Why does the Catholic church claim authority over the Bible?

Question

The Biblical texts were around way before the Catholic church existed. All the Catholic church did was compile the texts into book form. They did not write any of it.
The Apostles of Christ wrote it, none of which were Catholic but merely Christian. Would you give credit to the publishing company of a book or the author of it ? God is the author of the Bible, he wrote it through people who were inspired by God to write it, not Catholics who claim authority over it.

Why is this so hard to grasp ?
Why do you think Martin luther went to all that trouble protesting the errors he saw in the church ?

We would not have an English bible if not for luther by the way.
Your thoughts please.

Answer 1

yes, I agree...

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well, back then the roman empire was very powerful...

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why do you think they have "popes"...?

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Answer 2

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Because the Catholic Church is the Church that compiled the Bible canon we have today, and it is the only Church with God-Given Authority to Interpret the Bible.





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The Old Testament, yes.

ALL New Testament Scripture was penned AFTER Jesus established the Church in 33AD.





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You mean "library" form. The word "Bible" literally means "library". The Bible is a library of Scripture.





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Yes, they did. Those who penned the New Testament Scripture were among the first Catholics.





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Catholic Christians, yes.





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You're the one NOT giving credit where credit is due!





< authority over it.>>



God established the Catholic Church, giving IT the Authority to Compile the Bible Canon, Interpret and Teach the Scriptures. Therefore, it can indeed be said that God gave the Catholic Church the Authority to write the New Testament, compile ALL Scripture, Interpret and Teach Scripture to believers.





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Propaganda is hard to grasp because it's all BS.





< in the church ?>>



Exactly, the errors HE SAW!

Besides, you're overlooking the fact that these "errors" were mostly in the conduct of some of the clergy. Martin Luther NEVER questioned Church Dogma!



Curiously, you invoke Martin Luther in an attempt to do what ML did not do - question Church Dogma.





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POSH!

If not Martin Luther, someone would have done it.





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You've been reading them, haven't you?

Answer 3

You really need to read your history.



The Catholic Church existed prior to the Bible. The Church started in 33 A.D. And the earliest NT book wasn't written until 60 A.D and no, the NT was not completely written by the Apostles. Luke was not an Apostle and neither was Mark, these are people who were told the Good News and wrote it down later.



Also, by the time the Bible was compiled, there were over 500 books written by various people, attesting to different Apostles.



As you do not have 500 books, someone had to have the authority to discern which books belonged and which did not.



Every time you open your Bible, you are relying upon the authority of the Catholic Church to have given you the correct and complete collection of books that belong in the Bible. If the Catholic Church did not havr this authority, then you have no way of knowing if your Bible is complete or even correct. Maybe the Revelation according to Peter belongs instead of the Revelation of John. Regardless of if you want to or not, you are relying upon the Church's authority to give you the correct books, the complete set of books as well as the correct translation.



Also, people were not persecuted for reading the Bible, I find this claim hilarious because most of the population could not read and those who could read and spoke Latin. There were Bibles people could buy, but they were so expensive that people did not buy them.



People were persecuted for translating Bibles incorrectly and passing it along as a correctly translated Bible. An example would be. Tynsdale's Bible, which people do not even use today because the errors were so blatant and huge. These Bibles were burned and he was persecuted by King Henry VII, not the Church.



Also, though it is true that the word Catholic is not in the Bible, many words we use to describe things are not. The word Trinity isn't in the Bible, but it is used to describe the relationship between the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Many Protestants are very fond of alter calls, this isn't seen anywhere in the Bible. Incarnation is not in the Bible, but its a word used to describe God becoming Man.



The Catholic Church can be seen in the Bible and you would see very clearly that the early Christians were Catholic if you read more.



All seven Sacraments can be seen in the Bible. The primacy of Peter can be seen. Infallibility can be seen. A hierarchy can be seen. A visible Church can be seen. And so much more.



The word catholic came into connection in 107 *.5 by st. Ignatius, the disciple of St. John and close friends with the other Apostles. He was ordained by St. Peter and martyred for Christ. While on his way to matyrdom, he wrote about the Catholic Church, meaning the Universal Church, and he writes very directly about the Eucharist as us Catholics believe it as well as about many other things.



We know our history. Do you know yours?

Answer 4

Why does the Catholic church claim authority over the Bible?



Because they were the ones responsible for determining the canon of the Bible (the list of which books would be included). They did more than publish the bible like a publishing company - they determined which of the MANY writings that exist about Jesus and His teachings were to be included in the biblical canon.



Neither Jesus nor the Apostles left us with a Table of Contents to the Bible. There were a lot of disagreements between Christians about what books were cannonical. Some groups felt that Revelation should not be included. Others thought books like the Shepherd of Hermes or the Letters of Clement should be included. It was through church councils over hundreds of years, led by the Holy Spirit, which gave us the bible as we have it today.



It was the Catholic Church and it's followers that protect the biblical writings over the centuries. There were Catholic monks who spent their lives preserving and copying Scripture. The Catholic Church did not persecute people who read the bible on their own. They didn't like some of the unauthorized translations that people did - mainly because they felt they were bad translations and heresy. It was their way of protecting God's Word.



And BTW - Luther didn't translate the bible into English (he did translate it into German I believe). And there English versions of the Scripture that were authorized by the Catholic Church for a long time. (See "Where We Got the BIble" by Henry Grahm. Chapter 11 talks aout all the vernacular Scriptures that existed even before Wycliff who is usually credited for the first English bible.)

So even without Luther we'd have an English version of the Bible.

Answer 5

You have a lot of errors in your question. Beginning with that the "apostles" did not write the gospels. The first gospel, Mark, was written some 60-90 years after Jesus' death. The original "Mark" would have been dead by then. And Matthew, Luke and John followed by substantial intervals. At the time the bible was compiled, about 390 CE, there were some 80+ gospels available, they only winnowed them down to the 4 that supported the theology they wanted.

Martin Luther did not protest the bible the Catholics put together, he protested a lot of the corrupt practices of the church at the time.

And Luther spoke German, how did he bring about the bible in English?

btw, Christ never mentioned "christian" at all. That name did not arise until 40 CE in Antioch and was originally a derisive term.

Blessings on your Journey!

Answer 6

Lols at prot saying that Early Church Fathers weren't Catholic! Catholics are Christians, so yes, the Fathers were Catholics and Christians, just like my ford is a ford vehicle.



Your wild assumptions and ignorance's are appalling.



The Catholic Church was founded by Christ, by His teachings, it existed for four hundred years without a proper Bible.





Persecute those who read the Bible???? Wow, prots history never ceases to amaze. The only people who we "persecuted" were rogue priests who thought they could translate the entire Bible into vernacular and miserably failed. The translations were so erroneous, there was no option but burning lest the people be lead astray by false translations.





EDIT: If the Church has no authority over the canonicity of the Bible, then how do you determine the Bible Canon? It was the work of Catholic councils.

Answer 7

Curious choice of expression. Church authority over the Bible. Authority is a feedback system that is a triangle. One element is scripture, the historical faith of the Apostles and their generation, witnessed to us. The other two parts are the Church. One the teaching authority of the Bishops passed down generation by generation from the Apostles. The third is practicing Christians, especially practicing Catholics.



The feedback form each prevents the teaching of error and keeps open the applicatins of Christianity to modern times and for the future.



Scriptures were not available unitl the printing press, except to the wealthy and the scholars they sponsored. The printing press brought poor translations that needless criticized the Church with brough acclaim from countries overthrowing the Church and seizing her lands and buildings and brought condemnation from the Church.



With the twentieth century popularity of the historical-critical method, the Church again saw oportunistst using streched interpretations to criticize the Church. Along with fundamentalists, the Church opposed the historical-critical method.



The Church, unlike the fundamentalists, reversed their position after a generation or two and embraced the historical-critical method. Catholic scholars work side-by-side with Bible scholarship equal to any Protestant scholar.



The Venerable Beade, an English Catholic monk, tranlated scripture into English long before Luther had an English translation. Yes, he translated from the Latin Vulgate, but it was English nonetheless.



The successors of the Apostles, the practicing Catholic community (and to a lesser extent all of Christianity) and the scripures themselves are the source of authority for any Catholic teaching.



The scriptures are the testimony of Apostolic times (even if not written by them). We have written testimony outside scriptures that talking to eye-witnesses and disciples of eye-witnesses was the preferred method of learning Christianity, not scripture (until a few generations later).



At one time all Christians were Catholic. Your thesis that the Bishops of those times were separated from the followers of the Apostles has no merit. It is an interesting claim usually backed by a theory that the Apostles abdicated their teaching authority in favor of scripture or that the Catholic Church becuase of unfaithfulness was abandoned by God. Even non-Catholics will argue against such positions.



That is why it is not obvious that the Catholic Church is not a valid, ancient form of Christianity that practices the faith taught by the Apostles.

Answer 8

The catholics are basically pagans and they may have altered the writings. The clues to this rest in the early Christian writings that never made it into the "bible." It is quite noticeable when the writing quotes a certain part of scriptures and it becomes obvious that the texts have been altered. Protestants are just as guilty as the catholics and have done their share of tampering with the bible.

This is why most churches that I know about are not usable and are essentially pagan organizations masquerading as Christian.

If you read "Bondage of the Will" by Martin Luther, I really don't see how anyone can call that Christian.

The intent of these groups is to inflict the most evil upon mankind and destroy as many lives as possible. The most destructive forces on earth are government and religion which are based upon satanic principles.

I do not believe that God, the creator of the heavens and the earth, would come up with such stupid religious organizations as the ones we have. Which ones are stupid? Take your pick.

Answer 9

Jesus established the Catholic Church in 33AD and gave it to Peter to lead.



Jesus said "You are Peter (Kephas) and upon this rock (kephas) I will build my Church."



Matt. to Rev. - Peter is mentioned 155 times and the rest of apostles combined are only mentioned 130 times. Peter is also always listed first except in 1 Cor. 3:22 and Gal. 2:9 (which are obvious exceptions to the rule).



Did the early Christians have the Bible as we know it? No. The Bible as a whole was not compiled until the late 4th century and then it was compiled by a Catholic saint (St. Jerome) at the request of a Catholic pope (St. Damasus I). The Bible is a Catholic book





What did Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer, state about the Bible? In his "Commentary On St. John," he stated the following: "We are compelled to concede to the Papists that they have the Word of God, that we have received It from them, and that without them we should have no knowledge of It at all." Regardless of what non-Catholic Christians may think or say, according to secular, objective historians, the Catholic Church alone preserved Sacred Scripture throughout the persecution of the Roman Empire and during the Dark Ages. All non-Catholic Christian denominations owe the existence of the Bible to the Catholic Church alone. Why did God choose the Catholic Church to preserve Scripture if It is not His Church?



Your not calling God a liar are you?





Catholic Christian †

Answer 10

Funny, since the Catholic Church started year 33 A.D. by Christ himself.



@ha ha...Did you know that by less than 1% could read during the Middle ages (and far less before)? And those who read where priest monks (who read the Holy Bible) and Kings/aristocrats who many choose not to read the bible? So, it is wrong to say that they tried to kill all who tried to read, that's protestant crap...They prosecuted everyone who misinterpreted the bible as saying Jesus isn't God. Those, they sent to arabian peninsula (who helped writing the quran)....

Second, I've read the Bible, that's an essential part of being Christian! The early church is more like the Catholic and the Orthodox church than any other, actually...So because during a few events of the 3 years of the Lord's mission on Earth and a few events of a life time of The Apostle's mission on Earth that are written in the bible, is all that happened during those years? No, many of the teachings went from mouth-to-mouth, starting the Roman Catholic Tradition...

Answer 11

The Catholic Church persecuted Protestants...AND vice versa. Look up the Protestant Revolution...the horny, murderous King Henry VIII started that shism...Martin Luther started SOME of it.

Who do you think was committing genocide on the native Americans? That was Protestants AND Catholics.

True, catholics hardly have an Innocent past but the Protestants have done their fair share of murder/torture. In fact, believe it was a bunch of Protestants during the Salem With trials.

There are over 30,000 Xian sects in the world...1,500 in the US.

I'm sure some are violent while others are not and every shade between so really, dissing on oe group when your own has its own 'issues' is pointless.

BTW, the Gnostic's were one of the very first but they were 'subdued' by other sects. The church, whatever the sect, has a violent history.

Answer 12

"Catholic" wasn't coined until later, but a duck is still a duck whether you call it a moose or a duck.



The Catholic Church members WERE the first Christians. WE are Christ's followers through and through and we trace our lineage and our traditions all the way back to Christ and the early Church fathers and the Apostles.



I'm sorry, but you are wrong. No one was persecuted for reading the Bible under the Catholic Church. This was before the Printing Press and Bibles were rare and hard to make, not to mention that the priest was usually the only one in a town or village that could read, so he read the Bible to the people himself.

Answer 13

Why do Christians claim authority over the Bible?



The vast majority of the biblical texts were around way before anything resembling christianity existed (WAY before). All the christians have done was adopt the Masoretic texts as their own, and added the so-called NT to them.



But it was and continues to be mostly written by Jews (including the NT) and mostly about Judaism.



Dont forget that the apostles and Yashua ben Joseph were Jews.



So maybe people who live in glass houses shoudn't throw stones????

Answer 14

Because the Catholic church claims to be the successors of Jesus' disciples.

Answer 15

Because 38,000 protestant denominations all arguing with themselves is clearly not what Christ intended when he instituted the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic church.

Answer 16

Because the Catholic Church compiled the Bible from its own writings and for its own use. Because the founder of the Catholic Church, Jesus Christ, guaranteed its leaders, "The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth"; "Whatsoever you bind upon earth is bound in heaven"; He who hears you hears Me". Because the Bible refers to the one Church Jesus Christ founded, and no other, as "the pillar and foundation of truth", without which the truth cannot stand. And because those who have "borrowed" the Bible from the Catholic Church have consistently demonstrated their inability to correctly interpret it, fragmenting into thousands of unauthorized conflicting manmade denominations over disagreements about its meaning.

Answer 17

Protestants think they are like the pre-catholic christians, but nothing could be farther from the truth.

Answer 18

I can see by your bigotry and refusal to acknowledge the established historical record that no answer will satisfy you, so I answer for the benefit of the readers.



The Catholic Church PROVED what was inspired writing, whereas you just assume it. The Church never claimed to be the author of the truths in it, God did that, but you can't deny they were written by inspired HUMAN authors in LIMITED human language.



MARTIN LUTHER:

"We concede -- as we must -- that so much of what they [the Catholic Church] say is true: that the papacy has God's word and the office of the apostles, and that we have received Holy Scriptures, Baptism, the Sacrament, and the pulpit from them. What would we know of these if it were not for them?"

Sermon on the gospel of St. John, chaps. 14 - 16 (1537), in vol. 24 of LUTHER'S WORKS,

St. Louis, Mo., Concordia, 1961, 304



Your ignorance of Martin Luther is as bad as early church history.



WHAT ARE THE ROMAN CATACOMBS?



The catacombs are underground tunnels that were forged out of soft rock. They are long, marrow winding corridors. The dead were buried in the walls on either side. From time to time, going through these corridors, one comes to a wider space like a room. In these rooms the Christians would gather for the sacrifice of the Mass so as to worship free from the pagan’s persecutions.



Burial in the catacombs stopped when the barbarians plundered Rome. The popes removed the relics of the saints and martyrs from the catacombs. The catacombs, once abandoned, were gradually forgotten and not discovered again until the end of the sixteenth century. Most famous of the catacombs is that of St. Callistus, where many of the popes were buried after they were martyred for the faith.



HOW THE CATACOMBS BEAR WITNESS TO THE TRUE CATHOLIC FAITH TODAY



An authentic Catholic catechism, containing to true Catholic teachings, could be composed from the pictures and inscriptions on the tombs and walls of ancient catacombs of the first three centuries. Pictures, medals, and inscriptions in the catacombs identify the faith of the early Christians with the Catholic faith.



The catacombs prove that the first Christians believed that Jesus Christ is true God and true Man. They also believed in the Real Presence of Jesus in the holy Eucharist, the divine institution of the papacy, the dignity of the mother of God, the intercession of the saints, purgatory, prayers for the deceased.



The emblem of the fish, ichthys, was frequently used in the catacombs. It is a symbol of the Lord Jesus, for the Greek word ichthys means “fish” and its letters are the initials for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.” When Christians spoke of “receiving the fish”, they meant to receive Jesus in Holy communion.



Frequently, pictures of our Savior in the catacombs reveal him as the Good Shepherd., carrying the lost sheep on his shoulders. This is the ancient biblical form which reveals the same message as our modern devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A number of people are sitting around a table on which is bread and fish.



Death and resurrection were often in the minds of the early Christians, as indicated by the pictures of Noah and the ark, Jonah and the whale, Daniel in the lions’ den, and the raising of Lazarus. Their faith in resurrection and eternal life gave them courage in facing death under persecution. There is also the famous account of Tarsicius being martyred as he took the holy Eucharist, the bread of life, to Christian prisoners.



The eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass was offered in the catacombs on the altars under which rested the bodies of martyrs. Catholic altars even today have “altar stones” in which the relics of saints and martyrs were placed by bishops when they consecrated the altar stones.



You can see pics here before you rant about the Catacombs not being there:

http://www.catacombe.roma.it/index.html

Answer 19

IT is already in print and the research finished on who wrote the NT. The Romans wrote all of it, and there was not any of it or christian in Judea 1st century. The writers wrote in Greek and started about year 65CE. Church first made in Asiatic Turkey. If you say god wrote the bible then you must accept god made many mistakes. It was built round a conspiracy for ulterior motives. Nothing like early church, that is christian propaganda.

Answer 20

they, who Condemn Sola Scriptura??? and who in their own words are "above" the Bible???

Sunday is our mark of authority...the church is above the Bible, and this transferrence of the Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.: Catholic Record, London Ontario, Sept. 1, 1923.

Constantine, the great mixer of paganism and Christianity, was emperor when the controversy began in A.D. 320. More interested in politics than pure religion, Constantine favored whichever side seemed to his advantage. At first, Constantine exiled the Arian leaders, but three years later (A.D. 328), he not only welcomed their return but made one of them his personal advisor. 25

It was during this upsurge of Arianism that Vaticanus and Sinaiticus are believed to have been produced. 26 Several scholars believe that they may be identified with two of fifty Bibles that Constantine ordered to be prepared in A.D. 331. 27 Vaticanus and Sinaiticus were both written on parchments of vellum by talented calligraphers, a very expensive specification included in Constantine’s order. 28

Constantine called upon Eusebius of Caesarea to be in charge of the preparation of the Bibles. Eusebius is well known as an enthusiastic admirer of Origen, and was inclined to favor the Arians. If such a one was in charge of preparing these manuscripts, it is no wonder the Critical Text—and consequently nearly every modern version—lacks fervent support for the deity of Christ. If Eusebius used any of the critical skills of his mentor, he was likely to dissect the Scriptures, thinking he was correcting them. This may explain some of the omissions characteristic of the Alexandrian Text and likewise of most modern versions.

Other obviously careless omissions in these manuscripts may have been because Constantine’s order required extreme haste in accomplishing the work. Repeatedly, Constantine urged Eusebius to press the project with all speed. Corrections would not only be costly but time-consuming, and few were likely made. 29

Of course, without further documentation, no one can be certain of the exact history of Vaticanus and Sinaiticus. But it seems likely that they were affected by the philosophical schools of Alexandria. Whether through Eusebius, other misguided critics, or one of the countless heretics that Alexandria bred, 30 it is apparent that the Alexandrians’ attempt to “correct” the Scriptures failed. Within 200 years this text-type fell into discredit and disuse. 31

It is interesting to realize that several of the omissions and peculiar readings of Vaticanus and Sinaiticus were once found only in Roman Catholic Bibles. Dr. Benjamin G. Wilkinson, history professor and late president of Washington Missionary College, has proposed that Jerome, a great admirer of both Origen and Eusebius, transmitted many Eusebio-Origen errors into the Latin Vulgate. 32 The Latin Vulgate has been the recognized Bible of Catholics for centuries. The English Rheims-Douay version is translated from it. History is replete with episodes of violence wrought by the Catholic Church against all who did not receive the Latin Vulgate. To deny their Scriptures was to deny the Church’s self-appointed authority. When the modern versions began to appear with several readings previously propagated only in Catholic Bibles, Thomas S. Preston of St. Ann’s Church of New York was recorded in Dr. Warfields’ Collection of Opinions and Reviews as saying, “It is to us a gratification to find that in very many instances they have adopted the reading of the Catholic Version, and have thus by their scholarship confirmed the correctness of our [Catholic] Bible.” 33

Answer 21

Because many millions of very,very gullible people believe everything the catholic church tells them to believe.

Answer 22

Look at all the stuff they left out.