So then that finished product is inerrant. The New Testament truly is a collective product of the Church; naturally, its creation was a hstorical process. Its inerrancy is, however, "as written" by that collective process, primarily by Sts Matthew, Mark, etc. but possibly by the clarifying and editorial work done in later centuries, over a body of manuscripts available at the time and now lost.
Alex: So then that finished product is inerrant...
By fiat? There is no objective evidence of that. It's a demand placed on the faithful by the Church since Trent.
Its inerrancy is, however, "as written" by that collective process, primarily by Sts Matthew, Mark, etc. but possibly by the clarifying and editorial work done in later centuries, over a body of manuscripts available at the time and now lost.
The only thing that was lost was the original understanding of things in Judaism, and their deliberate and forced mutation into something unrecognizable. Without radically changing the meaning of words, misquoting (even rewriting) the Old Testament, etc., Christianity would have no leg to stand on.
When I was originally faced with this prospect, I was appalled, even angry. But evidence is too compelling which is why it is so well filtered by the Church. When was the last time you had a rabbi give a sermon on how the Jews see the Passover Lamb and what the Christians innovated from it? Jews are considered perfidious (unbelieving) "apostates" and all their views are heretical (kettle calling the pot black) and labeled.
One way the Church obtained its 'inerrancy," Alex, is by paraphrasing what her adversaries were saying, but never actually showing what they had to say, be it Arius or Pelagius. It started with the Gospels and never stopped. All the whitings of the heretics were destroyed or should have been. Thankfully, not all were destroyed, so we can dispel the myth of "one" church, and one catholic faith from the get go. Unfortunately.