I have no idea what you are rambling about.
Hi Rebelbase,
No rambling here. I hope you are not getting cross! Maybe I can be a little more explicit.
What I am saying is that that language and the Bible have to be taught, and that both Protestants and Catholics trust a great chain of teachers to arrive at the meanings they believe in - from basic English teachers to translators on down through the ages, to men who decided which books of the Bible were canonical and which were not, when to use the word "wine" and when to use the word "grape juice" when setting down the scriptures, etc.
History helps us understand the Bible and the Bible helps us understand history; Thus St. Augustine taught us to interpret the Old Testmament in the light of the Gospel (type and antetype relationship), for nothing in the Bible is false but perhaps requires the context of the Gospel to be made explicit. For one source of the Catholic belief in prayers for the dead aside from the traditional of the Church, see II Machabees, xii, 40-46: "40 And they found under the coats o the slain some of the donaries of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbiddeth the Jews: 90 that all plainly saw, for this cause they were slain. 41 Then they all blessed the just judgment of the Lord, who had discovered the things that were hidden. 42 And so betaking themselves to prayers, they besought him, that the sin which had been committed might be forgotten. But the most valiant Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, forasmuch as they saw before their eyes what had happened, because of the sins of those that were slain. 43 And making a gathering, he twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection, 44 (For if he had not hoped that the that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) 45 And because he considered that the who had fallen asleep with godliness, had great grace laid up for them. 46 It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." Now if you still think I am rambling then I better just move along.