Ok…now be patient with me. If I understand this right…Matthew for instance wrote his inspired Gospel through the Holy Spirit. Now his Gospel is the writing of “GOD”.
It was inerrant, God breathed and assume it was in Greek. Now…today… where is that document. Answer: It does not exist. At least to my knowledge.
We have fallible, copies of Matthew’s Gospel. I realize we make a historical case for the accuracy of these copies and the love for accuracy in translation of the books of the bible.
If we are to be honest though… we don’t have the inerrant, infallible, inspired scriptures.
We have copies with various mistakes in translation, and version.
Any thoughts on this. Would this be a point in discussing " Sola S"
Many Blessings.
Doolin
Hi Doolin,
When they found the Dead Sea scrolls (these manuscripts generally date between 150 B.C.E. to 70 C.E.); they were amazed at how close they were to our Bible translations today. The earliest Greek manuscripts that we have are from 125 A.D. which are within 60 years of the original manuscripts.
The Catholic Church maintains her authority for the translation accuracy of Holy Scripture and this is why she forbade all unauthorized versions, especially in the early Reformation era when the printing press was invented. One Bible actually had “kill the children” in one of it Scripture passages.
The King James Version was authorized by the Church of England. They changed the translation of some words and they omitted some passages in order to better fit their own doctrines which were anti-Catholic. They and others like them such as Luther deemed that some books were perhaps historical but certainly not inspired. They called these books “apocrypha.” 2 Maccabees is one such book. It mentions praying for the dead. However, it is also the only book which mentions Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication) and Jesus celebrated this feast when He was on earth. (John 10:22-23)
The Catholic Church canonized this book (2 Maccabees) and all others also by the early 5th Century but Reformers took them out in the 16th. They were all in there before the Reformation. The Reformers took some of them out yet many Protestants today claim that the Catholic Church
added books to their Bible. Ignorance is bliss, they say.
The Catholic Church (as the bride of Christ) asserts her authority as the representative of Jesus on earth and states the Canons of both the OT and the NT and we are to believe her judgment. (Luke 10:16) Because of the Reformation, the Catholic Church convened the Council of Trent and officially reaffirmed the earlier Councils’ Canons of Scripture.
Yes, there were some minor errors in copying. If a monk had imbibed alcohol spirits with his lunch, he could have easily copied 1,000 instead of 10,000 for instance.
Also, Scripture is inspired but God did not dictate word for word. Some writers were not actually aware that they were “inspired” by God when they wrote their letters. God sometimes speaks in a “still small voice” deep within us and we are not consciously aware that it is Him speaking. (1 Kings 19:11-13)
At other times God is specific and shows the writers visions which they then still filter through their own senses as they write them down. (Revelation, Daniel, Isaiah)
Other times it is known to be inspired and stated as such:
2 Peter 3:14-16 “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; 15 and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also
our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, 16 as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also
the rest of the Scriptures.”
Scripture is inerrant but it is not infallible. “Inerrant” means it does not contain error. “Infallible” means that the interpretation of Scripture by the Church is without error.
Since Scripture cannot interpret itself, it cannot be said that it is infallible. The Catholic Church claims that its interpretation of Scripture is infallible (without error).
Pax,
SHW
