Help Wanted!

[Jaguar]

This was a Protestant response to my question … by what method did the Church teach, before the written Word existed?

**The written word did exist. are those not letters we are reading in the Bible.

We do not know the level of education, in the days of past, it is ASSUMED that most were closer to illiterate than literate, but that comes from bone-headed moves made by later authorities.

Books were not common, but the message was still maintained in WRITTEN documents, not simply spread by word of mouth.**

 

[Lazerlike42]

This was a Protestant response to my question … by what method did the Church teach, before the written Word existed?

**The written word did exist. are those not letters we are reading in the Bible.

We do not know the level of education, in the days of past, it is ASSUMED that most were closer to illiterate than literate, but that comes from bone-headed moves made by later authorities.

Books were not common, but the message was still maintained in WRITTEN documents, not simply spread by word of mouth.**

lol…

He is completely missing the point, or dodging the question.

The ascension was in about 33 AD, and the earliest written New Testament piece was from somewhere in the mid 40s. Even then, there were points of doctrine not written down until the 50s or 60s. What did the Church do until that point?

 

[Church_Militant]

Hey Jag!

Ask 'em when the first New Testament book was written? Odds are really good they don’t have a clue.

Nothing was penned for about 20 years…then the last was penned around 99 AD.

How’d it all get circulated? The Jerusalem Kinko’s?

 

[conan025]

By most accounts, 1 Thessalonians was the first New Testament book written, around 50 A.D. so, yes, we’re talking a 20-year gap between that and the Resurrection. That’s for starters.

The message was spread orally, and through the prayers of the liturgy, which themselves are partly to teach us. The epistles were never intended as comprehensive treatises, but rather addressed specific situations in specific churches. Even the gospels were written almost as an afterthought.

The earliest Christians thought Christ would return in their lifetimes, so natually the emphasis was on preaching and teaching to spread the message as widely as possible in however much time was left. As that first generation was dying off. they realized the need to preserve the teaching in written form.

In this light, “sola scriptura” sounds less and less plausible.

 

[Tom]

This was a Protestant response to my question … by what method did the Church teach, before the written Word existed?

The written Word of God existed in the form of the Old Testament.

The written word did exist. are those not letters we are reading in the Bible.

Since Saul (Paul) did not convert until six or seven years after the resurrection, there were at least six years when there were absolutely NO New Testament writings.

Books were not common, but the message was still maintained in WRITTEN documents, not simply spread by word of mouth.

Absolutely incorrect. The letters of Paul were not written until about 46 a.d. The first “book” was not written until 51 a.d. the last around 125 a.d.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

lol…

He is completely missing the point, or dodging the question.

The ascension was in about 33 AD, and the earliest written New Testament piece was from somewhere in the mid 40s. Even then, there were points of doctrine not written down until the 50s or 60s. What did the Church do until that point?

The first New Testament letter was written in I believe 57AD. He would only have that one letter mind you, not the whole NT, until the 60’s when he might have two letters and a Gospel maybe.

 

[Randy_Carson]

This was a Protestant response to my question … by what method did the Church teach, before the written Word existed?

The written word did exist. are those not letters we are reading in the Bible.

We do not know the level of education, in the days of past, it is ASSUMED that most were closer to illiterate than literate, but that comes from bone-headed moves made by later authorities.

Books were not common, but the message was still maintained in WRITTEN documents, not simply spread by word of mouth.

Paul wrote:

"Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, 2not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-2)

Letters, allegedly from Paul, were circulating among the churches. Until the Catholic Church sorted through all the documents that were floating around and canonized the correct books, some doubt about authenticity of the various books and epistles remained.

The early Church viewed the written letters and books as supplements to teaching and preaching - not the other way around.