I have an old Catholic Bible that I inherited from my mother. It does not
have the Books of Chronicles in it. Were these recently put into the Bible?
No. The Books of Chronicles have been in the Hebrew Bible from ancient times. They were placed in the Christian Bible by the Catholic Church from the time the Canon Scripture was formed. If you look closely at your Bible, the Books of Chronicles might be called "Paralipomenon." This was the name for these books used by the Greek translators of the Old Testament. It means, "Things left out or omitted." The Hebrew words for these books are "Dibre Haijamin," which means "Day by day accounts of happenings."
Reprinted from February 14, 1997
Did the
Catholic Church ever chain the Bible in the Middle Ages?
Bibles were sometimes chained in churches in the Middle Ages for the same reason that telephone books in public booths are chained today, to keep them available for people and so no one would steal them. Despite some lies about this matter by Protestants and others, Bibles were available for people to read privately in churches throughout the history of the Catholic Church. But, before the advent of printing, books were rare and valuable. Thus, often they were fastened down to prevent theft, but certainly not to prevent their being read. Quite the contrary is true.
Reprinted from December 20, 1996
How do we know that
purgatory exists? It is never mentioned in the Bible, so where did the Catholic
tradition about Purgatory come from?
Although the word "purgatory" is not mentioned in the Bible, the reality of purgatory is clearly mentioned there. The words "Trinity" and "incarnation" and "Bible" are not mentioned in the Bible, but these realities are revealed there. Jesus speaks of sins to be forgiven in the life to come (Matthew 12:23). Saint Paul speaks of those saved in the next life "through fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15). Saint Peter speaks of the "spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:18-20) and of the Gospel "preached to the dead" (1 Peter 4:6). The Bible explicitly tells us to pray for the dead (2 Maccabees 12:44-46). Besides being found in Sacred Tradition, which explicitly affirms the existence of purgatory, it is clearly that the doctrine of it existence is also found in Sacred Scripture.
Reprinted from November 8, 1996
Which
books of the Bible did Jesus write?
None of them. Jesus founded the Catholic Church and confided to her the entirety of divine revelation. Later some Catholics, including eye witnesses from the time of Christ, wrote the books of the New Testament, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Still later, the Bishops of the Catholic Church joined these to the sacred writings of the Jewish People and declared that this volume constitutes Sacred Scripture. The New Testament consists of historically accurate documents, but it is the authority of the Catholic Church which enables us to see it as much more, that is, as the divinely inspired word of God.
Reprinted from October 11, 1996
Does
the Bible alone contain all of divine revelation?
No. The Bible itself tells us that it does not contain all of divine revelation (John 21:25; 2 Thessalonians 2:15). The slogan "the Bible alone" is false and misleading. In addition to being found in Sacred Scripture, divine revelation is also contained in Sacred Tradition. Sacred Tradition (2 Timothy 2:2), of course, must be distinguished from merely human traditions which are reprobated in Sacred Scripture (Matthew 15:3; Colossians 2:8). It is Sacred Tradition itself, along with the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, which tells us which books actually belong in the Bible and which are spurious or non-inspired. It is interesting to observe that the word "Bible" is not found in the Bible.
Reprinted from October
11, 1996