Tuesday, August 12, 2014

The Original Bible


The First Bible of the Christians, the one used by all of the Apostles and Evangelists, and presumably Christ Himself!, was the Septuagint (the official Jewish Greek version of the Old Testament). That was the official Bible used by the Church from the beginning of Christianity.

Next came the Latin Vulgate which incorporated the Church's Official Canon of the New Testament, commissioned finally in the year 382 by Pope Saint Damasus I to Saint Jerome, who was the editor of that first official complete Catholic Bible, which continues to be the official Bible of the Roman Catholic Church. That is the original Christian Bible, a translation primarily of the Septuagint Old Testament and the Greek New Testament Texts: as found, for example, in the Codex Sinaiticus and the Codex Vaticanus.

So, it is correct to say that the first Bible was the Latin Vulgate, as approved by Peter with the power of the keys. The Extraordinary Form of Mass uses only the original Bible!

Here is an free online edition of the Old Testemant (Septuagint) Codex Vaticanus.

There are very good eclectic (based largely on all of the major Greek codices and with great consideration for the Latin Vulgate) Greek New Testaments available: e.g. Nestle.

So, read it in Latin, read it in Greek. That's your original Bible. And don't leave out any books, like the present day heretics (since the sixteenth century) do! If you do not follow the Catholic Bible you do not have the whole thing! And, if you do not have the whole thing, well, you are missing something,...essential! Also, the recurrence of poor vernacular translations (especially those used for the liturgy) is a weighty reason to preserve and use the original text--the Vulgate, in Latin!

"And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from these things that are written in this book." Rev. 22:19.