Customer Reviews

Where We Got The Bible: Our Debt to the Catholic Church

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

An accurate and concise account on how the Bible came to be. Shows how the Catholic Church has defended holy scripture throughout the ages, despite the accusations of protestants and the Church's enemies. Accurately describes the rise and fall of badly translated protestant Bibles such as Tyndale's Bible (the english translation of Luther's Bible), the sinner's Bible (ommitted the word 'not' from some of the ten Commandments), etc. The English Crown ordered these versions burned or destroyed by decree when the errors were found. Errors and additions that have been handed down until this day (such as the addition of the word 'alone' by Luther to maneuver justification, and the addition of 'for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.....'). This book is a must have for anyone wishing to learn which books were originally contained in the Canon of scripture and who put them there. Shows why the books of the Septuagint (referred to as the Apocrypha by protestants) are included in the Bible, and were in the Jewish Canon during the time of Jesus.

This book is a short history of the Bible and how the Catholic Church regarded it. Graham describes how the cannon of the Scripture was formed and the reverence the Catholic Church has had for the Bible since she defined the cannon. He describes the Catholic Church's preservation of the Bible up to the Douay Rheims translation. (Graham's book was written in 1911) Graham takes much time explaining the process of how monks copied Bibles before the printing press. He also defends the Catholic Church against accusations that they hid the Bible to keep people ignorant of it. He uses a good dose of common sense to make his points.

Graham gives reasons why it is hard to find English Bible translations dated before the reformation. He explained that because the Protestants destroyed many Catholic objects in countries where the reformation flourished, Catholic Bibles could not be found in these areas. However, in countries where the reformation did not take foothold, there are many existing vernacular Bibles. I actually went to the Field Museum in Chicago and saw 11th century Spanish Bibles with my own two eyes. It was luck that they were on a tour as I finished the book.

My main complaint about the book is that there are almost no footnotes. He makes bold claims but no way to proof what he says. In order to test his stories, I had to do some footwork myself. For example, I learned that Martin Luther regarded the Epistle of James to be unworthy to remain in the Scriptures (mostly because of James 2:24) but I had to do some searching to verify it.

Even though originally published in 1911, this book loses nothing. This short paperback is written clearly and concisely in an attempt to counter charges that the Catholic Church detests the Bible and has burned Bibles in the past to keep their flock from reading it. History is clear: for 1500 years after Christ there was only the Catholic Church. The Church decided which books were truly inspired and those that were not. The Church laborioulsy protected the Bible through persecutions and barbarian invasions. This little book certainly is worth reading.

Reverend Henry G. Graham provides a compelling examination of Scripture and how it came to be as we now know it. The picture that emerges is that while divinely inspired it is the work of human tradition.

This excellent resource explains how the Church compiled the New Testament Canon, the work of the Monks of the early Church, refutes the Protestant argument of the "Bible alone", and explains some of the erroneous Protestant versions of the Bible.

The book also includes Reverend Graham's own conversion story "From the Kirk to the Catholic Church" which the original version does not contain.

No religious bookshelf can be complete without this title.

Although not credited, I served as a freelance editor on the reprinting of this book.

Too often have readers of the Bible come to take the Bible for granted, on blind faith that the Good Book is the "inspired word of God".By reading true Bible history as to how our modern day Bible came to us,we can better appreciate its value. Hendry Graham in his book "Where We Got the Bible From" does just that: dispeling entrenched notions of false translations that come to be extolled as "God's Holy Word" today,and showing us the light,in historical contexts using both both learned Catholic and esp. Protestant sources,to show the Bible's true origins as the insipired Word of God. A truly exciting read, besides Partick O'Hare's "The Facts About Luther"[TAN BOOKS,Rockford, Illinois]. Go for it!!!

After converting to Catholicism two years ago, I began a real 'scholarly' journey for the truth. The holy spirit led me out of Protestantism, but, the spirit wasn't through with me yet. It led me to this work and now I wonder how I was ever able to live without the the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. This book has inspired me to take the study of scripture seriously and in a new and 'truth-bearing' light. I will purchase several copies for my relatives and friends! Pax

I had no idea what the origin of the Bible was. I was stunned to read "Where We Got the Bible"--how logical and straight forward it really was. This book is a very quick read. I was stunned that Protestants used such ridiculous arguments against the Catholic Church (like the Catholic Church "keeping the Bible away from the masses by chaining it up"). I was utterly unfamiliar with these objections. Since reading this book, however, I have run into these misconceptions and are able to enlighten others.

Right Reverend Graham presents us with clear and concise evidence that the current claims of the majority of anti-Catholics regarding the Catholic Church and Scripture are patently false!!! As with most other issues, these Catholic haters try to twist history to destroy the Church. Graham shows us the facts that prove the true "Bible" church is the Roman Catholic Church.

Though not intended to be overly scholarly (he leaves most of the validation of the facts to us), this is a very powerful witness to the truth from a time when men weren't afraid to proclaim the truth. May the Holy Spirit continue to raise up defenders of the Church founded by Jesus Christ!!

I've read quite a few commentaries over the years on the topic of bible origin, and this book is like a 'swift kick in the knees' to any hardcore and/or misinformed protest-ant. Not that's it uncharitable--it isn't. Any anti-Catholic who reads this book will find it difficult to disagree with the content, unless they enjoy beating their heads up against the reliability of secular history and timetables. They aren't going to be able to say, "Oh that's just the Catholic slant." This book is a great foundation 'manual' for Catholics too--to hone your senses before delving deeper into early Church history. Sometimes, "those" unfamilar with the origin on the bible become overwhelmed thinking "Oooh, that's too deep of a subject for me to ever get an objective viewpoint", so they end up not reading anything at all...and sadly go on believing mistruths. However, this book is easy to digest and gives you a thirst to learn more. An easy pill.

When I was converting to Catholicism I found this book to be a very concise reference book to explain the Catholic view of the scriptures and to provide substantive and historical arguments for this view. As an example, the idea of the ealry Roman Catholic church "keeping everything in Latin" to prevent common folk reading the scriptures is deftly and dismissively dealt with (all literate people read Latin at the time) along with other issues and objections both simple and complex.

As another reviewer pointed out, the only real weakness of the book is that it is not well footnoted with sources for the material. Some might not like the manner in which arguments are presented which is often brusque and matter-of-fact; the book does not pull any punches and I actually appreciate it for that reason. It presents the "ascending spiral" theory of the canon very well and demonstrates the belief that you cannot have the Bible without the Church and vice versa.