Divine inspiration
Contrary to popular belief the Bible was not written by God whispering into the ears of the human authors to write what he wanted written, but rather the Scriptures are inspired by God. The Holy Spirit guided the authors to be moved in such a way that their writings were of God.
Just as we participate in God’s ongoing creation (procreation) we also had a part in creating the Scriptures. God and his people have always worked side by side (Mary to bear Jesus, we create human life, the Scriptures, the prophets brought the message of God to Israel). The message that God wants conveyed is contained in the Scriptures, but the way it is conveyed was left up to the
specific authors.
The Bible is the written account of the human experience with God. Many parts of the Bible are oral tradition that was written down. Most people were illiterate and relied much more on their memories to pass on traditions and stories. Oral tradition was the norm long before writing and reading was popular.
Historical context
The Bible was given to us by the Holy Spirit as discerned by the early bishops of the Catholic Church. There was no Bible for the first 350 years of Christianity. The first official list of Scriptures was done in 393 at the Council of Hippo, then again in Carthage in 397 and 419. The Church did not infallibly define these books until the Council of Trent, when it was called into question by the Reformers, in 1556.
Partial criteria for determining the canon is as follows:
- special relation to God, i.e., inspiration;
- apostolic origin;
- used in Church services, i.e., used by the community of believers guided by the Holy Spirit.
There were two different forms of the ancient Scriptures in use, the Septuagint and the Masoretic texts. The Septuagint has its influence from the Greek Jews in the Diaspora (outside Israel) whereas the Masoretic text was used by the Jews still in Jerusalem.
The Church has always used the Septuagint as its base for the Old Testament. The Septuagint has a few more books than the later established Masoretic texts. In fact, the Masoretic canon was set by the Jews after the Christians accepted the Septuagint version as their Scripture. This makes sense considering the non-messianic Jews were not too crazy about Jesus so why would they accept the same books as the Christians?
Catholic Bibles do not have extra books, non-Catholic Bibles are missing books.
The truth is, there are over 450 versions of the Bible. The first being made around 1532.
From 10 rules on 2 rocks to 450+ versions of an 1,800+ page book/novel/movie script….
Call them versions or “translations” or whatever else you want.. It won’t change the fact that all of them were created by men… untrustworthy men, with bias opinions and agendas… men bent on controlling the lives of others.
Lets see a 13 year old pregnant girl claim she’s a virgin today, and then see how many believe it. I’m pretty sure impregnating a 13 year old girl today would make god a pedophile today…
I understand your point, if the Bible is presented without surrounding support, then I would believe with you. If the Catholic Church tells Razor Sharp Empirical Scientists that God/human being is the is the wafer or Holy Eucharist, I would not envy at all the presentation, until they supply surrounding support that it is true with some Eucharistic Miracles/inexplicable under the attestations of state of the art equipments. Chow!
And all aforementioned untrue, yet still believed.
Jesus was not a Jew, he was Lebanese. His whole family was from the village of Qana (Lebanon) traced through census. He didn’t even like the Jews (who had a price on his head) and tried to warn others about them (the money changers). His native language was Aramaic (an Arabic dialect), not Hebrew.
He spoke like Muslims (“God = Allah” and “Peace be Upon You = Asalama-lakum”) and prayed like Muslims (Mathew 26:39). Whether Islam existed or not isn’t known for sure, but the fact he lived and did everything the same as Muslims today, is.
And all these religions worship and teach things untrue. Maybe that’s the reason the “Jesus Tree” grows in Lebanon. To remind people, knowing the truth is more important than having faith in lies.
Jesus was Mary’s Son and Joseph as adopted Father, they were all of the line of David in a immediate understanding. Chow!
Also for the record as you appear to be one day envy as a scholar, Islam is said by others in expressions that hurts my social sensibilities and therefore I don’t approve, a sort of bastered religion put together 400 years of Christianity by a false understanding of Judaism, Christianity and some other Arap element perhaps a scorpion’s wisdom. check ya latter again chow!
If two people have a great relationship together and love each other and are both widow and widower, is it still considered adultry? We both have families and would not get married or live together for family and monetary reasons. Can we still go to communion? Is it a mortal sin? Is it a sacrilege?
sexual relations outside of marriage is sin. There is nothing in scripture forbidding the marriage of a widow to a widower except the admonition it is better to marry than burn in sexual desire; and let each man have his own wife for the sake of escaping fornication.
Our Lord said, if thoust look at another woman and sin with her in your thoughts, thoust comit adultery. chow dude!
what is the passaged in bible talking about the slave should obey to the master .if that bible expired by god therefore not for slave it god of blanc
Slavery, has a form of justice in it. There are criminals that were to be killed, but through the system they live only if their Masters brought them and dressed them and live well than others have been to the point of being murder or died of hunger, this means, these slaves owe their masters for saving their lives service, in this sense Our Lord meant it . . . chow!
Hi Jon,
Just stumbled across your website. Appreciate your work.
Leonard
Thanks!