Posted on 09/30/2008 3:09:03 PM PDT by NYer
Nowhere in Scripture does it say that Jesus Christ wrote a book or commanded anyone else to write a Gospel. In fact the only place where it is recorded that He wrote anything at all, is in John 8:6-8. He wrote on the ground with His finger, and to this day, we do not even know what He wrote.
However, He did found a beautiful Church. He made her His Bride, and He made her a teaching Church.
His teaching Church had been in existence for over a decade before the first book of the New Testament was even written.
By the time Revelation, the last book of the Bible was written about 100 A.D., the Church was already on its fifth Pope.
"Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you all days, even unto the consummation of the world." Matt 28:19-20
"And He said to them, "Go into the whole world and preach the Gospel to every creature.""
Mark 16:15
"Then He opened their minds that they might understand the Scriptures. And He said to them, "Thus it is written; and thus the Christ should suffer, and should rise again from the dead on the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem."" Luke 24:45-46
"And GOD indeed has placed some in the Church, first Apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers..." 1Cor 12:28
"How then are they to call upon Him in whom they have not believed? But how are they to believe Him whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear, if no one preaches? And how are men to preach unless they be sent?" Rom 10:14-15
"Faith then depends on hearing, and hearing on the Word of Christ. But I say: have they not heard? Yes, indeed, Their voice has gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." Rom 10:17-18
"He who hears you, hears Me..." Luke 10:16
"Yes, to me, the very least of all saints, there was given this grace, to announce among the Gentiles the good tidings of the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to enlighten all men as to what is the dispensation of the mystery which has been hidden from eternity in GOD, who created all things; in order that through the Church there be made known to the Principalities and the Powers in the Heavens the manifold wisdom of GOD..." Eph 3:8-10
"And He marvelled because of their unbelief. And He made a circuit of the villages, teaching."
Mark 6:6
"For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say." Luke 12:12
"Command and teach these things." 1Tim 4:11
"Him we preach, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Col 1:28
"So then, brethren, stand firm, and hold the traditions that you have learned, whether by word or by letter of ours." 2Thess 2:15
"Take heed to thyself and to thy teaching, be earnest in them. For in doing so thou wilt save both thyself and those who hear thee." 1Tim 4:16
"Let the presbyters who rule well be held worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the Word and in teaching." 1Tim 5:17
"And the things that thou hast heard from me through many witnesses, commend to trustworthy men who shall be competent in turn to teach others." 2Tim 2:2
"But the servant of the Lord must not quarrel, but be gentle towards all, ready to teach, patient, gently admonishing those who resist, in case GOD should give them repentance to know the truth..." 2Tim 2:24-25
"For whereas by this time you ought to be masters, you need to be taught again the rudiments of the Word of GOD." Heb 5:12
"And they continued steadfastly in the teaching of the Apostles and in the communion of the breaking of the bread and in the prayers." Acts 2:42
"And they did not for a single day cease teaching and preaching in the temple and from house to house the good news of Jesus as the Christ." Acts 5:42
"But Paul and Barnabas stayed on in Antioch, teaching and preaching the Word of the Lord, with many others." Acts 15:35
"And he would preach in the synagogue every Sabbath and try to convince Jews and Greeks."
Acts 18:4
"So he settled there a year and six months, teaching the Word of GOD among them." Acts 18:11
"And for two full years he remained in his own hired lodging; and he welcomed all who came to him, preaching the Kingdom of GOD and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and unhindered. Amen." Acts 28:30-31
"But we have gifts differing according to the grace that has been given us, such as prophecy to be used according to the proportion of faith; or ministry in ministering; or he who teaches in teaching." Rom 12:6-7
"For this very reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my dearest son and faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my ways, which are in Christ Jesus, even as I teach everywhere in every Church." 1Cor 4:17
"...yet in the Church, I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may also instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue." 1Cor 14:19
"Let the Word of Christ dwell in you abundantly; in all wisdom teach and admonish one another..." Col 3:16
"Hold to the form of sound teaching which thou hast heard from me..." 2Tim 1:13
"A Bishop then, must be blameless, married but once, reserved, prudent, of good conduct, hospitable, a teacher..." 1Tim 3:2
"Teach and exhort these things." 1Tim 6:2
There you have it. Jesus Christ did not command anyone to write a Gospel, but verses abound to go out and teach.
Catholic ping!
John 1:1 (New American Standard Bible)
1(A)In the beginning was (B)the Word, and the Word was (C)with God, and (D)the Word was God.
Galatians 1 (New American Standard Bible) New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Galatians 1 1Paul, (A)an apostle ((B)not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but (C)through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who (D)raised Him from the dead), 2and all (E)the brethren who are with me, To (F)the churches of Galatia:
3(G)Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
4who (H)gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from (I)this present evil age, according to the will of (J)our God and Father,
5(K)to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.
6I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting (L)Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a (M)different gospel; 7which is really not another; only there are some who are (N)disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
8But even if we, or (O)an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be (P)accursed!
9As we (Q)have said before, so I say again now, (R)if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be (S)accursed!
10For am I now (T)seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a (U)bond-servant of Christ.
11For (V)I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is (W)not according to man. 12For (X)I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a (Y)revelation of Jesus Christ.
LOL
Perfect.
Bump. Good stuff.
What is really being denied is the difference between the inspired and uninspired word of God. The early church fathers recognized the difference.
And we find it hard to remember in our ultra-literate age that almost everyone in the history of the world was illiterate, with the exception of a small wealthy and educated class in most (but not all) countries. That continued up until the invention of the printing press. The Word was not meant for only those who could read -- "He that has ears, let him hear."
That's as good as the Governor who (in a discussion of bilingual education) announced, "If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for the schoolchildren of Texas!"
And if King James was good enough for Moses, its good enough for me.
"O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and enter into His glory?" And beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. (Luke 24:25-27)
I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, in order that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the house of God" (Luke 11:49-51).
Not only do we have here a statement from Jesus verifying the authenticity and historical accuracy of early chapters of Genesis, but we also have a statement that seems to indicate that Jesus recognized the authenticity of the entire Hebrew Canon. Abel was the first recorded martyr in the first book of the Hebrew Canon (Genesis chapter four) and Zechariah was the last recorded martyr in the last book of the Hebrew Canon (II Chronicles 24). Is this not the equivalent of a sweeping validation from Jesus of the authenticity of the Hebrew Canon from the first to the last? (http://www.ginesys.com/scripture/)
"These things I have spoken to you, while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." (John 14:25,26)
Here Jesus is saying that the Disciples will have supernatural recall of the words Jesus spoke, thus enabling them to write the Gospels with the inerrant precision required to qualify as Holy Scripture. (source cited above)
"Jesus said to them, 'Is this not the reason you are mistaken, that you do not understand the Scriptures, or the power of God?'" (Mark 12:24)
But by Jesus's time, hardly anyone could read Hebrew, and most of the Mediterranean people used the Alexandrian translation by the Seventy Elders, in Greek. And again, most were illiterate - see John 7:15, when the Jews marvelled because Jesus taught the Scriptures although he didn't know his letters -- and the word used is grammata which is exactly letters -- written word -- as opposed to logoV -- spoken word.
St. Luke of course was a learned man, and a Greek, and wrote in Greek -- but there was a gap between the writing down of Jesus's oral teachings and the Gospels. Not to mention the fact that most could not read them for centuries -- hence the teaching office of the Church.
Christ, then, is the One who has made the incomprehensible God intelligible. The force of this title of His found in John 1:1, may be discovered by comparing it with that name which is given to the Holy Scriptures—"the Word of God." What are the Scriptures? They are the Word of God. And what does that mean? This: the Scriptures reveal God’s mind, express His will, make known His perfections, and lay bare His heart. This is precisely what the Lord Jesus has done for the Father.
http://www.pbministries.org/books/pink/John/john_02.htm
Acts 17:2 And according to Paul's custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
Acts 17:11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.
Acts 18:24 Now a Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was mighty in the Scriptures.
Acts 18:28 for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Romans 16:26 but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;
Galatians 3:22 But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
1 Timothy 4:13 Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
2 Peter 1:20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation,
2 Peter 3:16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.
In Luke 5, 8, and 11, Christ explicitly refers to the Word of God as the spoken word -- it's that pesky term logoV again. And in John 10:34-36, Christ refers to the Hebrew Scriptures as the Word of God . . . but what of the New Testament?
“There you have it. Jesus Christ did not command anyone to write a Gospel, but verses abound to go out and teach.”
Really a non-point.
The Bible says all scripture was inspired by God. Whether
you want to split hairs and argue that it was God the Son
(the Word of God) or God the Father or God the Holy Spirit,
men were moved by God to write each book of the Bible. That
includes the Gospels too, unless you would argue that the
human authors could have said no to God.
He also sent them out to preach the good news.
He did both.
He also founded the Universal Church, the Bride of Christ.
This Body includes all true believers - whether they are in
a house church in oppressed China or the Protestant church
on the corner or some in a Roman Catholic church.
So there you go: He had humans record the Gospels and other books, He commanded them to preach and He founded the Church.
And of course in 2nd Peter 3:16 St. Peter puts his finger right on the problem of the New Testament -- it was in the process of being written, along with many semi-Christian and Gnostic writings that were eventually rejected. St. Paul's Epistles are writings which the unlearned and unstable 'wrest to their own destruction'. So . . . who interprets these dangerous writings? And, again, which Scripture is Scripture?
So we recognize that Scripture exists and that the Scripture is what was utilized for teaching and witnessing?
What It is and how It was identified is a different issue than the one raised in the original post.
By the way, I appreciate your use of the Greek.
So...by whom was the Old Testament "founded"?
The Books of the Law were given to Moses by God.
The Books of the Prophets and Wisdom were written by men inspired by God.
The exact books included in the canon of the Hebrew Scripture were decided by the Seventy Elders in Alexandria. That was the Scripture that Jesus Himself used and quoted from (almost all the OT quotes in the NT are traceable to the LXX). So I would say that the LXX were (1) inspired by God and (2) explicitly approved by God in the Second Person of the Trinity.
Eventually, of course, the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures was altered at the Council of Jamniah. But while that was probably motivated by the fact that those were the only books the members of the council were able to find in Hebrew, it may also have been motivated by annoyance because the Christians were using the LXX. (Of course, many of the books rejected at Jamniah later turned up in Hebrew, mostly on account of the Dead Sea Scrolls.)
St. Jerome wanted to leave the Deuterocanonical Books (the ones rejected at Jamniah) out of the OT, but he was overruled by Pope Damasus.
By the time King James's committee came along, they simply adopted the Hebrew Scripture as currently constituted in 1611. They may or may not have been aware of its history . . . or they may have been exercised because the Deuterocanonical Books contained matters considered "too Catholic" such as prayers for the dead, etc.
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