The Protestant claim that the Catholic Church "changed" the Bible

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WJL

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Hello,

A friend of mine sent me a question in an email today:
How would you respond to this statement? “The Catholic church has changed the wording in the Bible many times in the last 2000 years.”
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Here is the thread:
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examiner.com/article/new-gay-bible-to-hit-the-streets-soon
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“Which translation and edition of “The Holy Bible” ? Unless you can read Aramaic they are all derivatives of whatever the Catholic Church didn’t filter, cut and paste, or completely rewrite.”
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I tried to find some Catholic apologetics articles dealing with this common Protestant claim but, I couldn’t seem to find any that addressed this allegation specifically.

Does anyone know of any particular apologetics articles which answer this claim or could suggest a response to that claim that I could send to my friend?

Thanks.
 
First, your friend is confused about what languages the Bible was originally written in. There are only a handful of places in the Old Testament that were written in Aramaic. Most of it was written in Hebrew while the New Testament was written in Greek. Second, prior to the Reformation, Christians were using the same Bible. It wasn’t until the Reformation that Protestants, not Catholics, removed certain books in the Bible.
 
My friend wasn’t making the claim. He saw it in the comments of a news article, quoted it, and was asking me how, as a Catholic, one should answer that claim.
 
I really cant find anything to answer, Your link lead me to a gay site. And i cant find anything that talks about catholic changing the bible. Ask them to proof their assumption.
Ubenedictus.
 
The Catholic Church did indeed change the Bible. In fact before the Church changed the Bible, the Bible didn’t even exist.

I would simply argue to your friend that the Church is willing to take the blame for writting the Bible.
 
It is unlikely that you will find a specific article to refute this since, from what I can tell, it is simply a “scatter gun” attack on the Church by someone with no idea what they are talking about.
Such a claim falls into the same category as “the Church is responsible for all the wars” statement…:rolleyes:
In short it is a convenient way for those who do not wish to seriously discuss these matters to simply dismiss the Church out of hand.

So I would simply reply that, “As a Catholic”, my reply would most likely be laughter followed by a request for specifics to demonstrate some factual basis for the argument.
THEN there might be something to discuss.

Peace
James
 
WJL said:
Hello,

A friend of mine sent me a question in an email today:

I tried to find some Catholic apologetics articles dealing with this common Protestant claim but, I couldn’t seem to find any that addressed this allegation specifically.

Does anyone know of any particular apologetics articles which answer this claim or could suggest a response to that claim that I could send to my friend?

Thanks.
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The answer to this question is YES. However, not in the way Protestants suggest. The Catholic Church holds the Keys to the Kingdom and any edit changes are only done to more clearly clarify a divine point OR to place Sacred Tradition into writing. The best example I can think of is Saint Jeromes change to first John 5:7 around 325AD which in the earliest Greek manuscripts before the Vulgate reads like this:

For there are three that testify: 8 the[a] Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

When Jerome translated this verse he changed it to reflect the Trinity which reads:

For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. 8 And there are three that bear witness on earth:[a] the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.

Now the question is; is it still inspired? Yes it is! The doctrine of the Trinity is primarily taught by Sacred Tradition and Jerome put it into writing. So if Protestants want to make these kinds of arguments they are going to have to reject Orthodox Christianity.

It should be noted however that ironically in the authorized Protestant text, the King James version uses the Vulgate translation while the newer Protestant text (e.g. NIV, NAS) do not.

Peace,

David
 
WJL said:
Hello,

A friend of mine sent me a question in an email today:

I tried to find some Catholic apologetics articles dealing with this common Protestant claim but, I couldn’t seem to find any that addressed this allegation specifically.

Does anyone know of any particular apologetics articles which answer this claim or could suggest a response to that claim that I could send to my friend?

Thanks.
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your link was about pro-homosexuals producing a new Bible that is pro-homosexual. If your protestant friend is using this to prove that the Catholic church has changed the Bible he is really grasping at straws. Some of the early Protestants that tried to translate the Bible into the vernacular did so to change words to prove their views and theology such as William Tyndale and Wycliff. That was not the Catholic Church doing these things.
 
First of all Potestants did remove many books from the Bible, BUT you have to realise that this
“Gay Bible” IS ACTUALLY A HOAX.

NO ONE IS PUBLISHING THIS. (I’m referring to the link in the original post)

check out the Snopes page on this snopes.com/politics/satire/gaybible.asp
 
kieron123 said:
First of all Potestants did remove many books from the Bible, BUT you have to realise that this
“Gay Bible” IS ACTUALLY A HOAX.

NO ONE IS PUBLISHING THIS. (I’m referring to the link in the original post)

check out the Snopes page on this snopes.com/politics/satire/gaybible.asp
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Rainaldo said:
This. Plus the story had the classic marks of an internet hoax. Shame on you.
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Ubenedictus said:
I really cant find anything to answer, Your link lead me to a gay site. And i cant find anything that talks about catholic changing the bible. Ask them to proof their assumption.
Ubenedictus.
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I thought I was pretty clear about the situation but, apparently the three of you have all have made HUGE assumptions about the inclusion of the link.

First of all, the friend I’m referring to is Catholic, not Protestant. He found that link somewhere online (as it was a news story apparently) and read the COMMENTS in the COMMENT SECTION of the article which a couple of people claim “why does this matter? you know the Catholic Church changed and rewrote the Bible, too.” My friend (who is Catholic) contacted me and asked me for an good apologetics response which is why I posted the question here.

Second of all, my friend and I both know that the so-called “Gay Bible” thing is a hoax (as its quite obvious considering the people who “wrote” it); the reason that link was included was because those comments were in the comment section of the article as already stated.

As for Rainaldo’s comment: LOL Shame on you for not even reading the OP and making false assumptions.
 
kieron123 said:
First of all Potestants did remove many books from the Bible, BUT you have to realise that this
“Gay Bible” IS ACTUALLY A HOAX.

NO ONE IS PUBLISHING THIS. (I’m referring to the link in the original post)

check out the Snopes page on this snopes.com/politics/satire/gaybible.asp
Click to expand...
Ubenedictus said:
I really cant find anything to answer, Your link lead me to a gay site. And i cant find anything that talks about catholic changing the bible. Ask them to proof their assumption.
Ubenedictus.
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Rainaldo said:
This. Plus the story had the classic marks of an internet hoax. Shame on you.
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I thought I was pretty clear about the situation but, apparently the three of you have all have made HUGE assumptions about the inclusion of the link.

First of all, the friend I’m referring to is Catholic, not Protestant. He found that link somewhere online (as it was a news story apparently) and read the COMMENTS in the COMMENT SECTION of the article which a couple of Protestants (or other type of anti-Catholics) claim “why does this matter? you know the Catholic Church changed and rewrote the Bible, too.” My friend (who is Catholic) contacted me and asked me for an good apologetics response which is why I posted the question here.

Second of all, my friend and I both know that the so-called “Gay Bible” thing is a hoax (as its quite obvious considering the people who “wrote” it); the reason that link was included was because those comments were in the comment section of the article as already stated.

As for Rainaldo’s comment: LOL Shame on you for that even reading the OP and making false assumptions.
 
I saw one woman on Facebook today, who declared the Protestants were around before the Catholics. :juggle:

Sometimes I feel like Satan sends these people, Protestants and non-Christian, just to toy with my mind. Spread enough misinformation, so I no longer know tht up is up and down is down. :takethat:
 
the CC has direct apostolic succession right back to Christ.

who could be earlier than that?
 
I suggest answering by telling him to start giving specific examples, and then tackling those individually. After clarifying them one by one, then once he sees that some of them are answered, then if he is intellectually honest he will realized that he is supporting a false accusation. Just like those so-called Bible contradictions, when people will give a massive list of them, once you clarify the first ten or so intelligently, the others really dont need to be clarified for the sake of the arguement. Its a tactic they use, throwing a massive bunch garbage hoping it overwelms the opponent.

If he gives individual examples, them post them if you need help.
 
WJL said:
I thought I was pretty clear about the situation but, apparently the three of you have all have made HUGE assumptions about the inclusion of the link.

First of all, the friend I’m referring to is Catholic, not Protestant. He found that link somewhere online (as it was a news story apparently) and read the COMMENTS in the COMMENT SECTION of the article which a couple of people claim “why does this matter? you know the Catholic Church changed and rewrote the Bible, too.” My friend (who is Catholic) contacted me and asked me for an good apologetics response which is why I posted the question here.

Second of all, my friend and I both know that the so-called “Gay Bible” thing is a hoax (as its quite obvious considering the people who “wrote” it); the reason that link was included was because those comments were in the comment section of the article as already stated.

As for Rainaldo’s comment: LOL Shame on you for not even reading the OP and making false assumptions.
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i think you added my to the wrong crowd and i dont like it, my post was clear i talked about where the link lead me and advised you ask for proof when you talk about such issues. To my surprise im finding your post adding me to the hoax group, please tell me about the ‘assumption i made’.
Ubenedictus
 
Dymphna82 said:
I saw one woman on Facebook today, who declared the Protestants were around before the Catholics. :juggle:

Sometimes I feel like Satan sends these people, Protestants and non-Christian, just to toy with my mind. Spread enough misinformation, so I no longer know tht up is up and down is down. :takethat:
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And then she pinched herself and woke up-right? Totally baseless argument based on mere conjecture and silence.
 
He’s such a liar…

It was the Protestants who changed the Bible mate, mention the council of trent! what did they do? He’s projecting! Ask him where the missing books are? They took out 7 books from the Old testament, they have a theology called Solar-scritpura, which doesn’t hold water.

But more to the point though I should mention this first beloved,

“The Bible is a Catholic Book”,

And

“And we are the only ones who can interpret it”. They lack Magestrium and tradition, the light there of.

This = FACT.

The Catholic Church are Co-Authors with God in writtting of the Bible.

Their is an old Catholic Saying “Where Peter is there is the Church” . (Matt 16:18).

Tell him, for 400 years there was no written word, this also is another fact of the Catholic Church, people went to confession like the early Church fathers and attended Mass every week.

The printing press wasnt invented untill the 1500’s, this is common knowledge. The Roman Catholic Church is the Guardian of Morals and faith throughout our days. (watch EWTN to learn more x).

And to finish I quote the Mother of God, “There is no Salvation outside the Holy Roman Catholic Eucharist” .

In Christ
Atour
 
Gay Bible? First it’s a hoax and secondly it’s laughable. It wouldn’t be just an insult to Christians of any denominations but also an insult to the gay community.
 
WJL said:
Hello,

A friend of mine sent me a question in an email today:

I tried to find some Catholic apologetics articles dealing with this common Protestant claim but, I couldn’t seem to find any that addressed this allegation specifically.

Does anyone know of any particular apologetics articles which answer this claim or could suggest a response to that claim that I could send to my friend?

Thanks.
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I don’t think Protestants in general make that claim. We share the same ancient manuscripts when translating the Bible. I do think that Mormons, Saturday Adventists, and Jehovah Witnesses make that claim.
 
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