Seeking
Divine Mercy
The
Holy Bible
Where
did it come from?
One of the most basic questions that every Christian should want
to know the answer to is; “where did the Holy Bible come from”? Although we realize
it is through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, “the Inspired Word of God”,
obviously it didn’t just appear or drop from the sky. Yet, most Christians have
no idea as to its origin or lineage and have never pursued the subject to learn
the answer to that question.
Routinely, many protestant institutions of higher theological
learning do not wish to delve too deeply into the subject of Bible origin
because of where the answers will
impeccably lead and what may result once one has truly learned its origin,
purpose and lineage. In recognizing that the Gospels of the New Testament were
written by the apostles or early disciples of the apostles on their behalf
during the infancy of Christianity, and that these texts have been
unquestionably Inspired by the Holy Spirit, learning how the Bible came to
exist would further lead to interests of the ancient texts written by the Early
Church Fathers and you will soon understand why. From there, the lineage of the
Catholic Faith as the truth in Christianity would be obvious reflecting the
consistency and fullness of the teachings of Jesus Christ.
There are many sources of specific technical and historical
information available for those who wish to delve deeply into the historic
facts so we do not intend to repeat that data here. Our intent in this writing
is to provide a factual, realistic, rational narrative in a simplified but
verifiable and indisputable account of the origin of the Holy Bible, how it
came to be and why there are so many “versions” of interpretation and in some
cases with removed content available today; that is, verifiable and
indisputable in its origin, consistency and interpretation through the
teachings of Catholicism for those who wish to learn.
Jesus founded His Church for the purpose of preaching His Gospel in order to
provide all man the means to achieve personal salvation (Matthew Ch16; 15-19).
The establishment of the Catholic Church and its initial hierarchy beginning with the
apostles is well attested to in the New Testament. First it is necessary to
understand how the “Catholic” Church came to be known as Catholic in order to
realize its lineage as the one true Church Jesus founded with His Blood.
In ancient society those who were followers of a particular faith, teaching or
teacher were usually labeled by those outside the fellowship in a manner
reflective of their teacher or teachings. This has been a very common practice
in all societies throughout history. Based on Scripture and recorded history it
is evident that during the beginning of the establishment of the Christian
Faith, the apostles referred to the teachings of Jesus Christ as the “way”. This is also
reflected in the “Didache”. The Didache is the
first written text of the apostles, at times looked upon as the first Catechism
of the Catholic Faith outlining the teachings of Jesus Christ long before the
Bible existed. The Didache is also known as “the
way of life” and “the
way of death”, hence, the
way.
Originally, it was not the apostles who referred to themselves or
the followers of Christ as “Christians”. This designation was placed on the
followers during the period Paul served in his ministry with others in
The Catholic Church has been commissioned by Christ as the guardian of what has
been known as the “Deposit of
Faith”. The deposit of faith is the complete and accurate teachings
of Jesus Christ, protected from distortion within three equally indispensable
components; “Sacred Scripture”,
“Sacred Tradition”,
and the “Magisterium” of
the Catholic Church. Protestantism virtually rejects all but Sacred Scripture.
There were however, such men as John Wesley who did in fact speak of tradition,
but he did not refer to ancient Church Tradition (always designated with an
upper case ‘T’) as is meant by the Church's use of the term nor the writings of
the great theologians and Church Fathers as their writings attested. He
promoted tradition’s adaptation based on social conditions and their related
religious influences as they contributed to a person's independent
understanding of God and of Christian theology for a given era.
Wesley followed the notion that tradition (as he related to it)
may include externally influenced ideologies to form one’s individual
interpretation and understanding of Scripture, moral values, and further
teaching of family and upbringing. By the very principles by which John Wesley
related to tradition, although he had good intentions and was to a degree
successful in his ministry, it is clear that he, as was the case with others,
did not understand the element referred to by the Catholic Church in the
reference to Sacred Tradition.
It should also be pointed out that tradition that can be frequently changed or
adapt as a result of outside influences as described in Wesley’s ideologies is
not by the true sense, “tradition” and leads to a teaching or doctrine that is
more socially acceptable but can come into opposition with Scripture, which has
happened numerous times in the past.
So what then is Sacred Tradition? It is the one true understanding
of the teachings of Jesus Christ as preached verbally
to the disciples, both Children and adults, explained by the Apostles and
carried on through direct apostolic succession. It is the proper understanding
transferred by the Apostles to these disciples not from texts that did not yet
exist, but by word and discussion between the teachers and the students leaving
no room for question as to meaning or intent. Some of these men (elder
disciples) would become Bishops directly succeeding the Apostles while those
who were then child disciples in many cases became the 2nd and 3rd successors
in that line of “apostolic succession”. Sts. Clement of Rome, Ignatius of
Antioch, and Polycarp of Smyrna to name a few are considered some of the most
important of these fathers.
It is this verbal preaching that the written texts originated
from, written by or on behalf of the Apostles by early Christians guided by the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. In some cases these writers would have received
their faith side by side with the Apostolic Fathers. And it is these texts that centuries later would become the contents of what we
refer to as the New Testament
of the Holy Bible. Just as critically, the Apostolic Fathers recorded in their
own writings extended explanations and recognitions of the early hierarchy and
living faith of the Church including the authority of the Chair of Peter in Rome, the
apostolic teachings and the way of life and worship of the early Church which
clearly verify the validity and lineage of the Catholic Faith through today.
During the infancy of the Church there were numerous writings
scattered throughout the regions that claimed to have been produced by the
authority of the Apostles. At times, because of the great geographic distances
between territories and the multiple languages the texts were written in, some
of the meaning of those writings were misinterpreted or were not written by the
authority of the Apostles and did not present an accurate teaching of Jesus
Christ. The Church Fathers therefore had an essential role in identifying the
authentic written texts over the first few centuries of the Church. It was the
direct relationship these Fathers had with the Apostles and that proper
understanding the Apostles instilled in them that the Apostolic Fathers were
later able to identify the true, authentic teachings of Jesus Christ out of the
numerous texts to be scrutinized. Those deemed valid were retained for teaching
while those deemed questionable or invalid were rejected.
In 384 A.D. the Catholic Church,
by the dictate of Pope Damasus, commissioned St. Jerome to proceed with the
compilation of the valid apostolic texts into one source interpreted and
translated from Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic into Latin. It was this compilation
of texts that became the contents of the New Testament,
thereafter united with the Old
Testament; the compilation became the Latin Vulgate,
the first Holy Bible. This Bible remains the primary authoritative Biblical
reference of the Catholic Church. It should be stated that the Old Testament and New Testament are
not two separate stories or "books" as many seem to think. They
together are one story of the relationship and covenants between God and man.
The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, the fulfillment of
God's promise through His Son, Jesus, The Christ.
It was the Catholic Church Jesus founded and made His covenant with and that covenant could never be broken even to the consummation of the world.
The Holy Bible has been comprised of texts written within the Catholic Church,
selected and compiled by the Catholic Church, validated by the Catholic Church,
closed through canonization by the Catholic Church and introduced by the
Catholic Church specifically to teach the
Catholic Faith never to be taken out of its element. That teaching of faith
was always to be accompanied with and correctly presented through Sacred Tradition which was and remains its
true teacher, protected by the Magisterium
in unison with the pope as the complete Deposit
of Faith. As with any educational process, the text book is never
handed out to the students for the student to self teach or to learn a subject
without a teacher. Of course some of the content of the Bible was written in a
literal sense and can be rationally understood by the reader, but much more can
not be interpreted literally.
1500 years after the establishment of the Catholic Faith and
roughly 1200 years after the introduction of the Holy Bible by the Catholic
Church, the “Protestant reformation” produced the establishment of multiple
systems of beliefs among disagreeing founders who could not accept in faith all
the teachings of Catholicism. These were the first Protestant “faiths” or
systems of belief. Since that time less than 500 years ago, Protestantism has
splintered drastically where today there are over 30,000 individual churches or
systems of beliefs. Because of the extensive separation through time added to
their lack of familiarity with true Catholicism, the majority of today’s
Protestant Christians have no idea what the Catholic Church truly teaches or
why, offered only the bias handed down over more recent years from their own
congregations. But why have they splintered in their beliefs so drastically?
Because Protestantism removed the Holy Bible from its true intended reference
and teacher, the Catholic Church, and used it under the premise that it needed
no teacher or other source of reference to present it correctly. The idea that
each person could understand and interpret Scripture individually as he or she
could relate to it was adopted and in the process, where conflicts within
Protestant churches arose, the separation of congregants occurred creating more
and more churches founded by more and more individually adopted beliefs. Over these most recent centuries
Protestantism modified some (not all) of the contents of the Bible so as to be
less conflicting with their own interpretations and beliefs while removing
texts that conflicted with their adopted versions. Because the separate texts
of the Bible are referred to as “books”, it was easily adaptable to altering,
resulting in the complete removal of seven “books” or texts that contained
references in opposition to Protestantism. It was only much later after the
discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls that those books were proven authentic and
returned as content to the “Protestant Bible” although placed differently than
in the original version.
The question has at times been asked; can the Catholic Church
rightfully claim to have the only true and complete interpretation of the Holy
Bible? It is a proven fact the Bible is
completely of the Catholic Faith through its Church, and as such, it most
certainly can. Can a reader of a book tell the author his intended meaning
better than the author knows himself? It takes no more than common sense to
recognize the answer to this question.
May the Grace of the Holy Spirit guide us in the pursuit of our
faith and knowledge in Jesus Christ.
