
Paul

 

[beng]

"Perhaps if we read the Bible for ourselves we will not
accept the apologists’ presupposition that Christ never commanded his apostles to write anything! Did Jesus not command his apostle John to “write… write… write… write… write… write… write… write…write… write”? (Revelation 1:11; 1:19; 2:1 ; 2:8; 2:12; 2:18; 3:1; 3:7; 3:14; 21:5).

This person claims that Catholic Apologists never commanded the aposltes to write anything. The above references to Scripture show Jesus giving such a command to one of His apostles, John. He claims that the Catholic apologists who make that claim are wrong - and to verify that, all you need to do is to check the references above in your Bible.

What is the correct way to respond to this?

Let him tore all of the books in the Bible except revelation.

Oh, and just for his information, Revelation was the LAST book recognized by the Church. Many fathers/saints/doctors didn’t hesitate to exclude Revelation from the canon.

 

[MarkPerz]

All of the verse references mentioned say, “…write what you see…”

So, let’s not forget Rev 10:4, "And I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘seal up and do not write it down’ ".

write, write, write, do not write, wri… whoa…wait a minute…

 

[Catholic_Tom]

MarkPerz:

All of the verse references mentioned say, “…write what you see…”

So, let’s not forget Rev 10:4, "And I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘seal up and do not write it down’ ".

write, write, write, do not write, wri… whoa…wait a minute…

lol, now that was funny

 

[RobedWithLight]

hlgomez:

The Gospels can be spread by using the basic senses of the body, mainly: hearing and seeing. For books doesn’t count for people who can’t read. Remember, there are millions upon millions of people around the globe who doesn’t know how to read. They prefer to hear things and see them.

Pio

Books were very expensive then (prior to the invention of printing), and in addition, many people in those early days cannot read or write except the well-to-do. To limit the teaching of the Gospel to the written word, to the exclusion of oral tradition would hamper rather than facilitate the spread of the Gospel.

Gerry

 

[Maccabees]

Actually the book of Revelation would be a very bad example to have for an apostle as the authorship of this book is extremely shaky thus the late inclusion to the canon most scholars even the very conservative ones no longer think John the Apostle wrote Revelation. Their is no inernal evidence that says this is John the Apostle heck their is no internal evidence that this is the beloved apostle.

The internal evidence says God’s servant not the beloved apostle.

Even Eusebius denies it is John the apostle but John the Elder. Later on the majority opinion was it was John the Christian prophet. To be fair a handful of church fathers did think it was John the aposlte wrote the book. But since when does a protestant trust a handful of catholic fathers heck he would beleive our Marian dogmas if that was the case. What hypocrisy.

Even if it was John the apostle this is based on a false premise the catholic church thinks the apostles did not write under inspiration of the holy spirit. OF course we beleive this. Did we not say these books were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in every council regarding the canon of course we did. What we do differ in is that Jesus also said to the apostles to preach the gospel and baptize in the name of the father and holy spirit.
Thus not restricting their activites and authority to written word. They preached the word in addition to writing. Yes Preaching and the sacraments not writing the gospel was the primary mission of the early church. Church histroy points to this as the gospels were written 35-60 years after the apostles orally preached the gospel. By the time God supposedly proofed text his inspiration was 100 AD and the last book of the Bible this is really week evidence on his part.Of course when they did write later is was inspired by the Holy spirit. This premise would be true perhpas it is the twisting of catholic apologetics they got their info.
There is nothing in that passage which would contradict catholic teaching anyway only a misunderstanding this guy has with a catholic apologist who I am sure was working off my premise that Jesus Command were oral and sacramental in nature. So in if one where to say Jesus did not command one to pass out Bibles and interpret for yourself the catholic apologist would be right! The protestant fails to remeber the same inspiration that was preached orally and handed on to the apostolic church orally gave us the written word which also was handed down to the apostolic church in a written form and copied and copied thus a handing down of written tradition. Remember this we don’t have any originals of the scriptures only manuscrpts most from the 4th and 5th century well after the last aposlte died. Thus the manuscripts the protestant relies on for his truth is based on catholic copies of the original over 400 years old in the catholic written tradition. So he trust our written tradition and not the oral quite hypocritical don’t you think.

 

[jimmy]

"Perhaps if we read the Bible for ourselves we will not
accept the apologists’ presupposition that Christ never commanded his apostles to write anything! Did Jesus not command his apostle John to “write… write… write… write… write… write… write… write…write… write”? (Revelation 1:11; 1:19; 2:1 ; 2:8; 2:12; 2:18; 3:1; 3:7; 3:14; 21:5).

This person claims that Catholic Apologists never commanded the aposltes to write anything. The above references to Scripture show Jesus giving such a command to one of His apostles, John. He claims that the Catholic apologists who make that claim are wrong - and to verify that, all you need to do is to check the references above in your Bible.

What is the correct way to respond to this?

Those are all references from a vision of John. They are not from Christs earthly ministry. There is quite a bit of difference. He is telling John to write what he sees down. It is not telling anyone what they should believe.

 

[MarkPerz]

I erred in my first post. Not all of the referenced passages say “write what you see”. oops, my error.

But the point stands. Jimmy explained it perfectly.