All About The Bible- Where Our Bible Comes From

 

Today most of us have an incorrect concept of what the Bible is. Thanks to the advent of the printing press, the Bible can be purchased in any store and read by anyone. This is a wonderful thing, and we should read the Bible as often as possible for both private devotion and for prayer. 

The Bible, however, was not written specifically for these purposes. It was written to be read during the Liturgy of the Word in the Mass of the Catholic Church. 

I know this will come as a shock to most of you, but the Bible is a Catholic (a Latin word meaning “universal”) book. It was written for the Catholic (Universal) Church.

The Catholic Church is not a “new denomination” or “religion”. It is a continuation of the Jewish Faith started by God and fulfilled in the Eucharist that had been promised to and foretold by our Old Testament ancestors. Instead of The Faith only being for the Jewish people it is now, as promised and foretold, opened to all people, whether Jewish or Gentile, to become the people of God.  

The books of the Old Testament of the Bible were written by prophets chosen by God. They were filled with the Holy Ghost and given a message of hope for the people. The message was that the Messiah (or “Messias”), the Christ, the Anointed One, would be sent to earth to free us from the bondage of sin. All the stories of the Old Testament point to Jesus. They were messages chosen by God to be given to mankind to unfold the coming Messiah to the world. Though they speak of the sins of man, within each chapter is revealed the truths of the coming Messiah. 

The books of the New Testament of the Bible came about after Jesus ascended into Heaven.  They contain the account of the fulfillment of the promised Messiah and His life while on earth. They fulfill for us a Christo-centric way of life and a fulfilled promise- the fulfilled promise of the New Testament from God. 

For the first six years after the Ascension, the Apostles preached about Jesus during their meetings. They would assemble as a Church with Jewish and Gentile members and would pray, read from the prophets, sing psalms, and share in the breaking of the Bread which Jesus established at the Last Supper on the night before He was crucified. 

As the Church grew and spread all over the known world, it became necessary to have the Apostles write down the Gospel so that others may continue to know it. Mathew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew, and sent it to the Hebrew speaking Churches, Mark wrote his Gospel from the teachings of Peter (Peter read it and officially sanctioned it), and sent it to the Latin speaking Churches, Luke wrote his Gospel based on eye witness accounts of the Apostles and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and sent it to the Greek speaking Churches, and John the Apostle wrote his Gospel in Aramaic, and sent it to the Aramaic speaking Churches. The four Gospels were written from eye witness accounts of either the person themselves or by other witnesses who were there to hear and see the Messiah Jesus.  

As time went on, the Churches would translate all four Gospels into Latin, Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew; word-for-word, because the passing down of the Gospel continues in one, unbroken, line. The way copies were made is very interesting. To make the copies by hand, the Gospel was given to several individuals who would write a portion of the Gospels and then get it checked by several individuals. There were even Churches that had one person to write one word, and another to write the next word, and so on to ensure no changes were made in the text. They were carefully written and studied before they were sent to the Churches for public hearing. When they were sent to the Churches, the Bishops of each Church would in turn read it and compare it to other copies they had read. The Word was so sacred it was studied by hundreds of people before it was used in a Church. Each Church had its own copies of the Gospels. Remember, the originals were still available. The original manuscripts written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were available for at least four hundred years after the copies were made so it was very easy to compare them with the originals. Portions of the New Testament were read aloud during the assembly after a portion of the Old Testament was read. Each Gospel was considered so sacred that, when read, the congregation stood for the reading of it.  

Matthew wrote his Gospel only 6 years after the Ascension of Jesus. Mark wrote his Gospel about the same time as Matthew’s Gospel. Luke wrote his Gospel later- about 24 years later- and did a diligent study of the facts from eyewitnesses of Jesus and of His Resurrection. John was the last to write his Gospel- about 63 years after the Ascension of Jesus- in 95AD. 

Other than the Gospels that became the centerpiece of the Liturgy of the Word, at the assembly of believers each day, the Letters sent by the Apostles to the Churches were also read. These were handwritten and dictated to scribes to be sent to specific Churches and then to all the Churches to be read aloud during the assembly.

Letters from Peter, John, Jude, and James were sent to the Churches. Each Letter was verified both by the sender who carried it to the Church, and by the actual author by their actual signatures on the Letters. Paul even mentions signing his Letters in his own hand. These Letters were sent out within the first 25 years after the Ascension of Jesus. The last of the Letters, written by the apostle John, was the Apocalypse- written in 95AD. It is the book that tells us how the Church should be formed, how it should look, and what we should do each time we meet. It gives us a picture of the Church in Heaven and how it should look on earth. It also tells of the second coming of Jesus and what will occur.  

After the Apostles were martyred for the Faith, other bishops were ordained to take their places. Someone was chosen to be the leader in Peter’s place (called “Pope” (a Latin word meaning “Papa”, or “father of the Church”), and each of the bishops were replaced by other bishops to lead the Church. They were to be the priests of the Church who would consecrate the bread and wine for the breaking of bread or, as it later was called, “The Eucharist”, “The Lord’s Supper”, or “Holy Communion”. They would also hear the confessions of the people and give penance and absolution of sins committed. They would baptize, confirm, ordain priests, witness marriages, and pray for the sick. They would also go into all the world to preach the Gospel to others.  

These bishops continued to write letters to the Churches and, though they were read aloud, their only mission was to confirm what the Apostles wrote, and they did not add any new teachings. They became known as the “Writings Of The Early Church Fathers” and their existence continues its same ministry to this day. Their writings are beautiful and, though not considered Scripture, are helpful for us to understand the Early Church and what it believed and how it conducted itself when they met for Prayer, Song, The Word, The Preaching, and Holy Communion.

The Church was now called Catholic (“Universal”- because it was fulfilled as promised for all people to be children of God), and those who were believers were often called “Christians” (meaning “followers of Christ”). There were no longer “Jewish” and “Gentile”, but One Faith in Christ Jesus- One, Holy, Universal, and Apostolic, in Christ Jesus.   

To have become a part of the Bible in the also-Divinely-Inspired Canon of the New Testament, a writing had to be from one of the Apostles themselves, or from one who gathered the information and then got it sanctioned and blessed by an Apostle. If the Apostle did not personally sanction and bless the writing, it was not read in the churches. 

During these years, Rome took over the known world. The use of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic became confined to only certain areas and peoples, and the common language of all the people became Latin. 

Pope Damasus, in 382, commissioned a Bishop named Jerome to take all the known original manuscripts (some of the physical originals were still in existence at this time) and current translations in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, and assemble a complete book (“Canon”, “Bible”) of all the Books of the Bible (Old Testament and New Testament) that the Church used during what was now called the “Liturgy of the Word”, or “the Mass”. These 46 books of the Old Testament and 27 books of the New Testament had been used for a few hundred years and were accepted by all the Early Church Fathers as the writings of the Prophets and Apostles. In the writings of the Early Church Fathers, you will find that almost every one of their references is a quote from Scriptures accepted by the Church. 

Jesus read from the Septuagint, which was the Old Testament written and handed down by the Jewish (meaning “People of God”) people since the Beginning of Time. The Apostles also read from this Old Testament and the Early Church Fathers quoted from it. Jerome took these Scriptures and translated them into Latin.

It has been calculated that, if you took every quote from the Early Church Fathers and put them together, you would have almost the entire New Testament. This reconfirms that we have the complete Bible from the Beginning of Time to the First Century of the Church after the Ascension of Jesus. 

Bishop Jerome set out on a 23-year project to make one set (“canon”) of Scriptures that would be word-for-word from the accepted writings of Scripture, and put it all into one Book. Bishop Jerome knew Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, and Latin, so he could read the original manuscripts and early copies of the Scripture and compare them word-for-word to produce the most accurate- and only- word-for-word translation of the Scripture. 

After he completed it, it was read by all the bishops and confirmed to be accurate. It was then read, proclaimed, and heard in all the Catholic Churches around the world. 

It was called the “Latin Vulgate”, because it was written in the language (“vulgar”, “vernacular”, “common language”, “most commonly understood language”) of the people. Almost all people at the time knew Latin and it was the most used language around the world. 

The Church, in future councils that met, affirmed the 46 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament to be one book called “the Bible”. 

The Church also affirmed the Latin Vulgate as the official Bible of the Church that is to be used in all the Churches. 

As a historical note: The first printed book that Gutenberg printed on the first Printing Press was the Latin Vulgate. It should also be noted that the direct Douay-Rheims English Translation of the Latin Vulgate (“The Bible”), and the King James Version of the Bible, were translated from the Latin Vulgate.  

The Latin Vulgate remains the Official Scripture of the Catholic Church and has been such since 405 AD.

Today, with all the christian denominations in existence, it is hard to believe that, when Jesus was on Earth, He fulfilled the Jewish Faith (“The Faith”) and opened it to all people- making One, Holy, Universal, and Apostolic, Church.

There were no other denominations in the first century. Only the One, Holy, Catholic (“Universal”), and Apostolic Church existed. This is a historical fact. 

The Apostles and the Early Church Fathers (Bishops) had Mass with the people of God each day. Homes were converted into Church buildings and the faithful met daily for the Word of God and the partaking of Holy Communion. It was called the “Catholic Church” (the “Universal Church”) and, as the definition of its name declares, there were no divisions in the Church. 

There was one Bible read- the Latin Vulgate- and it was the Word of God. There was one Baptism, one Communion, one Confirmation, one Confession, one Rite of Ordination, one Rite of Marriage, and one Prayer for the Sick- seven Sacraments (the perpetual outward showing of God with us) that impart to us Grace from God and help us to live out our Newness of Life in Christ Jesus.