Preservation Of The Scriptures

[Jaguar]

Did the Catholic Church have sole possession of all the Scriptures, before the New Testament was declared in the 4th Century? The non-Catholics question is:

Who is it that preserved the scriptures until the Catholic church? Do you know what he is getting at? Maybe the Old Testament?

 

[NotWorthy]

Did the Catholic Church have sole possession of all the Scriptures, before the New Testament was declared in the 4th Century? The non-Catholics question is:

Who is it that preserved the scriptures until the Catholic church? Do you know what he is getting at? Maybe the Old Testament?

I think he (the non-catholic) is getting at the “fact” that there was no Roman Catholic Church until our good friend Emperor Constantine made it the “official and authorized Church of the Roman Empire”. Before this, there were numerous local churches running around that preserved the Bible.

Don’t you know anything? Don’t you read any good anti-Catholic rantings? What else could the internet possibly be used for?

 

[LMP]

home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/Manuscript.html

I found this web page totally interesting.

Once I had a chance to see the Dead Sea Scrolls when they came to the Field Museum in Chicago. I drove all the way down there and when I went to pay my admission, I found out that only people who had purchased specific, advanced admission tickets were allowed into the viewing area.

While walking around the museum looking at other things, I noticed that the guards at the door of the viewing room didn’t have much to do. There wasn’t a single soul waiting to view the Scrolls.

I went over to the guard and asked that I might go in seeing how there wasn’t anyone in there looking at the Scrolls. They told me no because there might be a bus or something coming. Well, no bus came.

It was a huge disappointment to me that I wasn’t allowed to see the Scrolls. I was so-o-o close to them, too.

 

[VociMike]

I think he (the non-catholic) is getting at the “fact” that there was no Roman Catholic Church until our good friend Emperor Constantine made it the “official and authorized Church of the Roman Empire”. Before this, there were numerous local churches running around that preserved the Bible.

And not one of them preserved the Protestant canon version. That’s a bit awkward, what?

 

[NotWorthy]

And not one of them preserved the Protestant canon version. That’s a bit awkward, what?

Well of course they did, until those pesky Jesuits could find them.

C’mon, people!!! Doesn’t anyone read Jack Chick anymore?!?

 

[tito]

As a brand new member of the forum I’m so pleasantly surprised of the incredible number of good questions posted, and different and diverse answers given from every conceivable angle, from totally catequetical or theological view points to those more emotionally charged, that it is almost difficult to choose where to get involved. This question on biblical preservation I pondered over in the past several times, and came up with a simple logical conclusion to explain, and it is this: God has revealed himself to mankind, progressively as it is seen in the O.T., because He wants us to come to know Him. The Scriptures are the written words (records) that establish the covenant relationship with the human race. St. Paul tells us in 2Tim3:15-17 that his words were given by inspiration of God. If God went thru the trouble of inspiring His “love letter” to us so that they can serve us as guiding rules in matters of faith and morals, would He not preserve them too so that latter ganerations can also know how to live the christian life? Can Satan destroy them or wretched mankind corrupt them? I say not a chance for if Satan, who was thrown down from God’s Holy Mountain (although he has access to God) required permission from God to tempt Job (book of Job), and requested permission from Jesus to test (tempt) St. Peter (Lk22:31), has no power over God to nullify His Will. And Satan is called the god of this world because he usurped from man at the Fall the authority bestowed on him (Eph ch2). Also, if God did not preserve His words, how can He judge us of latter times, if we lack His rules to obey? Jesus said not only that heaven and earth will pass away before His word passes away. Jesus also said that not even the smallest letter or a portion of a letter of the hebrew scritures in no way pass from the law till all be fulfilled Matt5:17,18 KJV). This are very promises of God that we accept by faith because He said them. Faith is not a jump in the dark as atheist like to accuse us, but is trust in a person, the very God in the flesh and this gives me the certainty that a Mighty God who keeps His promises will Providentially preserve His Word.

 

[Jaguar]

I think he (the non-catholic) is getting at the “fact” that there was no Roman Catholic Church until our good friend Emperor Constantine made it the “official and authorized Church of the Roman Empire”. Before this, there were numerous local churches running around that preserved the Bible.

Don’t you know anything? Don’t you read any good anti-Catholic rantings? What else could the internet possibly be used for?

Yeah, I thought from the get go, I was getting a trick question. Especially, because we had already gone over this. — I didn’t want to walk into something. He’s a pretty slick gentleman.

 

[NotWorthy]

Yeah, I thought from the get go, I was getting a trick question. Especially, because we had already gone over this. — I didn’t want to walk into something. He’s a pretty slick gentleman.

Ask your friend what he thinks of Ignatius’ letters. They are pretty hard-core Catholic.

Note: He may mention that Ignatius’ letters are spurious. This is simply untrue. There are one or two additional letters that were incorrectly attributed to Ignatius, but no ancient scholar of repute disputes the authenticity of the seven letters of Ignatius that he wrote while on his way to being persecuted in Rome.

 

[Ignatius]

Did the Catholic Church have sole possession of all the Scriptures, before the New Testament was declared in the 4th Century? The non-Catholics question is:

Who is it that preserved the scriptures until the Catholic church? Do you know what he is getting at? Maybe the Old Testament?

Many Protestants do not know that The Catholic Church is the Church that Jesus Christ founded. It is up to us to enlighten them about this.

 

[SpiritMeadow]

Did the Catholic Church have sole possession of all the Scriptures, before the New Testament was declared in the 4th Century? The non-Catholics question is:

Who is it that preserved the scriptures until the Catholic church? Do you know what he is getting at? Maybe the Old Testament?

The answer is that nobody had sole possession of anything. The earliest copies of copies of copies we have are dated in the 200 CE time. Nothing before that was preserved. It has all been lost. Over the intervening 2 centuries something like 5000 copies of various parts of the O and N testaments have been located. They are not in the control of any one group as far as I know. I believe that the King James version had access to something like 100 manuscripts all different in some respects. There are certain groupiings of similar manuscripts and some carry more weight than others in terms of reliability.

Some of course were not scriptures at all until declared so by the Church. The letters of Paul of course were not considered so by him, and probably not for some decades later at least. Letters were commonly read to congregations as news, and assistence in resolving problems, The were not considered scripture at all. This came later.