Who knows the contents of the Bible better, Catholics or non-Catholics?

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Miriam1947 said:
I am a co-owner of a Catholic book store and we have many study Bibles and sell lots of Bibles on a weekly basis. I even carry the KJV for our local Protestants.

We sell the Catechism of the Catholic Church as well and are constantly re-ordering.

You sound almost as if you dislike your fellow Catholics because you certainly do generalize.

"Most Catholics don’t really study Scripture. Not really. Sometimes they play at it, not knowing what’s involved."

What is your source for your statements.
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Experience. Lots of it. I’m pretty much turned off right now. I’m still Catholic and I’m resolved to stay Catholic, but I am not amused. The Church in the US is a sloppy mess.
 
iloveangels said:
Experience. Lots of it. I’m pretty much turned off right now. I’m still Catholic and I’m resolved to stay Catholic, but I am not amused. The Church in the US is a sloppy mess.
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Most Christians do not study scripture.
 
JonNC said:
Don’t plan on patenting this problem, as we Lutherans have a similar problem. 😃
The Lutheran Service Book now provides scripture references throughout the liturgy as a remedy, though one has to actually read the references. 😉

Jon
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Mary: Jon, the most I ever learned about scripture was studying it with my LCMS friends at Our Redeemer LCMS Church in Iowa. The pastor led a two year study with Today’s Light Bible and I was the Catholic visitor! He was a friend of mine and invited me.
It was the first time I had read the Bible start to finish with a person who had a Master’s in exegetical studies and the lecture presentations weekly for 45 minutes were awesome.
I have to admit I learned more there up to that point, than I had learned in the Catholic Church my entire life about the background, history etc of the books of the Bible. Now I can’t get enough!

Mary.
 
Something to remember in all of this is that the Scribes and Pharisees “knew the contents of the Bible” and yet look what Jesus had to say about them…

There’s “knowing” and then there is “knowing”…

I suspect that there are people who could not find a particular passage or maybe even be able to accurately quote passages…and yet live the faith so well and so fully…While others can quote chapter and verse yet have no real love in their heart.
The difference between the one who cries “Lord Lord” - and the one who actually does the Will of the Father.

Of course - the above represents the extreme ends…but it is important to remember that when we stand before the Lord we are not going to be tested by our knowledge of chapter and verse…but by what we have done and how we have loved…(Mt 25:31-46)

Peace
James
 
Christian_Unity said:
It’s just a question:

Who knows the contents of the Bible better, the average Catholic or average non-Catholic? 🍿
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Neither. As we all know, from scripture, the “pillar and bulwark” of truth is the Church (specifically the teaching office; every church has one) as opposed to the holy Bible, which is why scripture reminds us to take it to the Church… which in turn is why Jesus’ Church must be visible, defined, and structured; if it was not then we could not take doctrinal matters, in terms of resolving issues etc., to the Church for clarification. In fact, taking an issue to the multitude of “churches” available today, would simply lead to further confusion and disagreement.

Find Jesus’ one church established on Pentecost circa 33 AD, which, as per scripture should be still going strong today, and you will have your answer, in my humble opinion. 👍
 
i think both groups know it.
we just spend more time on different parts.
protestants seem to spend a lot of time on Revelation, prophecy and end times areas.
and we’re more into the Gospels., NT books.
 
itullian said:
i think both groups know it.
we just spend more time on different parts.
protestants seem to spend a lot of time on Revelation, prophecy and end times areas.
and we’re more into the Gospels., NT books.
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That’s not true either. That’s the kind of an idea a cradle Catholic could get if they looked at the popular stuff on sale to the general public at one of the big box stores and then made assumptions about practicing Protestants. Yes, the general public likes the apocalyptic stuff. But we have our own brand of that. The general public isn’t as aware of ours.
 
joe370 said:
Neither. As we all know, from scripture, the “pillar and bulwark” of truth is the Church (specifically the teaching office; every church has one) as opposed to the holy Bible, which is why scripture reminds us to take it to the Church… which in turn is why Jesus’ Church must be visible, defined, and structured; if it was not then we could not take doctrinal matters, in terms of resolving issues etc., to the Church for clarification. In fact, taking an issue to the multitude of “churches” available today, would simply lead to further confusion and disagreement.

Find Jesus’ one church established on Pentecost circa 33 AD, which, as per scripture should be still going strong today, and you will have your answer, in my humble opinion. 👍
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No. The Church is not in opposition to Scripture in any way. Saint Jerome said, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”
 
Joe sixpack? Advantage evangelicals. For one thing, they consider the Bible to be the sole rule of faith and source of revelation, so the emphasis is greater. For another thing evangelicals have compartively little culture to their religion so that those who grow lukewarm stop calling themselves christians in a higher percentage of cases compared to lukewarm catholics who haven’t been to mass in years (much less confession), but will still check the “catholic” box on a survey.

As for advanced biblical scholarship? Advantage catholic, by an enormous margin. The evangelical disdain for extra-biblical history leads to a major handicap in much of their scholarship. (Not all, of course and no offense intended to JohnNC and those with a better sense of the value of context and history. But you must admit that y’all are becoming the exception rather than the rule in Evangelicaldom).
 
iloveangels said:
I’m not really bitter. I’m disgusted.
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You expected something else of a church entirely populated by sinners in need of a Savior?

I understand the disgust. I’ve been there myself when I was in college, had great fellwoship with evangelicals and the local Newman Center was of the Kumbaya Katholic sort. But don’t be fooled by evangelical propaganda. They have the same problems with sinful human beings we do. If you attend a committed evangelical bible study and compare them to the average catholic in the pew on Sunday it’s simply an unfair comparison. It’s like comparing a squad of British SAS commandos to a random group of Americans you find in a mall and concluding that the Brits are a superior species to the Americans!

But the average Joe sitting in a protestant pew has just as much problems with lukewarmness as the average catholic.
 
iloveangels said:
Correction: Most Catholics do not study scripture.
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You’re just spouting conjectural nonsense as usual…

Do you have any data to support your claim that Protestants are more “bible literate” than Catholics?

I grew up Presbyterian, then became non-denominational, then Southern Baptist before finally converting to Catholicism. If it’s your anecdotal evidence versus mine, I think I win…
 
stewstew03 said:
You’re just spouting conjectural nonsense as usual…

Do you have any data to support your claim that Protestants are more “bible literate” than Catholics?

I grew up Presbyterian, then became non-denominational, then Southern Baptist before finally converting to Catholicism. If it’s your anecdotal evidence versus mine, I think I win…
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Stew, this is the Catholic version of us saying that Protestants only know what their Pastor tells them… Certainly not fair either way.
 
Porknpie said:
Stew, this is the Catholic version of us saying that Protestants only know what their Pastor tells them… Certainly not fair either way.
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Still. My position is that most Christians do not study scripture. Moreover, in the absence of data telling me otherwise, I disagree that Protestants study scripture more than Catholics. That’s an overly-broad characterization.
 
Porknpie said:
Stew, this is the Catholic version of us saying that Protestants only know what their Pastor tells them… Certainly not fair either way.
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Post Script

Here are some data showing “bible engagement” by Protestants:
(only 19% read the bible on a daily basis)
 
Indifferently said:
I think perhaps the better question might be liturgical Christians versus non-liturgical Christians. An evangelical Anglican priest pointed out to me once, that for all the talk by the non-liturgical lot about how they focus on the Bible more, we liturgical Christians generally have much lengthier Scripture readings at our services. It’s gone even more in that direction with the happy-clappy movement coming in.

The newer Roman liturgy, as well as the Church of England’s ‘Common Worship’, typically have an Old Testament reading, an Epistle and a Gospel, as well as a Psalm read before the Eucharist is celebrated. I went to a rock and roll church down the road and they have one very short reading, an admittedly very good 10 minute sermon expounding on it, a few prayers (I was literally the only person in the room to join the preacher in saying the Lord’s Prayer) and 40 minutes of Christian rock music, with people swaying in the aisles and what have you.

I have to say that I was treated very kindly by these people and all my dealings with them have been very pleasant. But it’s about as far removed from my style of worship as can be.
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I think at this point in the discussion a most startling assertion should be made. So it is that Catholics as a scholarly group know a great deal more than the protestant group. Fr Ronald Knox has been mentioned of course as the greatest scholar of ancient literature that perhaps has ever lived. Many know of his translation of the complete vulgate. No comments need to be made on this point as his work has a self evidence all it’s own for those who have read him.

Let us not forget St Jerome. He was consulted in his day by rabbi’s and scholars in the jewish communities in order to clarify thier own texts of the Torah, Haftorah and the mishnas.

There never has been a protestant or protoprotestant, so far as I know, who has ever had this level of achievement or influence in all of history in as far as the scriptures are concerned

God Bless

Cicero54.
 
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