The Bible Is a Catholic Book by Jimmy Akin

(New York: Catholic Answers Press, 2019), 200

Notes

Contents

"The Catholic Church is why we have the Bible today, and everyone should be grateful for the gift that, by the grace of God, it has been given to the world. The Bible is a Catholic book!" (8)

The Bible is important, but the "Word of God" is not confined to or only found in it. First and foremost, Jesus Christ himself is the Word of God. (13)
"We are fortunate to have Scripture, an inspired collection of writings that convey God's word to us. However, it's important to remember that this has not always been the case." (16)
The early events of Genesis all took place before writing was invented. It made sense for Moses to write the Pentateuch given that he was raised in Pharaoh's household among people who could write. (20)
Oral tradition, including techniques like chiasm: "Before he began to inspire Scripture, God used and guided the traditions of his people through the long ages before the first biblical author began to write." (22)
The Jewish canon wasn’t closed until the third or fourth century (40)

“The fact the Christian message was given orally rather than writing means it was a matter of Tradition… Tradition was the means by which the core message of our faith was preached.” (62)
Paradosis and Tradition, esp. in Protestant translations that characterize tradition as negative. (63)
1 Tm-05 quotes Lk-10 as Scripture, one of the few examples of the New Testament citing itself as Scripture. (65)
Old Testament Quotations in the New Testament by Gleason L. Archer and G.C. Chirichingo (~66)

The Fathers of the Church are noted by their: antiquity, orthodoxy, holiness, approval of the Church (129)
Tradition was the crucial factor in discerning whether a book belonged in Scripture (134), esp. through the liturgy (136)
John’s letters by different John? (139)
Double standard of Sola scriptura amongst the Reformers (149)
Sola scriptura wasn’t possible before the printing press, so how could it have been continuous doctrine? (150)
KVJ preface (156-158)
Discussion of the Protestant problem of knowing what the canon is (162)
"The truth is that when Protestants decide which books they recognize as Scripture, it's on the basis of tradition...Protestants need to take the Catholic canon of Scripture seriously...Protestants themselves accept the canon they do on the basis of tradition, and the Protestant canon can't be supported using sola scriptura." (165)
"Protestants must be frank with themselves: they have the Bible only because of the Catholic Church." (168)
"Only a lack of gratitude to God would keep someone from plunging into God‘s written word and drinking from this rich fountain." (169)

Topic: The Bible

Source

Created: 2023-04-13-Thu
Updated: 2026-08-21-Fri