Catholics get a bad rap when it comes to the Bible. Our Protestant brothers and sisters often claim we do not read the Bible enough. They claim so wrongly ignoring the fact that scripture plays an integral part of the Mass. They also are either unknowing to or ignore the fact that thanks to the Catholic Church, they have the Bible they do today. I realize that could be taken as a rather bold statement, but there’s a book that backs that up and more. I encourage you to read Jimmy Akin’s The Bible Is a Catholic Book
The book takes readers through the history of how the Bible came to be and sprinkles some other tidbits throughout as well. The book is divided into four parts. The first, The Word of God Before the Bible, explains how the word of God was presented prior to it being written down. The answer to that question is by spoken word. There were no printers. Handwriting was a skilled profession and extremely time-consuming thus, people used what was available to them at low cost……their mouths. The stories of the Old Testament were spoken much as Jesus taught in his parables. After the death of Jesus, the story of his life, death, and resurrection was transmitted orally by those who were close to him.
One clarification needs to be made. The books of the Bible were composed; however, the cost of mass-producing them was extremely cost-prohibitive. As Jimmy points out in the third part, The Writing of the New Testament, in the days after Christ, the Gospels would have cost the following in today’s dollars:
- Matthew: $2238
- Mark: $1379
- Luke: $2377
- John: $1909
This third part of the book is also an excellent resource for understanding how each of the New Testament books came to be, who authored them, and when exactly it is believed, they were written. Bear in mind they were not written in the order they appear in your Bible.
One entity decided to take care of this knowing that mass production of the Bible and the ability to get this collection of smaller books into everyone’s hands would be vital to the growth of spread of Christianity. The Catholic Church undertook this extraordinary task. The fourth part of Jimmy’s book, After the New Testament, details their efforts.
The Catholic Church took upon themselves the tasks of copying the scriptures in the time before the printing press was invented. Due to the Church’s efforts, these texts were preserved for us today. Time has taken many ancient manuscripts from us…but, not the scriptures. We have a Bible today because of the Catholic Church and everyone, regardless of Christian affiliation, should be grateful for that. Indeed, the Bible is a Catholic book!
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A “bad wrap?” ??
You left out the most important reasons why the Bible is a Catholic book (which I hope Mr Akin thoroughly covers in his book):
1. Each book of the Bible was carefully selected (just as many other books were discarded) for the purpose of having a list of books approved for reading from in the Mass and other Catholic liturgies. This was done only after the best minds in the Catholic Church had gone through every word with a fine toothed comb to ensure that it was consistent with the full truth of the Catholic faith handed down from Christ and the Apostles.
2. These books exist as “the Bible” (literally “the books”) because the collection of books was formally and authoritatively approved by the Catholic Pope and bishops.
3. Every book of the New Testament was WRITTEN by a thoroughly orthodox Catholic Pope or bishop.
Hi Peter. In response to your questions.
1 – This is addressed in the book and in fact next week my interview with jimmy goes live on mu podcast and this is discussed.
2 – The Catholic Church did indeed collect these books into a single volume. It’s detailed in the book.
3 – Not certain where you get this from or if you mean capital B Bishop. Paul was not a Pope nor was he a Bishop and he is responsible for a large chunk of the New Testament.
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https://www.huffpost.com/entry/why-christians-were-denied-access-to-their-bible-for-1000-years_b_3303545
This link will show that excluding the psalms, only about 13.5% of the Old Testament is in the Mass yearly. A Jesuit priest has an exhaustive examination here:
http://catholic-resources.org/Lectionary/Statistics.htm
If I remember correctly, I learned in RCIA 2 years ago that the entire Bible would be read over the course of 3 years – and that includes daily Masses.