A question about the Catholic Church.

[janelle144]

Originally Posted by shibata

But for a thousand years, they did get lost. Even the priests did not understand what they were saying.

LOL, that is hard to believe. Do you have a link? Latin is still studied in school today. It's an ancient language but if you understand Latin you can figure out a lot of languages.

[janelle144]

Originally Posted by John1960

How many priests does the Catholic Church have?


John

You can go to www.catholic.com and do a search. It seems a lot of new priests are coming from Africa now.

[shibata]

Originally Posted by janelle144

LOL, that is hard to believe.

It is well known. Ignorance of priests was a major scandal that contributed to the Reformation. If American Catholics find that hard to believe, they might gain a great deal of understanding by studying European history- because it gets worse than that.

[janelle144]

Do you have a link?

I know some think the church was keeping the bible from people but really, how were they able to give out bibles before the printing press was invented? One monk took a year to hand print one bible and only the rich could afford to purchase one. So silly people do not understand the times they are talking about. Some things were just impossible to do.

Also, how much education did people get in past centuries? How many people could afford to go get a higher education? You can talk about ignorance of the total population when you consider what we know now and what they knew then. We have the internet, they didn't.

[shibata]

Originally Posted by janelle144

I know some think the church was keeping the bible from people but really, how were they able to give out bibles before the printing press was invented? One monk took a year to hand print one bible

But most of the time he was adding pictures and gold lettering!

How long would it take you to write out John's gospel, working six days a week, eight hours a day?

and only the rich could afford to purchase one. So silly people do not understand the times they are talking about. Some things were just impossible to do.

They weren't, though. The Lollards not only translated the Latin Bible into English, they wrote out many copies by hand, they taught people to read English, and at one point had got an estimated 60% of the English aware of what the Bible actually said, and in agreement that it was not what their clergy said that the Bible said.

[janelle144]

They added pictures and gold lettering because most of the population could not read. A lot of church worship was done through pictures. The only way to get an idea over to an uneducated populace. Just how many people do you think could read in past centuries?

Those who were educated only got that way by schools set up by the churches or tutors hired by families for their children.

So by your count no one should know what the bible REALLY said since it was distorted so much. Then why are the bibles we have now line up with ancient bibles?

[shibata]

Originally Posted by janelle144

They added pictures and gold lettering because most of the population could not read.

Most of the population never got to see a Bible! The decoration was to give monks something to do, imv.

I think I could write out John's gospel in about three days, don't you? Maybe four, with longer breaks. And how many people could be brought to Christ by three days' work?

So by your count no one should know what the bible REALLY said since it was distorted so much.

That's not what I wrote. It was the teachings of men that people found differed from the Bible, even from the Vulgate that the Vatican used! And the Lollards only echoed what Renaissance scholars before them said they had discovered, using the same Vulgate.

[janelle144]

I am talking about the dead sea scrolls. They had maybe 2 different words or spellings from our bible today.

That is ridiculous to say priests did not know what they were saying. Seminaries taught Latin so they did know what the Latin words said and what they meant.

I would think you could write John's gospel faster then they could since they were writing with a QUILL. LOL Plus if you saw an ancient bible you would see it was very ornate because only the rich could afford one and they paid more for it being elaborate---not something for the monks to do or pass their time. The monks worked to keep food on the table and the necessities of life for the monastery. Monks in recent times as well as old would start a winery to raise money.

Plus one last point----it makes no sense at all that God would reveal His truth to us only to have it distorted and lost over the years. His truth has been guarded and preserved for all generations as He told us it would.

[shibata]

Originally Posted by janelle144

That is ridiculous to say priests did not know what they were saying. Seminaries taught Latin so they did know what the Latin words said and what they meant.

They didn't teach enough of them.

I would think you could write John's gospel faster then they could since they were writing with a QUILL.

I took that into consideration. One can write quite quickly with a quill. They are still used by calligraphers.

LOL Plus if you saw an ancient bible you would see it was very ornate

But mine wouldn't be, would it. Neither were Lollard Bibles.

Plus one last point----it makes no sense at all that God would reveal His truth to us only to have it distorted and lost over the years.

God gave no gospel to man for half a million years before Jesus, and after him, for many centuries in China, India, the Americas and other regions. The population of Europe from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance, whose religion was controlled by the papacy, was very small compared to what is was to become. There are more alive today than there have ever been, and there have never been so many aware of the evangelical truth as there are today.