inJESUS:
Please explain the following:
AL 1:6 I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel
;
GAL 1:7 which
is not another `gospel’ only there are some that trouble you, and would
pervert the gospel of Christ.
GAL 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.
GAL 1:9 As we have said before, so say I now again, if any man preacheth unto you any **gospel **other than that
which ye received, let him be anathema.
Salaam.
Joseph.
Salaam Joseph, it refers to the “good news” taught orally by the apostles and not a literal book found with them since oral tradition was the means of spreading the good news .
‘Go ye and teach all nations’, ‘preach the Gospel to every creature’ , ‘He that heareth you heareth Me’. What Jesus commanded and meant them to do was precisely what He had done Himself : deliver the Word of God to the people by the living voice—convince , persuade, instruct, convert them by addressing themselves face to face to living men and women.
the Apostles at first never thought of writing the New Testament; and neither they did. The books of the New Testament were produced and called forth by special circumstances that arose, were written to meet particular demands and emergencies. Nothing was further from the minds of the Apostles and Evangelists than the idea of composing works which should be collected and formed into one volume, and so constitute the Holy Book of the Christians. And we can imagine St Paul staring in amazement if he had been told that his Epistles, and St Peter’s and St. John’s, and the others would be tied up together and elevated into the position of a complete and exhaustive statement of the doctrines of Christianity, to be placed in each man’s hand as an easy and infallible guide in faith and morals, independent of any living and teaching authority to interpret them. No one would have been more shocked at the idea of his letters usurping the place of the authoritative teacher—the Church, than the great Apostle who himself said, ‘How shall they hear without a preacher? how shall they preach unless they be sent? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.’
All in all, it was oral tradition. Christian faith spread in the first century throughout many countries and each apostle used to visit the churches he was assigned to teach. It was later, and under specific circumstances, that the Church decided to compile the Bible.