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Christ never told his disciples to write anything, he told them to preach.

Wrong.

Jesus commands to write

Revelation 1:9-11 I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying,

“Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”

Revelation 1:17-19 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying,

“Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.

Revelation 2:1 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

Revelation 2:8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:

Revelation 2:12 “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write:

Revelation 2:18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

Revelation 3:1 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write:

Revelation 3:7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write:

Revelation 3:14 “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

“Christ never told his disciples to write anything, he told them to preach.”

We have Gospels from Matthew and John. I would be very surprised to find those weren’t written at least in part according to Jesus’ instructions.

We know, as John said, that Jesus did many things that he, John, didn’t record, and we can be sure that holds for all the Gospels. They have to leave out much considering they’re not very long but cover three years of his ministry.

There’s also no mention at all in the New Testament about how the Gospels came about, but we can be sure they all came from the church and Jesus’ disciples, and that Jesus’ disciples were involved somehow, since they were the actual witnesses — and really the only witnesses to much of what happened.

And I would be very surprised, too, as I said, to find that Jesus didn’t give them at least some instruction about what, if anything, to write about Him, and when and how, and after His Ascension, the Holy Spirit would have led them.

Scripture was defined and compiled via tradition. Christ never told his disciples to write anything, he told them to preach.

And what did the Lord and His apostles and inspired writers preach and appeal to as the supreme substantive standard?

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)

And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, (Acts 17:2)

For he mightily convinced the Jews, and that publickly, shewing by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ. (Acts 18:28) Mat. 1:22; 2:5,15,17,18; 3:3; 4:4,6,7,10,14,15; 5:17,18,33,38,43; 8:4,17; 9:13; 11:10; 12:3,5,17-21,40,41; 13:14,15,35; 14:3,4,7-9;19:4,5,17-19; 21:4,5,13,16,42; 22:24,29,31,32,37,39,43,44; 23:35;24:15; 26:24,31,54,56; 27:9,10,35; Mark 1:2,44; 7:3,10; 9:12,13; 10:4,5; 11:17; 12:10,19,24,26 13:14; 14:21,47,49; 15:28; Lk. 2:22,23.24; 3:4,5,6; 4:4,6-8,10,12,16,17,18,20,25-27; 5:14; 7:27; 8:10; 10:26,27; 16:29,31; 18:20,31; 19:46; 20:17,18, 28,37,42,43; 22:37; 23:30; 24:25.27,32,44,45,46; Jn. 1:45; 2:17,22; 3:14; 5:39,45-47; 6:31,45; 7:19,22,23,38,42,51,52; 8:5,17; 9:26; 10:34,35; 12:14,15,38-41; 15:25; 17:12; 19:24,28,36,37; 20:9,31; 21:24; Acts 1:20; 2:16-21,25-28,34,35; 3:22,23,25; 4:11,25,26; 7:3,7,27,28,32,33,37,40,42,43,49,50,53; 8:28,30,32,33; 10:43;13:15,27,29,33,39; 15:5,15-17,21; 17:2,11; 18:13.24,28; 21:20,24; 22:12; 23:3,5; 24:14; 26:22; 28:23,26,27; Rom 1:2,17; 2:10-21,31; 4:3,7,17,18,23,24; 5:13; 7:1-3,7,12,14,16; 8:4,36; 9:4,9,12,13,15,17,25-29,33; 10:11,15,19; 11:2-4,8,9,26,27; 12:19,20; 13:8-10; 14:11; 15:3,4,9-12,21; 16:16,26,27; 1Cor. 1:19,31; 2:9; 3:19,20; 4:6; 6:16; 7:39; 9:9,10; 10:7,11,26,28; 14:21,34; 15:3,4,32,45,54,55; 2Cor. 1:13; 2:3,4; 3:7,15; 4:13; 6:2;16; 7:12; 8:15; 9:9; 10:17; 13:1; Gal. 3:6,8,10-13; 4:22,27,30; 5:14; Eph. 3:3,4; (cf. 2Pt. 3:16); Eph. 4:8; 5:31; 6:2,3; (cf. Dt. 5:16); Col. 4:16; 1Thes. 5:27; 1Tim. 5:18; 2Tim. 3:14,16,17; Heb. 1:5,7-13; 2:5-8,12,13; 3:7-11,15; 4:3,4,7; 5:5,6; 6:14; 7:17,21,28; 8:5,8-13; 9:20; 10:5-916,17,28,30,37; 11:18; 12:5,6,12,26,29; 13:5,6,22; James 2:8,23; 4:5; 1Pet. 1:16,24,25; 2:6,7,22; 3:10-12; 5:5,12; 2Pet. 1:20,21; 2:22; 3:1,15,16; 1Jn. 1:4; 2:1,7,8,12,13,21; 5:13; Rev. 1:3,11,19; 2:1,8,12,18; 3:1,7,12,14; 14:13; 19:9; 21:5; 22:6,7;10,18,19 (

And what was the supreme standard to which their words were subject to testing by?

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. (Acts 17:11)

In addition, such as the apostles could also speak as wholly inspired of God, and provide new revelation, which neither SS preachers nor popes claim to do. And since their words are what Catholics make equal with Scripture, they cannot be so.

And by His appeal to what was written, did not Christ affirm that God manifestly made writing His most-reliable means of preservation? (Exodus 17:14; 34:1,27; Deuteronomy 10:4; 17:18; 27:3; 31:24; Joshua 1:8; 2 Chronicles 34:15,18-19, 30-31) Psalm 19:7-11; 119; John 20:31; Acts 17:11; Revelation 1:1; 20:12, 15; Matthew 4:5-7; 22:29; Luke 24:44,45; Acts 17:11)

And did not Christ tell the Holy Spirit to inspire the writers to pen the revelation of Scripture, which manifests that as written, Scripture became the transcendent supreme standard for obedience and testing and establishing truth claims as the wholly Divinely inspired and assured, Word of God. As is abundantly evidenced Thus the veracity of oral preaching was and is subject to testing by Scripture, and not vice versa.

Thus unless God had told men to pen His word, and made that His most reliable and means of authoritative transmission, there would be no gospel and thus no church.

And inclusion in Scripture is how we know if something of oral transmission is the word of God, not by the uninspired words of popes and councils.

And before there ever was a church that imagined it was essential for the laity to know which writings were of God, a substantial body of wholly Divinely inspired writings had been established as authoritative, to which the NT church appealed to.