The Bible is a Catholic Book

The Bible Is A Catholic Book What is the history of the Bible? Saint Paul Ministries www.saintpaulministries.net

Reaching back 3500 years, 1500 years prior to the birth of Christ, we find the first writings of the Bible.
The first five books of are called the Torah or the Pentateuch.
We believe Moses lived between 1500-1300 BC.
He recounts events, Adam & Eve the garden etc. which happened long before his birth.
But how is that possible you might ask.
Biblical scholars are quick to answer they were divinely inspired and Moses wrote them down as they were revealed to him by God.
How then did Moses learn to write?
The Egyptians developed hieroglyphics and Moses was educated as an Egyptian in the palace of the Pharaoh.

When Alexander the Great conquered much of the world and the Hebrew language began to die out and was being replaced with the Greek and Aramaic languages.
As a result their was a need preserve and translate the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek.

The translation was completed about 148 BC and included all the books, including those 7 which Martin Luther would leave out over 1650 years later.
This translation was called the Septuagint or the 70 (LXX), and represents by legend the work of 72 Jewish translators who worked independently of each
other and finished with identical text.
This text was available during the earthly life of Jesus and he even quoted from the it.
About 90-95 AD Christianity was rapidly expanding and the Jews called the Council of Jamnia.

The purpose of the council was to remove portions of the Septuagint which were being used by Christians as “proof texts” of their religion.
Some non-Catholics argue that these 7 books were added in the fourth century when Jerome translated the Septuagint into the language of the people, Latin.
If that were true how could the Council of Jamnia have removed something that wasn’t there in the first place?
By leaving out the 7 books of the original Hebrew Bible the Protestants are in essence saying, the Pharisaic Jews who rejected Jesus and persecuted the early Church were right in removing the 7 books.

Further, the Pharisaic Jews have more authority in choosing the Canon of Scripture than the Christian Church which Jesus founded.
The Christian community had existed for about 60 years prior to the removal of the books and the sole reason for their removal was to remove from
Christians the text that proved the validity of their religion.
It just so happened that by excluding the books Luther’s theology more closely matched the religion he was creating on his own authority.

Returning to the period of 382 to 419 the Catholic Church recognized the need to take the unedited Septuagint of 148 BC and many other writings being circulated, and decide which were inspired, which were not inspired.
The purpose was to join them into one Catholic book we call the Bible.
Debates raged, Jerome wanted to take out the 7 books, Augustine didn’t.
It’s important to remember that a persons private opinion does not change the truth.
In 382 the Council of Rome and Pope St. Damasus issued a decree which defined the canonical books of both the Old and New Testaments.

St. Jerome was given the task of translating the Old Testament from the original Hebrew and Aramaic languages into Latin, the language of the people, and thus making it more available to those who could read.
The translation was called the “Latin Vulgate,” and was completed about 405 AD.
The vast majority of people in Jerome’s time could not read or so the priests of the Church read and interpreted the Biblical passages for the people during daily Mass.
Even today Catholics who regularly attend daily Mass are exposed to more Old and New Testament Biblical readings than their Protestant counterparts.

Partial translations of the Bible into English can be traced back to the end of the 7th century.
Let us close with a quotation from Bob Stanley’s work “The Canon of Scripture.”
Interestingly, some Protestants who have studied the origins of the Canons of Scriptures, accept the decision of Pope St. Damasus I,
and the various councils when they finalized the New Testament canon, but reject the decisions of the same councils for the canon of the Old Testament.

In doing so, they have to admit that the Catholic Church, by infallible decision, determined the canon of the New Testament.
By whose authority then, do they reject the canon of the Old Testament, which was decided by the same Bishops at the same council?

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The Bible is a Catholic Book

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