The authority of the New Testament

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Epistemes

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I was reading through my Catholic Study Bible (New American Bible). At the beginning is a Reading Guide which offers an exegetical summary of each book. In reading the “preface” for 1 Peter, I ran across this statement:

“In any case, the authority of New Testament writings does not derive from the identity of the author.”

A typical modernist statement.

Where, then, does the authority come from? And is that authority *as convincing *as if actual apostles had written what we believe they wrote?
 
The “authority” of the scriptures [especially the New Testament] comes from the Church, sho book the New Testament is…It is called the ***Canon ***of the Church. The Canon contains the core beliefs and foundatonal documents of our faith. The New Testament is comprised of the writings of a faith community for a faith community.

It is that of and by that are rich in meaning…the New Testament did not fall from Heaven complete and begin to evangelize a people, winning them over to Jesus.

Jesus founded a Church [refered to as the Pillar and Foundation of Truth] upon Peter and the Apostles, who he told to go and preach the Good News [the Gospel] of salvation. He did not instruct them to write…

It is the Church who tells us that the scriptures are inspired by God it is the Church who tells us which books constitute the Scriptures [and which books do not]. And it is the Church who ultimately guides the interpretation of the passages lest each person be lead in a different direction and to a different Truth.
 
Usually the books are written down by the followers or disciples of that person. In your example the Book of 1 Peter was written by one of Peter’s followers. The Apostles spoke and preached the Word of God. Later, his followers wrote it down. In another example, the Letter’s of Paul, all except for one letter I think, were written down by his scribe. Paul dictated to him though. That’s why the Catholic Church uses Oral tradition along with the written scripture to teach us the Word of God.
 
I think it’s important to point out that the Church always looks to the Apostolic foundation of Revelation- I mean Revelation was complete when the last Apostle died. Even if the authors were not the Apostles themselves, they were written with divine guidance of the Holy Spirit and are a record of Apostolic Tradition, the fides quae (deposit of faith). For the official position, read Dei Verbum Chapter III.

For futher reading try Bad Mad or Godby Canon John Redford, which sets out to prove Christ’s divinity from St. John’s Gospel. Canon John is a highly respected Hermenuetics scholar and a scripture specialist and goes into great detail regarding the authors of the Gospels!

Another great book that is easy to read is Aidan Nichol’s The Shape of Catholic Theology which has a section on this subject.

Probably the best book if your serious is Rene Latourelle’s Theology of Revelation
 
I had a feeling that most people would answer that the Church was the authority on the New Testament, which involves circular reasoning - and, as I’ve stated here before, is hardly effective when it comes to evangelization or catechesis. The fact that the New Testament pats the Church on the back while the Church pats the New Testament on the back carries very little weight for a non-Catholic - a consideration all Catholics should consider, regardless of their intellectual persuasion.
 
Epistemes said:
I had a feeling that most people would answer that the Church was the authority on the New Testament, which involves circular reasoning - and, as I’ve stated here before, is hardly effective when it comes to evangelization or catechesis. The fact that the New Testament pats the Church on the back while the Church pats the New Testament on the back carries very little weight for a non-Catholic - a consideration all Catholics should consider, regardless of their intellectual persuasion.
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Both Catholics and Protestants agree that the authenticity of the New Testament texts derives in purely secular terms from the multitude of ancient manuscripts and their remarkable consistency among them across several centuries and among many languages.

Catholics and Protestants both agree that the manuscripts attest to the highly unlikely phenomenon of the Resurrection.

Catholics and Protestants believe that the Resurrection is witnessed to not only by Scripture but by the history of the first 100 years of the Church, when Christians went singing merrily to their death rather than compromise what they knew to be true: that Jesus rose from the dead and that he lives today.

Catholics and Protestants believe that if the witness of Scripture and the early martyrs is consonant, then Jesus must have been what he claimed to be: God and the Son of God. As God, Catholics believe that he must have done what he said he would do (in addition to rising from the grave). One of the things he said he would do was build his Church.

Catholics can trace the history of the Catholic Church in an unbroken historical line right back to that locked room where Jesus appeared on Easter Sunday and gave the Apostles the Holy Spirit . . . .

The Catholic argument is not merely that the Church affirms the Bible and the Bible affirms the Church.
 
Epistemes said:
I had a feeling that most people would answer that the Church was the authority on the New Testament, which involves circular reasoning - and, as I’ve stated here before, is hardly effective when it comes to evangelization or catechesis. The fact that the New Testament pats the Church on the back while the Church pats the New Testament on the back carries very little weight for a non-Catholic - a consideration all Catholics should consider, regardless of their intellectual persuasion.
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Do you know anything about Cardinal Newman’s life?
 
Is there proof that the part in the Bible where Jesus gives the Church authority, is historically correct?

If there is, wouldn’t everything else just fall into place?
 
Epistemes said:
I had a feeling that most people would answer that the Church was the authority on the New Testament, which involves circular reasoning - and, as I’ve stated here before, is hardly effective when it comes to evangelization or catechesis. The fact that the New Testament pats the Church on the back while the Church pats the New Testament on the back carries very little weight for a non-Catholic - a consideration all Catholics should consider, regardless of their intellectual persuasion.
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Note that evangelization is for the non-believer while catachesis is for the believer. I don’t see why you believe the New Testament is not useful for the latter.

Are you saying that non-Catholics do not accept the New Testament? I think that most Christians do. Aren’t you referring to non-Christians?
 
Non-Catholics do not accept the New Testament–if they did accept it they would by definition be Catholics!
 
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