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FuzzyBunny116
Guest
There don’t seem to be many records of Christian thought before the Gospels were written. Is there anyway to know what the Church believed in before they were written?
Is there any way to know what Christians before the Gospels were written believed in?
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lizaanne
Guest
Absolutely!!! Start with this list and start reading!! 
The Fathers of the Church wrote a great deal. Many Protestants have been converted to Catholicism by reading the works of the Church Fathers.
newadvent.org/fathers/
~Liza
The Fathers of the Church wrote a great deal. Many Protestants have been converted to Catholicism by reading the works of the Church Fathers.
newadvent.org/fathers/
~Liza
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NotWorthy
Guest
The Didache is considered the first Catechism of the Church. Its traced back as early as 70AD (although scholars are not sure). If this is true, it most probably predates some of the NT writings.
BTW, the Didache talks of the Sacrifice during the Mass, confession, and the form and matter of Baptism.
BTW, the Didache talks of the Sacrifice during the Mass, confession, and the form and matter of Baptism.
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catholicscot
Guest
Some of St Pauls letters were written before the Gospels. And the Acts of the Apostles describes the belief’s of the primitive church. The Church described in Acts 2:42 is still the one we have today-
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They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.*
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They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.*
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eric_sammons
Guest
Most of Paul’s letters were written before the Gospels, and give us detailed knowledge of many of the first Christians practices and beliefs. They also at times reflect Christian thought from before his letters. For example, 1 Corinthians 15 appears to be a creedal statement of Christian belief, and Philippians 2:6-11 is often thought to be a very early Christian hymn which predates Paul’s writings.
Furthermore, there is no reason to believe that the Gospels, written only 30-50 years after Christ (thus within the same generation as the eyewitnesses), do not reflect the existing beliefs of the Christians. If they did not, they would have been rejected by the Christian community (which is what happened with the “Gnostic” Gospels).
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JRKH
Guest
Indeed.
there are a number of documents that were written in the early days such as the works of the Church Fathers, and others that did not make the cut into the bible as well.
The Shepard of Hermes
Gospel of Thomas
Didache
The INfancy Gospel
Plus many MANY more.
I ran across THIS website that illustrates my point.
Bear in mind that much of this information is of dubious origin or contains information that is discredited and/or rejected by the Church as not being held “widely held” by the “Universal Church” from the “Earliest days”. In other words, with the Church growing so fast and being widely dispersed, there naturally grew up “stories” in different regons. These needed to be filtered out as time went on so that the true and pure faith was preserved.
This is what the councils did as they developed the canon of the Bible.
Peace
James
there are a number of documents that were written in the early days such as the works of the Church Fathers, and others that did not make the cut into the bible as well.
The Shepard of Hermes
Gospel of Thomas
Didache
The INfancy Gospel
Plus many MANY more.
I ran across THIS website that illustrates my point.
Bear in mind that much of this information is of dubious origin or contains information that is discredited and/or rejected by the Church as not being held “widely held” by the “Universal Church” from the “Earliest days”. In other words, with the Church growing so fast and being widely dispersed, there naturally grew up “stories” in different regons. These needed to be filtered out as time went on so that the true and pure faith was preserved.
This is what the councils did as they developed the canon of the Bible.
Peace
James
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