My, How Things Haven’t Changed – Part Two

In my last post we took a tour through the Middle Ages and saw that the Catholic Church has been teaching from the beginning that we are saved by grace through faith. I’ve decided to go back and examine the commonly held belief that the Church kept the faithful from reading the Bible so that they wouldn’t realize how “unbiblical” Catholic doctrine is. After all, in the words of “prophecy expert” Tim LaHaye, the Catholic Church made sure the Scriptures were “locked up in monasteries and museums” during the Middle Ages. It is simply “common knowledge” among Protestants that the Church has opposed access to the Scriptures down through the ages, something I used to believe – until I went to the trouble of doing a little research….

When I was a Protestant I KNEW that Martin Luther was the first German to translate the Holy Scriptures into the vernacular so that everyone could understand them. After all, he himself said, “”Thirty years ago, no-one read the Bible, and it was unknown to all. The prophets were not spoken of and were considered impossible to understand. And when I was twenty years old, I had never seen a Bible. I thought that the Gospels or Epistles could be found only in the postills [lectionaries] for the Sunday readings.” That’s Herr Luther’s story, and most Protestants buy into it. Let’s take another stroll down through the centuries to see how the situation looked on the ground. In 312 A.D. Constantine saw his “In Hoc Signo Vinces” vision. We’ll start there, looking for signs of devotion to God’s word…. (Don’t be shy about clicking on the links – there’s some good info there.)

St. Ambrose (330-397) “The reading of Holy Scripture is the life of the soul; Christ Himself declares it when He says: ‘The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life’.”

St. Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-c.395) “We are not allowed to affirm what we please. We make Holy Scripture the rule and the measure of every tenet.”

St. John Chrysostom (347- 407) “…each of you take in hand that part of the Gospels which is to be read in your presence on the first day of the week or even on the Sabbath; and before that day comes, sit down at home and read it through; consider often and carefully its content, and examine all its parts well, noting what is clear, what is confusing…. And, in a word, when you have sounded every point, then go to hear it read. From such zeal as this there will be no small benefit both to you and to me.”

St. Jerome (347-420) “I interpret as I should, following the command of Christ: Search the Scriptures, and Seek and you shall find. Christ will not say to me what he said to the Jews: You erred, not knowing the Scriptures and not knowing the power of God. For if, as Paul says, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, and if the man who does not know Scripture does not know the power and wisdom of God, then ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.”

St. Egeria (4th century) “And as he [the bishop] explained the meaning of all the Scriptures, so does he explain the meaning of the Creed; each article first literally and then spiritually. By this means all the faithful in these parts follow the Scriptures when they are read in church.”

Sounds like Christian leaders in the 4th century not only loved the word of God themselves, but also were committed to teaching it to the faithful. But the Dark Ages began in the 5th century. Perhaps that is when the Scriptures were taken from the people….

St. Mesrop Mashtots (5th century) “To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding” – the first words written by St. Mesrop as he translated the Scriptures into Armenian.

Unknown translators (5th century) translated the Scriptures into the Syriac, Coptic, Old Nubian, Ethiopic and Georgian languages.

St. Gregory the Great (540-604) “Those who are zealous in the work of preaching must never cease the study of the written Word of God.”

St. John Damascene (c. 645-749) “Like a tree planted by streams of water, the soul is irrigated by the Bible and acquires vigor, produces tasty fruit, namely, true faith, and is beautified with a thousand green leaves, namely, actions that please God.”

St. Bede the Venerable (c. 672- 735) “I wholly applied myself to the study of Scripture, and amidst the observance of regular discipline, and the daily care of singing in the church, I always took delight in learning, teaching and writing.” St. Bede translated the Gospel of John into English.

Unknown translator (8th century) translated the Gospel of Matthew into German.

Unknown translator (8th century) translated the Psalms into English (Vespasian Psalter).

Sts. Cyril and Methodius (9th century) translated the Scriptures into Old Church Slavonic.

Unknown translator (9th century) translated the Scriptures into Arabic (Mt. Sinai Arabic Codex 151).

Unknown translator (10th century) translated the four Gospels into Old English (Wessex or West-Saxon Gospels).

Ælfric of Eynsham (11th century) translated the first seven books of the Old Testament into English.

Benedictine missionaries (11th century) translated portions of the Scriptures into Hungarian.

Throughout the “Dark Ages,” the Bible was being read in Latin (the official language of the Church in the West. If you could read, you could read Latin!) I know people who believe that Bible reading in the Middle Ages was strictly forbidden. Certainly if that were the case, no translations would be made of the Scriptures into the vernacular languages of the faithful. What would be the point? Yet we have seen numerous examples of vernacular translations of Scripture before the turn of the first millennium!

St. Anthony of Padua (1195-1231) “He who does not know Scripture, knows absolutely nothing.”

St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) “We must study Holy Scripture carefully, and teach it and listen to it in the same way.”

Jaume de Montjuich (13th century) translated the Scriptures into Catalan.

Guyart des Moulins (13th century) translated the Scriptures into French.

Unknown translator (13th century) translated the Scriptures into Spanish (Biblia Alfonsina).

Unknown translator (13th century) translated the Psalms into Polish.

John Wycliffe (1320-1384) praises Anne of Bohemia (1366–1394) because she possesses copies of the Gospels in three languages, Bohemian, German, and Latin.

King Denis of Portugal (14th century) translated the first 20 chapters of Genesis into Portuguese.

John of Montecorvino, Franciscan missionary to China (14th century) translated the New Testament into Uyghur, the language of the Mongols.

Unknown translator (14th century) translated the books of Genesis through II Kings into Norwegian (Stjorn).

Unknown translator (14th century) translated the Scriptures into the Czech language.

Unknown translator (14th century) translated the book of Revelation into English.

Matthias von Beheim (14th century) commissioned the translation of the Gospels into German.

Unknown translators (14th century) translated the Psalms into Polish and German (St. Florian Psalter).

Unknown translator (14th century) translated the Old Testament into German (Wenzel Bibel).

King John I of Portugal (15th century) translated the Psalms and parts of the New Testament into Portuguese.

Andrzej z Jaszowic (15th century) translated parts of Scripture into Polish (Biblia królowej Zofii).

Unknown translator (15th century) – translated parts of Scripture into Croatian.

Unknown translator (15th century) – translated the New Testament into English.

Johannes Mentelin (1460-Strasburg) printed the first German language Bible.

Heinrich Eggestein (1466 -Strasburg) printed the Bible in German.

Jodocus Planzmann (c. 1470-Augsburg) printed the Bible in German.

Wendelin von Speyer (1471-Venice) printed the Bible in Italian.

Guenter Zainer printed two Bible editions in German, in c. 1475 and 1477 (Augsburger Bibel).

Johann Senseschmidt and Andreas Frisner (c. 1470-Nuremburg) printed the Bible in German.

Anton Sorg (1477-Augsburg) printed the Bible in German.

Barthélemy Buyer (1477-Lyons) printed the Bible in French.

Jacob Zoen and Mauritius Temants Zoem (1477-Delft) printed the Bible in Dutch (De Delfste Bijbel).

Niccolò Malermi (1477) printed the Bible in Italian.

Bonifacio Ferrera (1478-Valencia) printed the Bible in Spanish.

Heinrich Quentel (1480-Cologne) printed the Bible in German.

Anton Koburger (1483-Nuremburg) printed the Bible in German (Koburger Bibel).

Martin Luther is born (1483).

Johann Gruninger (1485-Strasburg) printed the Bible in German.

Hans Schoensperger printed two Bible editions in German, in 1487 and in 1490, in Strasburg.

Joan Ross Vercellese (1487) printed the Bible in Italian.

The Bible is printed in Bohemian (1488-Prague).

Stephan Arndes (1494-Luebeck) printed the Bible in German.

Hans Otmar (1507-Augsburg) printed the Bible in German.

Silvan Otmar (1518-Augsburg) printed the Bible in German.

When Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Church, he began the task of translating the Scriptures into German. This was quite obviously not the ground-breaking, cutting-edge undertaking that many Protestants would like to believe. I had always thought of it as something hitherto unheard of – but look at all those German editions of Holy Scripture that came before Luther’s!

Catholics after Luther’s time continued doing what they had been doing….

St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) ” Taking Scripture as our guide we do not err, since the Holy Spirit speaks to us through it.”

St. Lawrence of Brindisi (1559-1619) “God’s word is so rich that it is a treasury of every good. From it flow faith, hope, love, and all the virtues, the many gifts of the Spirit.”

St. John Baptiste de la Salle (1651-1719) “Let your chief study be the Bible, that it may be the guiding rule of your life.”

Ignazio Arcamone (17th century) translated parts of Scripture into Konkani, a language spoken in India.

Jesuit missionaries (17th century) translated parts of the New Testament into Japanese.

Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903) “…it is well to recall how, from the beginning of Christianity, all who have been renowned for holiness of life and sacred learning have given their deep and constant attention to Holy Scripture.

Pope Benedict XV (1854- 1922) “Our one desire for all the Church’s children is that, being saturated with the Bible, they may arrive at the all-surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ.”

Blessed Titus Brandsma (1881-1942) Particularly the reading of Holy Scripture, which is the law of God, should fill us with great joy from the fact that God lives in us by his grace, and we are able to progress like giants, carried away beyond our strict obligations by the pure love and joy which is the cause of our election.

Blessed John Paul II (1920-2005) “Theology must take its point of departure from a continual and updated return to the Scriptures read in the Church.”

Enough?

The above list of translations of Holy Scripture into various vernacular languages down through the centuries is not complete; I simply couldn’t include them all. Bear in mind that these vernacular translations are the ones that we know about. Not all translations, especially those from the first millennium, are extant.

The writings of the saints are full to bursting of quotes from Scripture. Sit down one afternoon and read St. Bernard (12th century), St. John of the Cross (15th century), or St. Alphonsus Liguori (18th century). According to the Carmelites, St. Teresa of Avila quoted from Scripture over 600 times in her writings. So many of the saints wrote commentaries on the Scriptures. You can’t seriously investigate the writings of the saints down through the ages, and then try to claim that the Church didn’t want anyone to know what the Bible said!

I’d like to re-emphasize that in the Middle Ages to be educated meant to know Latin. In other words, the Latin Scriptures were not the mystery to the educated layperson of the Middle Ages that they would be to 21st-century North Americans. IF YOU COULD READ, YOU COULD READ LATIN! On that point alone, the entire “vernacular argument” falls apart….

On the memorial of Sts. Andrew Kim Taegon and Paul Chong Hasang and companions

Deo omnis gloria!

Who Needs the Church When You’ve Got the Bible?

Let’s say for some bizarre reason you want to set up your own church as an alternative to the Church Jesus established. What’s the best way to go about this? First, you have to deny that God ever planned for His Church to have any authority. Now, if you don’t lead people through the verses that demonstrate Church authority (Mt 16: 18-19, Mt 18: 17, Lk 10:16, Acts 16:4, 1 Jn 4:6, 2 Thess 3:14, Titus 2:15), most folks will never piece this together. Don’t ever point out that the Church is “the pillar and foundation of truth” (1 Tim 3:15), and the majority of people will never even notice that verse. And for heaven’s sake, don’t ever encourage your people to read anything written by the first Christians, like Ignatius of Antioch, martyr for the Faith who wrote circa 107 A.D. He stresses over and over the absolute necessity of obeying the bishops as the means of maintaining orthodoxy. Tell your folks that the first Christians fell away minutes after the apostle John expired. As David Cloud (Way of Life) assures us: “The fact is that the ‘early Fathers’ were mostly heretics!” Keep telling yourself that….

But with the Church out of the picture, you do need some kind of authority, something around which to center your beliefs….

So “Scripture alone!” becomes the rallying cry of the Reformation! “Scripture alone!” is used to justify the creation of innumerable denominations, each believing that it can see the truth of the Scriptures that others cannot see. We have been sold the notion of the Bereans as “Bible-only” Christians, and most people don’t examine that text closely enough to notice that the Gospel-rejecting Thessalonians were the real “Bible-only” people in that passage. No one mentions that the Bereans submitted themselves to the authority of apostolic teaching….

And the irony of all this is the assumption that the doctrine of “Scripture alone” is taught in Scripture.

Remember, there were two “solas” upon which the Reformation was based. Luther, in his infinite wisdom, added the word “alone” to his German translation to make the doctrine of “faith alone” (when Jehovah’s Witnesses alter the text of Scripture, we howl – most people have never been told that Luther did exactly the same thing). The second “sola” of the Reformation was “sola Scriptura” – the Bible alone.

Looking at an Open Bible church website (a charismatic denomination), we find a doctrinal statement that I think would be acceptable to most Protestants:

“We believe the Bible to be the inspired word of God and accept it as the only infallible guide and rule of our faith and practice:

Matthew 24:35

Psalm 119:89

2 Timothy 3:16-17

2 Timothy 2:15

2 Peter 1:19-21

Sounds good, right? But where does the Bible tell us that it is the “only infallible guide and rule of our faith and practice”? Not in any of the verses listed above!

Most people would point to II Timothy 3:16:

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

Every word of this verse is true, but note what it does not say. Protestants read into this verse a justification for sola Scriptura that simply is not there. All Scripture is most certainly God-breathed and most certainly useful (other versions call it “profitable”), but does this verse say that the Bible alone is our SOLE guide? Or does it rather tell us that when St. Timothy needed to engage in teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, the God-breathed Scriptures were useful for that task? It does say “that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Does that mean that everything we need for salvation can be found in the Bible? Yes, it does. Everything we need to know to be saved can be found in the Bible – but it still needs to be interpreted and expounded upon by someone like St. Timothy who has learned from the Apostles how it is meant to be taken. Otherwise, St. Paul would have instructed him to make sure everyone got a written copy of the Scriptures, and then retire.

The fact is that II Timothy 3:16 (or any other passage) does not even hint at Scripture being the “only infallible guide and rule of our faith and practice.” II Timothy 3:16 says that Scripture is inspired and necessary (AMEN!), but in no way does it teach that Scripture ALONE is all the individual needs to determine the truth.

When my daughter was being taught the doctrine of “sola Scriptura” at her Baptist school, she raised her hand and asked her teacher where the Bible teaches that everything we believe must be found in Scripture. The teacher snorted and replied, “Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it?”

And that’s the firm foundation upon which this doctrine is based – “It’s obvious!”

So what we’ve got here is a case of

All Christian doctrines MUST be found in Holy Scripture!!

(except THIS doctrine!)

Thanks to the rebellion instigated by Luther, Calvin and the rest of the Reformers, Protestants have been relying on a system of authority that is not taught in the Bible – not in the Old Testament and not in the New. The Reformers were forced to invent the doctrine of sola Scriptura (no one believed or practiced this before their time; this is historically verifiable) – because they rejected the legitimate authority of the Church Jesus established on the apostles, authority which IS discussed throughout the New Testament. We see the fruit of the Protestant system which resulted within two decades after the Reformation in 12 different denominations, and we all know what St. Paul said about denominations:

“My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, ‘I follow Paul’; another ‘I follow Apollos’; another, ‘I follow Cephas’; still another, ‘I follow Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?” I Cor 1:11-13

So reliance on Scripture as the sole rule of faith (with a token nod to the Church Fathers whenever they happen to agree with what a particular Reformer is teaching) resulted within 20 years in “I follow Luther!” “I follow Calvin!” “I follow Zwingli!” and so on…. Is Christ divided? Was Luther crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Calvin?

Of course this approach of the Reformers soon degenerated into what we have nowadays – a total disregard for anything the Church taught for 20 centuries. “The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible!” is the rallying cry of the modern-day Evangelical churches. And there are how many Protestant denominations?

This system is bound to break down for it is based on a false assumption, the assumption that the Bible, not the Church, is “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15). NOWHERE does the Bible teach that Scripture is the only infallible guide and rule of our faith and practice. God-breathed? YES! Profitable? YES! A lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path? YES! (But note that it is “A lamp” and “A light….”). Everything the Bible says about itself is true. But being “profitable for teaching, etc.” so that we can be “thoroughly equipped for every good work” is NOT the same thing as being “the sole authority” for Christians.

So, who needs the Church?

You do.  

On the memorial of St. Gregory the Great.

Deo omnis gloria!