Who wrote the Bible???

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Men wrote the Bible, God chose to work through men to get it done. It was decided by the Catholic Church which books to include in the Bible in order to know what could be read at Mass. There were disputes on what was inspired and what wasn’t.

These books were decided upon about the year 397 or so, and everything remained pretty much set until the reformation. That was when Martin Luther, decided to go with the Jewish translation which was decided upon by the Jews in opposition to Christians of the 1st century. Later on some books were removed based partly upon this decision.

So man wrote the Bible, God worked through men to write it and compile it.

God Bless
Scylla

I believe the Bible is inspired, but it seems once you vote you can only vote for one. I believe in #1 and #4 of those choices available.
 
I voted for “other” since the Catholic response was not included among the choices:
**DEI VERBUM
CHAPTER III
SACRED SCRIPTURE, ITS INSPIRATION AND DIVINE INTERPRETATION **
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  1. Those divinely revealed realities which are contained and presented in Sacred Scripture have been committed to writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For holy mother Church, relying on the belief of the Apostles (see John 20:31; 2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Peter 1:19-20, 3:15-16), holds that the books of both the Old and New Testaments in their entirety, with all their parts, are sacred and canonical because written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.(1) In composing the sacred books, God chose men and while employed by Him (2) they made use of their powers and abilities, so that with Him acting in them and through them, (3) they, as true authors, consigned to writing everything and only those things which He wanted. (4)
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  1. cf. First Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, Chap. 2 “On Revelation:” Denzinger 1787 (3006); Biblical Commission, Decree of June 18,1915: Denzinger 2180 (3629): EB 420; Holy Office, Epistle of Dec. 22, 1923: EB 499.
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  1. cf. Pius XII, encyclical “Divino Afflante Spiritu,” Sept. 30, 1943: A.A.S. 35 (1943) p. 314; Enchiridion Bible. (EB) 556.
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  1. “In” and “for” man: cf. Heb. 1, and 4, 7; (“in”): 2 Sm. 23,2; Matt.1:22 and various places; (“for”): First Vatican Council, Schema on Catholic Doctrine, note 9: Coll. Lac. VII, 522.
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  1. Leo XIII, encyclical “Providentissimus Deus,” Nov. 18, 1893: Denzinger 1952 (3293); EB 125.
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vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651118_dei-verbum_en.html
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What do you mean by “the Ecumenical and the Catholic Church?”

Anyway, the Bible is the inspired word of God, but it wasn’t dictated by God like a boss dictating a letter to a secretary. As scylla cited so well, the various writings in the Bible were written by men as God inspired them to write. It’s both the inspired word of God and written by men not one or the other. This is a witness to the fact that the Church is both human and divine, too which is why Jesus empowered the Church with the authority to determine which writings would be included in the pages of the Bible.
 
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Della:
What do you mean by “the Ecumenical and the Catholic Church?”

Anyway, the Bible is the inspired word of God, but it wasn’t dictated by God like a boss dictating a letter to a secretary. As scylla cited so well, the various writings in the Bible were written by men as God inspired them to write. It’s both the inspired word of God and written by men not one or the other. This is a witness to the fact that the Church is both human and divine, too which is why Jesus empowered the Church with the authority to determine which writings would be included in the pages of the Bible.
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Hi:

I am sorry if I left any other Catholic choices out, but since this is the Non-Catholic section perhaps it is OK and can be included under “other”.

Here is what I meant by the "Ecumenical and the Catholic Church that inspired this poll from another individual on another active thread. Here is a copy from the other thread:

Originally posted by another member under “Revelations…are we ready”

No, individual books were written and inspired by God. It was an Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church that gathered all the inspired books together into the book we now call the Bible.

It is not my intention to post on this thread here unless you have some questions. Peace and Love to you all, tommy
 
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tommy4321:
Here is what I meant by the "Ecumenical and the Catholic Church that inspired this poll from another individual on another active thread. Here is a copy from the other thread:

Originally posted by another member under “Revelations…are we ready”

No, individual books were written and inspired by God. It was an Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church that gathered all the inspired books together into the book we now call the Bible.
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Becuase of your intentional miswording of this poll you will get the results you are looking for.

What a joke!!!

You title the poll, “Who wrote the Bible???” but then put my comment that the Catholic Church assembled the Bible by gathering the inspired books together and leaving out those books that were not inspired to make the Bible.

No one wrote the Bible. The Bible is a collection of books that were inspired by God and writen by men over a period of many, many years.

Up until the third century or so there was no Bible. There was the Torah and an assortment of books some of which the bishops of the Catholic Church with the guidance of the Holy Spirit during an Ecumenical Council determined were inspired and they codified the Canon of the Bible. Other books were left out, I have named many of them for you, because those bishops, again guided by the Holy Spirit, determined that they were not inspired. This is fact, this is History.

You can deny it all you wish but that in no way changes what the Truth is.

You half hearted attempt to correct your mistake in the poll is useless as most people vote in the poll before reading all the posts in the thread.

Nice to to mislead once again.
 
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ByzCath:
No one wrote the Bible. The Bible is a collection of books that were inspired by God and writen by men over a period of many, many years.

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God wrote the Bible through his chosen ones.
 
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tommy4321:
God wrote the Bible through his chosen ones.
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Not true.

God did not and does not practice auto-writing. That is a new age superstition.

That is why the books of the Bible are said to be inspired by God. God did not physically write the books of the Bible. He inspired men to write the books.

And once again, the Bible is just a collection of Books, no one wrote the Bible, but the Catholic Church did assemble the Bible.
 
I took advantage of the chance to pick two choices… I think some did not see this opportunity… thus the argument…
 
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tommy4321:
God wrote the Bible through his chosen ones.
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As the Vatican II quote I provided above clarifies, both God and man are the author of Scripture, with God providing the inspiration, and men using human words and concepts to write down what God wanted them to write, no more and no less (“everything and only those things.”).
 
I would have included the Ecumenical and Catholic Church had I understood your intent of that option, as described in post #6 above.

But that would leave me to select the first 4 options.

It was written by men, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and determined to be Sacred Scripture by the Councils of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

Not the best worded poll I’ve ever seen.

God Bless,

CARose
 
This may seem confusing, but if you think about it, it really is not. Credit should be only given to God for us humans being blessed with the Words in the Bible. No Council, religion, or man has the right to take away the credit due to God for the rich blessings we receive from the Bible.
 
I think that there is one overriding difficulty that hampers the attempts of Catholics and Protestants to discuss the bible:

In modern Protestant thinking, the bible is God’s revelation to man.

In Catholic thinking, God revealed Himself to man progressively through the prophets, and finally and completely through His Son Jesus Christ. The bible is a history of that revelation, not the revelation itself.

This may seem a fine distinction, but it is really an important one. Protestants have tried to use the bible as the entire deposit of faith, but without the infallible Church and sacred tradition it is incomplete. Hence the constant splintering of Protestantism, the drift away from gospel principles and into man-made heresies, and new post-Christian religions like the JWs, LDS, SDAs and Christian Scientists.

God bless,
Paul
 
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tommy4321:
This may seem confusing, but if you think about it, it really is not. Credit should be only given to God for us humans being blessed with the Words in the Bible. No Council, religion, or man has the right to take away the credit due to God for the rich blessings we receive from the Bible.
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It isn’t “confusing” at all, it’s just a simplistic either/or approach. No one is seeking “credit” for men, but the reality is that the Scriptures are God speaking to us through the words of men. The inspired authors didn’t make the Bible up out of whole cloth or add their own opinions, but neither were they automatons or passive mouthpieces. I think if you carefully read the Vactican II Quote provided above (or better yet, the whole document), you may gain a better grasp of this.

Peace 🙂
Fidelis
 
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tommy4321:
Who wrote the Bible, God or Man? (choose one or more)
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Many of you chose “god wrote the bible through men” but didn’t simultaneously select “Men wrote the bible”.
Did you not realize you could select more than one choice?
How could you select that “God wrote (wrong verb - s/b inspired) the bible through men” without also selecting “Men wrote the bible”?

PHil
 
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PaulDupre:
I think that there is one overriding difficulty that hampers the attempts of Catholics and Protestants to discuss the bible:

In modern Protestant thinking, the bible is God’s revelation to man.

In Catholic thinking, God revealed Himself to man progressively through the prophets, and finally and completely through His Son Jesus Christ. The bible is a history of that revelation, not the revelation itself.

This may seem a fine distinction, but it is really an important one…
God bless,
Paul
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Great post. It is a small distinction, but also a fundamental one as well…
 
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Philthy:
Many of you chose “god wrote the bible through men” but didn’t simultaneously select “Men wrote the bible”.
Did you not realize you could select more than one choice?
How could you select that “God wrote (wrong verb - s/b inspired) the bible through men” without also selecting “Men wrote the bible”?

PHil
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It wasn’t my intention to post much on this thread unless there were questions or quotes. You may have noticed that a similar thread went up yesterday focusing around which religion as opposed to God “brought” us the Bible.

When my family starts a Bible study at home we usually start with this prayer: “Please God our Father accept our thanks for giving us the Bible which we are about to open and read the Words you gave us”. “Please forgive us for our shortcomings and we thank you for offering your Son as a randsom for our sins”. “We ask you this through you son, Jesus Christ who it must have been so hard for you to watch him die, which you did this to save us from our sins, Amen”.

We would not say to God, thank you for the religion that brought us, or wrote the Bible as praise and thanks is given to the Lord our God. Who is given thanks God or religion?
 
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tommy4321:
We would not say to God, thank you for the religion that brought us, or wrote the Bible as praise and thanks is given to the Lord our God. Who is given thanks God or religion?
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When you say “religion” I will presume you mean what many Protestants mean by this: “a man-made system of works intended to work one’s way to heaven.” Aside from the fact this is a shallow definition of religion, the very real fact that God uses men as means to his saving work (Roman 11:14; 1 Corinthians 1:21; 7:16; 9:22; 1 Titus 4:16) is a hard biblical reality for almost all Protestants to admit. It seems not to matter a whit that no one baptizes themselves, or preaches to themselves, or introduces the gospel to themselves–whenever he comes up against any Catholic teaching that seems to involve man’s involvement, this certain type of Protestant has an involuntary violent reaction.

To answer your question which poses yet another false dichotomy (either/or): We thank God for his Church to which he has entrusted his Word, including the inspired Scriptures.
 
I thank God on a regular basis for giving us the Body of Christ, both on the cross in expiation for my sins, and the Body of Christ in the form of His Church, a very real religion, which shows me the path Christ came to teach.

The bible tells me very clearly, that when it comes to Truth, it is the Church to which I should turn, for it is the Pillar and Foundation of that truth. If I and a friend are in dispute as to the truth, we can enlist the help of a couple of friends. If the error continues, we can then take it to the Church. If the one in error refuses to consent to the Church, then we are to treat him as we would a tax collector (with respect, but kept at arms length sounds about right to me on this one).

If this Church being described were an invisible church, where would we get the authority to ensure that the truth, as given by God, is retained and passed on?

How am I to know any better than the Egyptian Eunich who claimed he needed a teacher to understand scripture if I don’t have a Church to help me?

God has always worked through his favorite tools, humans, who were made in his image. He created us so that we might give him all Glory and Honor. We honor him best when we are meak and humble, for in this we seek not to make ourselves like Gods. This is much what Christ came to teach us and this is the message of the Holy Mother Church.

We take nothing from God when we acknowledge that he has allowed mankind to participate in his plan of salvation. God loves us infinitely, as only the infinite God can.
So, yes, I do thank God for religion. It has been my beacon in the darkest of nights and it has taught me the truth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And I thank God that he used frail humanity to record all he has done for us over the generations, so that we might be saved. I thank God that there is a teaching authority to ensure that I learn the proper intend of the confusing passages that can so often appear to be contradictory, if you try to accept all that the bible says. And with this guidance, I have come to love just these complexities, for buried in their depths I have learned the richness of your beauty.

God, please continue to guide me when I read scripture, so that when I am lost, when I am confused, that I might humble myself to turn to those who know more than I, so that I might be enlightened by the truth of all you intended me to learn from such a mastery of your word. I ask this Father, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, your son who, together with the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns with you, One God, forever and ever, Amen.

CARose
 
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