Is the Bible Catholic?

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santaro75

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I was debating with a Protestant. friend of mine and I said that the Bible was compiled by the Catholic Church for use by the Catholic church and that the Bible away from the Catholic church is a misplaced book and can not be properly interpreted because you have taken away the history and tradition that it was intended for. Kind of like if I found a family journal and interpreted it without being in the family I would not get some of the meanings correct.

Was I wrong?
 
Hi Santaro,

“Compiled” is not the right word. The Church received the true canon of the bible from Christ and the apostles, through Sacred Tradition. Just like some doctrines developped as Christians reflected on the apostolic tradition, in the same way there was a period of reflection during which the Church discerned which were the books inspired by God. We know that by the end of the 300’s the Canon of the Bible had long been agreed to.

So the Church was active in gving us the true word of God but we must think of her role as that of a witness rather than an editor who chooses.

Even without that, the role of the Church was paramount. For 1500 years, her members copied, commented, preached the Bible to millions. Without this patient and constant work, there would have been no bible for Protestants to argue against the Church.

Verbum
 
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santaro75:
I was debating with a Protestant friend of mine and I said that the Bible was compiled by the Catholic Church for use by the Catholic church and that the Bible away from the Catholic church is a misplaced book and can not be properly interpreted because you have taken away the history and tradition that it was intended for. Kind of like if I found a family journal and interpreted it without being in the family I would not get some of the meanings correct.

Was I wrong?
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Santaro,

I would say no, you are absolutely right. There may be some quibble over the word “compiled,” but the fact remains that there were a couple of Church councils that sat down and figured out “this book is in, that book is out.”
  • Liberian
 
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Verbum:
For 1500 years, her members copied, commented, preached the Bible to millions. Without this patient and constant work, there would have been no bible for Protestants to argue against the Church.
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Beautifully said. 😉
 
So I get into these apologetics discussions with Protestants and they go no where cuz they interpret script, the same script differantly. So it comes down to which interpretation is correct. And for that I have to say, If i were to chose one i would choose the one that was given authority by christ to interpret script and compile such a book.

Well anyway, I am beginning to see protestantism as a perversion of christianity with no basis other than to make you feel good. Like pop psychology christianity
 
Well, yes and no.

A good detailed explanation can be read in Whose Bible Is It by Jaroslav Pelikan, published in 2005.

look below for the answer, in case you don’t want to read the book.

Pelikan makes the case that the Bible belongs to everybody, as much as we accept that it is the revelation of God to humanity.

So, it belongs to the Jews, Catholics, other Christians, and Muslims. Then, too, it belongs to all mankind as it is directed to them, as well.

So, that’s the No part of my answer to your question. The Yes part of my answer runs pretty much like the other posts in this thread.

Pelikan’s book point out exquisitely that the Bible needs to be interpreted and regularly interpreted.
 
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santaro75:
I was debating with a Protestant friend of mine and I said that the Bible was compiled by the Catholic Church for use by the Catholic church and that the Bible away from the Catholic church is a misplaced book and can not be properly interpreted because you have taken away the history and tradition that it was intended for. Kind of like if I found a family journal and interpreted it without being in the family I would not get some of the meanings correct.

Was I wrong?
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You are spot on. Providing he actually wants to know the Truth, it takes very little work to find out. Have him do some research on the New Testament Canon. Where, when, and by whom was it established.

God Bless.
 
great idea.

I think that some of the people that I have been talking to really don’t care about the truth enough to actually look into it. i got to this point because I was considering leaving the church but every time i looked into it, i found that the undeniable truth and authority is here. And it is scriptural too.
 
CAN ANYONE SHED SOME LIGHT ON how the Catholic bible wound up with the deuterocan books and the Protestant bible didn’t?
 
The Councils of Rome, Hippo, Carthage etc. all listed the Deuterocanonicals in the Canon of the Bible. They were accepted parts of the Bible until the time of the “Reformation” when protestants decided to ditch them because some passages disagreed with protestant opinions, namely 2 Maccabees discussion of praying for the dead (pointing towards purgatory) and such.

The protestants took books out of the Bible and accuse us of putting them in! Nice cover…
 
what about the two different sources…one greek other hebrew. can you clear that up for me?
 
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santaro75:
CAN ANYONE SHED SOME LIGHT ON how the Catholic bible wound up with the deuterocan books and the Protestant bible didn’t?
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Yes, the original Scriptures were based on the Septuagent version, which contains the deuteros. This was confirmed in the Canon at the Councils of Carthage and Hippo in the 300’s. Now fast forward 1600 years and you have Luther who didn’t like some, he even tried to remove James and Hebrews. Actually, though the Deuteros werent removed from even the protestant King James version until the 1800’s. If you can find a bible from before that date, you will find the Deuteros in the back even in protestant bibles.

Pax Christi.
 
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Ignatius:
Yes, the original Scriptures were based on the Septuagent version, which contains the deuteros. This was confirmed in the Canon at the Councils of Carthage and Hippo in the 300’s. Now fast forward 1600 years and you have Luther who didn’t like some, he even tried to remove James and Hebrews. Actually, though the Deuteros werent removed from even the protestant King James version until the 1800’s. If you can find a bible from before that date, you will find the Deuteros in the back even in protestant bibles.

Pax Christi.
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Not just James (James because it quotes Christ on the necessity of works) & Hebrews. Luther was also suspect about Revelation (god forbid; Tim LaHaye & Hal Lindsey wouldn’t be millionaires without Revelation! ;)) & Jude.
 
In very (very) simple terms. The Bible came out of the Church and not the Church out of the Bible. Remember; we had the mission of the Apostles as given to them by Christ, first:
Go! And make Disciples from all nations. Baptise in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. [Mathew 27:19].
The first thirty or so years of the Church it was Kerygma - the oral preaching of the Apostles and the Disciples. There was nothing of the so called ‘New’ Testament written until the first of St. Paul’s Epistles (Letter to the Galatians) in 49 AD
 
If I’m not mistaken, the whole reason the Church decided to finally define the canon was so they knew what was appropriate to read during the liturgy 🙂
 
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