Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Forged Origins of The New Testament 6

The Forged Origins of The New Testament

In the fourth century, the Roman Emperor Constantine united all religious factions under one composite deity, and ordered the compilation of new and old writings into a uniform collection that became the New Testament.

PART 5

"The Great Insertion" and "The Great Omission" jesus-christ-blessing_~u14156737.jpgModern-day versions of the Gospel of Luke have a staggering 10,000 more words than the same Gospel in the Sinai Bible. Six of those words say of Jesus "and was carried up into heaven", but this narrative does not appear in any of the oldest Gospels of Luke available today ("Three Early Doctrinal Modifications of the Text of the Gospels", F. C. Conybeare, The Hibbert Journal, London, vol. 1, no. 1, Oct 1902, pp. 96-113). Ancient versions do not verify modern-day accounts of an ascension of Jesus Christ, and this falsification clearly indicates an intention to deceive.
Today, the Gospel of Luke is the longest of the canonical Gospels because it now includes "The Great Insertion", an extraordinary 15th-century addition totalling around 8,500 words (Luke 9:51-18:14). The insertion of these forgeries into that Gospel bewilders modern Christian analysts, and of them the Church said: "The character of these passages makes it dangerous to draw inferences" (Catholic Encyclopedia, Pecci ed., vol. ii, p. 407).
Just as remarkable, the oldest Gospels of Luke omit all verses from 6:45 to 8:26, known in priesthood circles as "The Great Omission", a total of 1,547 words. In today's versions, that hole has been "plugged up" with passages plagiarised from other Gospels. Dr Tischendorf found that three paragraphs in newer versions of the Gospel of Luke's version of the Last Supper appeared in the 15th century, but the Church still passes its Gospels off as the unadulterated "word of God" ("Are Our Gospels Genuine or Not?", op. cit.)
The "Expurgatory Index" As was the case with the New Testament, so also were damaging writings of early "Church Fathers" modified in centuries of copying, and many of their records were intentionally rewritten or suppressed.
Adopting the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545-63), the Church subsequently extended the process of erasure and ordered the preparation of a special list of specific information to be expunged from early Christian writings (Delineation of Roman Catholicism, Rev. Charles Elliott, DD, G. Lane & P. P. Sandford, New York, 1842, p. 89; also, The Vatican Censors, Professor Peter Elmsley, Oxford, p. 327, pub. date n/a).
In 1562, the Vatican established a special censoring office called Index Expurgatorius. Its purpose was to prohibit publication of "erroneous passages of the early Church Fathers" that carried statements opposing modern-day doctrine.
When Vatican archivists came across "genuine copies of the Fathers, they corrected them according to the Expurgatory Index" (Index Expurgatorius Vaticanus, R. Gibbings, ed., Dublin, 1837; The Literary Policy of the Church of Rome, Joseph Mendham, J. Duncan, London, 1830, 2nd ed., 1840; The Vatican Censors, op. cit., p. 328). This Church record provides researchers with "grave doubts about the value of all patristic writings released to the public" (The Propaganda Press of Rome, Sir James W. L. Claxton, Whitehaven Books, London, 1942, p. 182).
Important for our story is the fact that the Encyclopaedia Biblica reveals that around 1,200 years of Christian history are unknown: "Unfortunately, only few of the records [of the Church] prior to the year 1198 have been released". It was not by chance that, in that same year (1198), Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) suppressed all records of earlier Church history by establishing the Secret Archives (Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. xv, p. 287). Some seven-and-a-half centuries later, and after spending some years in those Archives, Professor Edmond S. Bordeaux wrote How The Great Pan Died. In a chapter titled "The Whole of Church History is Nothing but a Retroactive Fabrication", he said this (in part):
"The Church ante-dated all her late works, some newly made, some revised and some counterfeited, which contained the final expression of her history ... her technique was to make it appear that much later works written by Church writers were composed a long time earlier, so that they might become evidence of the first, second or third centuries."
(How The Great Pan Died, op. cit., p. 46)
Supporting Professor Bordeaux's findings is the fact that, in 1587, Pope Sixtus V (1585-90) established an official Vatican publishing division and said in his own words, "Church history will be now be established ... we shall seek to print our own account"Encyclopédie, Diderot, 1759). Vatican records also reveal that Sixtus V spent 18 months of his life as pope personally writing a new Bible and then introduced into Catholicism a "New Learning" (Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. v, p. 442, vol. xv, p. 376). The evidence that the Church wrote its own history is found in Diderot's Encyclopédie, and it reveals the reason why Pope Clement XIII (1758-69) ordered all volumes to be destroyed immediately after publication in 1759.
Gospel authors exposed as imposters There is something else involved in this scenario and it is recorded in the Catholic Encyclopedia. An appreciation of the clerical mindset arises when the Church itself admits that it does not know who wrote its Gospels and Epistles, confessing that all 27 New Testament writings began life anonymously:
"It thus appears that the present titles of the Gospels are not traceable to the evangelists themselves ... they [the New Testament collection] are supplied with titles which, however ancient, do not go back to the respective authors of those writings." (Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. vi, pp. 655-6)
The Church maintains that "the titles of our Gospels were not intended to indicate authorship", adding that "the headings ... were affixed to them" (Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. i, p. 117, vol. vi, pp. 655, 656). Therefore they are not Gospels written "according to Matthew, Mark, Luke or John", as publicly stated. The full force of this confession reveals that there are no genuine apostolic Gospels, and that the Church's shadowy writings today embody the very ground and pillar of Christian foundations and faith. The consequences are fatal to the pretence of Divine origin of the entire New Testament and expose Christian texts as having no special authority. For centuries, fabricated Gospels bore Church certification of authenticity now confessed to be false, and this provides evidence that Christian writings are wholly fallacious.
After years of dedicated New Testament research, Dr Tischendorf expressed dismay at the differences between the oldest and newest Gospels, and had trouble understanding...
"...how scribes could allow themselves to bring in here and there changes which were not simply verbal ones, but such as materially affected the very meaning and, what is worse still, did not shrink from cutting out a passage or inserting one."
(Alterations to the Sinai Bible, Dr Constantin von Tischendorf, 1863, available in the British Library, London)
After years of validating the fabricated nature of the New Testament, a disillusioned Dr Tischendorf confessed that modern-day editions have "been altered in many places" and are "not to be accepted as true" (When Were Our Gospels Written?, Dr Constantin von Tischendorf, 1865, British Library, London).
Just what is Christianity? The important question then to ask is this: if the New Testament is not historical, what is it?
Dr Tischendorf provided part of the answer when he said in his 15,000 pages of critical notes on the Sinai Bible that "it seems that the personage of Jesus Christ was made narrator for many religions". This explains how narratives from the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata, appear verbatim in the Gospels today (e.g., Matt. 1:25, 2:11, 8:1-4, 9:1-8, 9:18-26), and why passages from the Phenomena of the Greek statesman Aratus of Sicyon (271-213 BC) are in the New Testament.
Extracts from the Hymn to Zeus, written by Greek philosopher Cleanthes (c. 331-232 BC), are also found in the Gospels, as are 207 words from the Thais of Menander (c. 343-291), one of the "seven wise men" of Greece. Quotes from the semi-legendary Greek poet Epimenides (7th or 6th century BC) are applied to the lips of Jesus Christ, and seven passages from the curious Ode of Jupiter (c. 150 BC; author unknown) are reprinted in the New Testament.
Tischendorf's conclusion also supports Professor Bordeaux's Vatican findings that reveal the allegory of Jesus Christ derived from the fable of Mithra, the divine son of God (Ahura Mazda) and messiah of the first kings of the Persian Empire around 400 BC. His birth in a grotto was attended by magi who followed a star from the East. They brought "gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh" (as in Matt. 2:11) and the newborn baby was adored by shepherds. He came into the world wearing the Mithraic cap, which popes imitated in various designs until well into the 15th century.
Mithra, one of a trinity, stood on a rock, the emblem of the foundation of his religion, and was anointed with honey. After a last supper with Helios and 11 other companions, Mithra was crucified on a cross, bound in linen, placed in a rock tomb and rose on the third day or around 25 March (the full moon at the spring equinox, a time now called Easter after the Babylonian goddess Ishtar). The fiery destruction of the universe was a major doctrine of Mithraism-a time in which Mithra promised to return in person to Earth and save deserving souls. Devotees of Mithra partook in a sacred communion banquet of bread and wine, a ceremony that paralleled the Christian Eucharist and preceded it by more than four centuries.
Christianity is an adaptation of Mithraism welded with the Druidic principles of the Culdees, some Egyptian elements (the pre-Christian Book of Revelation was originally called The Mysteries of Osiris and Isis), Greek philosophy and various aspects of Hinduism.
Why there are no records of Jesus Christ It is not possible to find in any legitimate religious or historical writings compiled between the beginning of the first century and well into the fourth century any reference to Jesus Christ and the spectacular events that the Church says accompanied his life. This confirmation comes from Frederic Farrar (1831-1903) of Trinity College, Cambridge:
"It is amazing that history has not embalmed for us even one certain or definite saying or circumstance in the life of the Saviour of mankind ... there is no statement in all history that says anyone saw Jesus or talked with him. Nothing in history is more astonishing than the silence of contemporary writers about events relayed in the four Gospels."
(The Life of Christ, Frederic W. Farrar, Cassell, London, 1874)
This situation arises from a conflict between history and New Testament narratives. Dr Tischendorf made this comment:
"We must frankly admit that we have no source of information with respect to the life of Jesus Christ other than ecclesiastic writings assembled during the fourth century."
(Codex Sinaiticus, Dr Constantin von Tischendorf, British Library, London)
There is an explanation for those hundreds of years of silence: the construct of Christianity did not begin until after the first quarter of the fourth century, and that is why Pope Leo X (d. 1521) called Christ a "fable" (Cardinal Bembo: His Letters..., op. cit.).

THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 4


CHAPTER THREE - MAN'S RESPONSE TO GOD
142 By his Revelation, "the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses men
as his friends, and moves among them, in order to invite and receive them into his own
company."[1] The adequate response to this invitation is faith.
143 By faith, man completely submits his intellect and his will to God.[2] With his whole
being man gives his assent to God the revealer. Sacred Scripture calls this human
response to God, the author of revelation, "the obedience of faith".[3]
ARTICLE I - I BELIEVE
I. THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH
144 To obey (from the Latin ob-audire, to "hear or listen to") in faith is to submit freely
to the word that has been heard, because its truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth
itself. Abraham is the model of such obedience offered us by Sacred Scripture. The
Virgin Mary is its most perfect embodiment.
Abraham - "father of all who believe"
145 The Letter to the Hebrews, in its great eulogy of the faith of Israel's ancestors, lays
special emphasis on Abraham's faith: "By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to
go out to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not
knowing where he was to go."[4] By faith, he lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the
promised land.[5] By faith, Sarah was given to conceive the son of the promise. And by
faith Abraham offered his only son in sacrifice.[6]
146 Abraham thus fulfils the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the assurance
of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen":[7] "Abraham believed God, and
it was reckoned to him as righteousness."[8] Because he was "strong in his faith",
Abraham became the "father of all who believe".[9]
147 The Old Testament is rich in witnesses to this faith. The Letter to the Hebrews
proclaims its eulogy of the exemplary faith of the ancestors who "received divine
approval".[10] Yet "God had foreseen something better for us": the grace of believing in
his Son Jesus, "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith".[11]
Mary - "Blessed is she who believed"
148 The Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies the obedience of faith. By faith Mary
welcomes the tidings and promise brought by the angel Gabriel, believing that "with
God nothing will be impossible" and so giving her assent: "Behold I am the handmaid
of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word."[12] Elizabeth greeted her:
"Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her
from the Lord."[13] It is for this faith that all generations have called Mary blessed.[14]
149 Throughout her life and until her last ordeal[15] when Jesus her son died on the
cross, Mary's faith never wavered. She never ceased to believe in the fulfilment of God's
word. And so the Church venerates in Mary the purest realization of faith.
II. "I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED"[16]
To believe in God alone
150 Faith is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and
inseparably, it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed. As personal
adherence to God and assent to his truth, Christian faith differs from our faith in any
human person. It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly to God and to believe
absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to place such faith in a creature.[17]
To believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God
151 For a Christian, believing in God cannot be separated from believing in the One he
sent, his "beloved Son", in whom the Father is "well pleased"; God tells us to listen to
him.[18] The Lord himself said to his disciples: "Believe in God, believe also in me."[19]
We can believe in Jesus Christ because he is himself God, the Word made flesh: "No
one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made
him known."[20] Because he "has seen the Father", Jesus Christ is the only one who
knows him and can reveal him.[21]
To believe in the Holy Spirit
152 One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit
who reveals to men who Jesus is. For "no one can say "Jesus is Lord", except by the
Holy Spirit",[22] who "searches everything, even the depths of God. . No one
comprehends the thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God."[23] Only God knows
God completely: we believe in the Holy Spirit because he is God.
The Church never ceases to proclaim her faith in one only God: Father, Son and Holy
Spirit.
III. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF FAITH
Faith is a grace
153 When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus
declared to him that this revelation did not come "from flesh and blood", but from "my
Father who is in heaven".[24] Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him.
"Before this faith can be exercised, man must have the grace of God to move and assist
him; he must have the interior helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and
converts it to God, who opens the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept
and believe the truth.'"[25]
Faith is a human act
154 Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of the Holy Spirit. But it is
no less true that believing is an authentically human act. Trusting in God and cleaving to
the truths he has revealed is contrary neither to human freedom nor to human reason.
Even in human relations it is not contrary to our dignity to believe what other persons
tell us about themselves and their intentions, or to trust their promises (for example,
when a man and a woman marry) to share a communion of life with one another. If this
is so, still less is it contrary to our dignity to "yield by faith the full submission of...
intellect and will to God who reveals",[26] and to share in an interior communion with
him.
155 In faith, the human intellect and will co-operate with divine grace: "Believing is an
act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by command of the will moved by God
through grace."[27]
Faith and understanding
156 What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths appear as true and
intelligible in the light of our natural reason: we believe "because of the authority of God
himself who reveals them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived".[28] So "that the
submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God willed
that external proofs of his Revelation should be joined to the internal helps of the Holy
Spirit."[29] Thus the miracles of Christ and the saints, prophecies, the Church's growth
and holiness, and her fruitfulness and stability "are the most certain signs of divine
Revelation, adapted to the intelligence of all"; they are "motives of credibility" (motiva
credibilitatis), which show that the assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the
mind".[30]
157 Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded
on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure
to human reason and experience, but "the certainty that the divine light gives is greater
than that which the light of natural reason gives."[31] "Ten thousand difficulties do not
make one doubt."[32]
158 "Faith seeks understanding":[33] it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know
better the One in whom he has put his faith, and to understand better what He has
revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith, increasingly
set afire by love. The grace of faith opens "the eyes of your hearts"[34] to a lively
understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the totality of God's plan and the
mysteries of faith, of their connection with each other and with Christ, the centre of the
revealed mystery. "The same Holy Spirit constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that
Revelation may be more and more profoundly understood."[35] In the words of St.
Augustine, "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the better to
believe."[36]
159 Faith and science: "Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real
discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and
infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny
himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth."[37] "Consequently, methodical research in
all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does
not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the
world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering
investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite
of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are."[38]
The freedom of faith
160 To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free, and... therefore
nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will. The act of faith is of its very
nature a free act."[39] "God calls men to serve him in spirit and in truth. Consequently
they are bound to him in conscience, but not coerced. . . This fact received its fullest
manifestation in Christ Jesus."[40] Indeed, Christ invited people to faith and conversion,
but never coerced them. "For he bore witness to the truth but refused to use force to
impose it on those who spoke against it. His kingdom... grows by the love with which
Christ, lifted up on the cross, draws men to himself."[41]
The necessity of faith
161 Believing in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary
for obtaining that salvation.[42] "Since "without faith it is impossible to please [God]"
and to attain to the fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever
attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life 'But he who endures to the
end.'"]
Perseverance in faith
162 Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can lose this priceless gift,
as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good
conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have made shipwreck of their
faith."[44] To live, grow and persevere in the faith until the end we must nourish it with
the word of God; we must beg the Lord to increase our faith;[45] it must be "working
through charity," abounding in hope, and rooted in the faith of the Church.[46]
Faith - the beginning of eternal life
163 Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific vision, the goal of our
journey here below. Then we shall see God "face to face", "as he is".[47] So faith is
already the beginning of eternal life:
When we contemplate the blessings of faith even now, as if gazing at a reflection in a
mirror, it is as if we already possessed the wonderful things which our faith assures us
we shall one day enjoy.[48]
164 Now, however, "we walk by faith, not by sight";[49] we perceive God as "in a
mirror, dimly" and only "in part".[50] Even though enlightened by him in whom it
believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test. The world we live in
often seems very far from the one promised us by faith. Our experiences of evil and
suffering, injustice and death, seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our
faith and become a temptation against it.
165 It is then we must turn to the witnesses of faith: to Abraham, who "in hope...
believed against hope";[51] to the Virgin Mary, who, in "her pilgrimage of faith", walked
into the "night of faith"[52] in sharing the darkness of her son's suffering and death; and
to so many others: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with
perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of
our faith."[53]
ARTICLE 2 - WE BELIEVE
166 Faith is a personal act - the free response of the human person to the initiative of
God who reveals himself. But faith is not an isolated act. No one can believe alone, just
as no one can live alone.
You have not given yourself faith as you have not given yourself life. The believer has
received faith from others and should hand it on to others. Our love for Jesus and for
our neighbour impels us to speak to others about our faith. Each believer is thus a link
in the great chain of believers. I cannot believe without being carried by the faith of
others, and by my faith I help support others in the faith.
167 "I believe" (Apostles' Creed) is the faith of the Church professed personally by each
believer, principally during Baptism. "We believe" (Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) is
the faith of the Church confessed by the bishops assembled in council or more generally
by the liturgical assembly of believers. "I believe" is also the Church, our mother,
responding to God by faith as she teaches us to say both "I believe" and "We believe".
I. "LORD, LOOK UPON THE FAITH OF YOUR
CHURCH"
168 It is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes and sustains my faith.
Everywhere, it is the Church that first confesses the Lord: "Throughout the world the
holy Church acclaims you", as we sing in the hymn Te Deum; with her and in her, we are
won over and brought to confess: "I believe", "We believe". It is through the Church
that we receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism. In the Rituale Romanum, the
minister of Baptism asks the catechumen: "What do you ask of God's Church?" And the
answer is: "Faith." "What does faith offer you?" "Eternal life."[54]
169 Salvation comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through
the Church, she is our mother: "We believe the Church as the mother of our new birth,
and not in the Church as if she were the author of our salvation."[55] Because she is our
mother, she is also our teacher in the faith.
II. THE LANGUAGE OF FAITH
170 We do not believe in formulae, but in those realities they express, which faith allows
us to touch. "The believer's act [of faith] does not terminate in the propositions, but in
the realities [which they express]."[56] All the same, we do approach these realities with
the help of formulations of the faith which permit us to express the faith and to hand it
on, to celebrate it in community, to assimilate and live on it more and more.
171 The Church, "the pillar and bulwark of the truth", faithfully guards "the faith which
was once for all delivered to the saints". She guards the memory of Christ's words; it is
she who from generation to generation hands on the apostles' confession of faith.[57]
As a mother who teaches her children to speak and so to understand and communicate,
the Church our Mother teaches us the language of faith in order to introduce us to the
understanding and the life of faith.
III. ONLY ONE FAITH
172 Through the centuries, in so many languages, cultures, peoples and nations, the
Church has constantly confessed this one faith, received from the one Lord, transmitted
by one Baptism, and grounded in the conviction that all people have only one God and
Father.[58] St. Irenaeus of Lyons, a witness of this faith, declared:
173 "Indeed, the Church, though scattered throughout the whole world, even to the
ends of the earth, having received the faith from the apostles and their disciples. . .
guards [this preaching and faith] with care, as dwelling in but a single house, and
similarly believes as if having but one soul and a single heart, and preaches, teaches and
hands on this faith with a unanimous voice, as if possessing only one mouth."[59]
174 "For though languages differ throughout the world, the content of the Tradition is
one and the same. The Churches established in Germany have no other faith or
Tradition, nor do those of the Iberians, nor those of the Celts, nor those of the East, of
Egypt, of Libya, nor those established at the centre of the world. . ."[60] The Church's
message "is true and solid, in which one and the same way of salvation appears
throughout the whole world."[61]
175 "We guard with care the faith that we have received from the Church, for without
ceasing, under the action of God's Spirit, this deposit of great price, as if in an excellent
vessel, is constantly being renewed and causes the very vessel that contains it to be
renewed."[62]
IN BRIEF
176 Faith is a personal adherence of the whole man to God who reveals himself. It
involves an assent of the intellect and will to the self-revelation God has made through
his deeds and words.
177 "To believe" has thus a twofold reference: to the person, and to the truth: to the
truth, by trust in the person who bears witness to it.
178 We must believe in no one but God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
179 Faith is a supernatural gift from God. In order to believe, man needs the interior
helps of the Holy Spirit.
180 "Believing" is a human act, conscious and free, corresponding to the dignity of the
human person.
181 "Believing" is an ecclesial act. The Church's faith precedes, engenders, supports and
nourishes our faith. The Church is the mother of all believers. "No one can have God as
Father who does not have the Church as Mother" (St. Cyprian, De unit. 6: PL 4, 519).
182 We believe all "that which is contained in the word of God, written or handed
down, and which the Church proposes for belief as divinely revealed" (Paul VI, CPG #
20).
183 Faith is necessary for salvation. The Lord himself affirms: "He who believes and is
baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned" (Mk 16:16).
184 "Faith is a foretaste of the knowledge that will make us blessed in the life to come"
(St. Thomas Aquinas. Comp. theol. 1, 2).

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Forged Origins of The New Testament 5

The Forged Origins of The New Testament

In the fourth century, the Roman Emperor Constantine united all religious factions under one composite deity, and ordered the compilation of new and old writings into a uniform collection that became the New Testament.

PART 4

The shock discovery of an ancient Bible The_Resurrection_of_Jesus_Christ.jpgThe New Testament subsequently evolved into a fulsome piece of priesthood propaganda, and the Church claimed it recorded the intervention of a divine Jesus Christ into Earthly affairs. However, a spectacular discovery in a remote Egyptian monastery revealed to the world the extent of later falsifications of the Christian texts, themselves only an "assemblage of legendary tales" (Encyclopédie, Diderot, 1759). On 4 February 1859, 346 leaves of an ancient codex were discovered in the furnace room at St Catherine's monastery at Mt Sinai, and its contents sent shockwaves through the Christian world. Along with other old codices, it was scheduled to be burned in the kilns to provide winter warmth for the inhabitants of the monastery. Written in Greek on donkey skins, it carried both the Old and New Testaments, and later in time archaeologists dated its composition to around the year 380. It was discovered by Dr Constantin von Tischendorf (1815-1874), a brilliant and pious German biblical scholar, and he called it the Sinaiticus, the Sinai Bible. Tischendorf was a professor of theology who devoted his entire life to the study of New Testament origins, and his desire to read all the ancient Christian texts led him on the long, camel-mounted journey to St Catherine's Monastery.
During his lifetime, Tischendorf had access to other ancient Bibles unavailable to the public, such as the Alexandrian (or Alexandrinus) Bible, believed to be the second oldest Bible in the world. It was so named because in 1627 it was taken from Alexandria to Britain and gifted to King Charles I (1600-49). Today it is displayed alongside the world's oldest known Bible, the Sinaiticus, in the British Library in London. During his research, Tischendorf had access to the Vaticanus, the Vatican Bible, believed to be the third oldest in the world and dated to the mid-sixth century (The Various Versions of the Bible, Dr Constantin von Tischendorf, 1874, available in the British Library). It was locked away in the Vatican's inner library. Tischendorf asked if he could extract handwritten notes, but his request was declined. However, when his guard took refreshment breaks, Tischendorf wrote comparative narratives on the palm of his hand and sometimes on his fingernails ("Are Our Gospels Genuine or Not?", Dr Constantin von Tischendorf, lecture, 1869, available in the British Library).
Today, there are several other Bibles written in various languages during the fifth and sixth centuries, examples being the Syriacus, the Cantabrigiensis (Bezae), the Sarravianus and the Marchalianus.
A shudder of apprehension echoed through Christendom in the last quarter of the 19th century when English-language versions of the Sinai Bible were published. Recorded within these pages is information that disputes Christianity's claim of historicity. Christians were provided with irrefutable evidence of wilful falsifications in all modern New Testaments. So different was the Sinai Bible's New Testament from versions then being published that the Church angrily tried to annul the dramatic new evidence that challenged its very existence. In a series of articles published in the London Quarterly Review in 1883, John W. Burgon, Dean of Chichester, used every rhetorical device at his disposal to attack the Sinaiticus' earlier and opposing story of Jesus Christ, saying that "...without a particle of hesitation, the Sinaiticus is scandalously corrupt ... exhibiting the most shamefully mutilated texts which are anywhere to be met with; they have become, by whatever process, the depositories of the largest amount of fabricated readings, ancient blunders and intentional perversions of the truth which are discoverable in any known copies of the word of God". Dean Burgon's concerns mirror opposing aspects of Gospel stories then current, having by now evolved to a new stage through centuries of tampering with the fabric of an already unhistorical document.
The revelations of ultraviolet light testing In 1933, the British Museum in London purchased the Sinai Bible from the Soviet government for £100,000, of which £65,000 was gifted by public subscription. Prior to the acquisition, this Bible was displayed in the Imperial Library in St Petersburg, Russia, and "few scholars had set eyes on it" (The Daily Telegraph and Morning Post, 11 January 1938, p. 3). When it went on display in 1933 as "the oldest Bible in the world" (ibid.), it became the centre of a pilgrimage unequalled in the history of the British Museum.
Before I summarise its conflictions, it should be noted that this old codex is by no means a reliable guide to New Testament study as it contains superabundant errors and serious re-editing. These anomalies were exposed as a result of the months of ultraviolet-light tests carried out at the British Museum in the mid-1930s. The findings revealed replacements of numerous passages by at least nine different editors. Photographs taken during testing revealed that ink pigments had been retained deep in the pores of the skin. The original words were readable under ultraviolet light. Anybody wishing to read the results of the tests should refer to the book written by the researchers who did the analysis: the Keepers of the Department of Manuscripts at the British Museum (Scribes and Correctors of the Codex Sinaiticus, H. J. M. Milne and T. C. Skeat, British Museum, London, 1938).
Forgery in the Gospels When the New Testament in the Sinai Bible is compared with a modern-day New Testament, a staggering 14,800 editorial alterations can be identified. These amendments can be recognised by a simple comparative exercise that anybody can and should do. Serious study of Christian origins must emanate from the Sinai Bible's version of the New Testament, not modern editions.
Of importance is the fact that the Sinaiticus carries three Gospels since rejected: the Shepherd of Hermas (written by two resurrected ghosts, Charinus and Lenthius), the Missive of Barnabas and the Odes of Solomon. Space excludes elaboration on these bizarre writings and also discussion on dilemmas associated with translation variations.
Modern Bibles are five removes in translation from early editions, and disputes rage between translators over variant interpretations of more than 5,000 ancient words. However, it is what is not written in that old Bible that embarrasses the Church, and this article discusses only a few of those omissions. One glaring example is subtly revealed in the Encyclopaedia Biblica (Adam & Charles Black, London, 1899, vol. iii, p. 3344), where the Church divulges its knowledge about exclusions in old Bibles, saying: "The remark has long ago and often been made that, like Paul, even the earliest Gospels knew nothing of the miraculous birth of our Saviour". That is because there never was a virgin birth.
It is apparent that when Eusebius assembled scribes to write the New Testimonies, he first produced a single document that provided an exemplar or master version. Today it is called the Gospel of Mark, and the Church admits that it was "the first Gospel written" (Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. vi, p. 657), even though it appears second in the New Testament today. The scribes of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke were dependent upon the Mark writing as the source and framework for the compilation of their works. The Gospel of John is independent of those writings, and the late-15th-century theory that it was written later to support the earlier writings is the truth (The Crucifixion of Truth, Tony Bushby, Joshua Books, 2004, pp. 33-40).
Thus, the Gospel of Mark in the Sinai Bible carries the "first" story of Jesus Christ in history, one completely different to what is in modern Bibles. It starts with Jesus "at about the age of thirty" (Mark 1:9), and doesn't know of Mary, a virgin birth or mass murders of baby boys by Herod. Words describing Jesus Christ as "the son of God" do not appear in the opening narrative as they do in today's editions (Mark 1:1), and the modern-day family tree tracing a "messianic bloodline" back to King David is non-existent in all ancient Bibles, as are the now-called "messianic prophecies" (51 in total). The Sinai Bible carries a conflicting version of events surrounding the "raising of Lazarus", and reveals an extraordinary omission that later became the central doctrine of the Christian faith: the resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ and his ascension into Heaven. No supernatural appearance of a resurrected Jesus Christ is recorded in any ancient Gospels of Mark, but a description of over 500 words now appears in modern Bibles (Mark 16:9-20).
Despite a multitude of long-drawn-out self-justifications by Church apologists, there is no unanimity of Christian opinion regarding the non-existence of "resurrection" appearances in ancient Gospel accounts of the story. Not only are those narratives missing in the Sinai Bible, but they are absent in the Alexandrian Bible, the Vatican Bible, the Bezae Bible and an ancient Latin manuscript of Mark, code-named "K" by analysts. They are also lacking in the oldest Armenian version of the New Testament, in sixth-century manuscripts of the Ethiopic version and ninth-century Anglo-Saxon Bibles. However, some 12th-century Gospels have the now-known resurrection verses written within asterisksÑmarks used by scribes to indicate spurious passages in a literary document.
The Church claims that "the resurrection is the fundamental argument for our Christian belief" (Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. xii, p. 792), yet no supernatural appearance of a resurrected Jesus Christ is recorded in any of the earliest Gospels of Mark available. A resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ is the sine qua non ("without which, nothing") of Christianity (Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. xii, p. 792), confirmed by words attributed to Paul: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain" (1 Cor. 5:17). The resurrection verses in today's Gospels of Mark are universally acknowledged as forgeries and the Church agrees, saying "the conclusion of Mark is admittedly not genuine ... almost the entire section is a later compilation" (Encyclopaedia Biblica, vol. ii, p. 1880, vol. iii, pp. 1767, 1781; also, Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. iii, under the heading "The Evidence of its Spuriousness"; Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. iii, pp. 274-9 under heading "Canons"). Undaunted, however, the Church accepted the forgery into its dogma and made it the basis of Christianity.
The trend of fictitious resurrection narratives continues. The final chapter of the Gospel of John (21) is a sixth-century forgery, one entirely devoted to describing Jesus' resurrection to his disciples. The Church admits: "The sole conclusion that can be deduced from this is that the 21st chapter was afterwards added and is therefore to be regarded as an appendix to the Gospel" (Catholic Encyclopedia, Farley ed., vol. viii, pp. 441-442; New Catholic Encyclopedia (NCE), "Gospel of John", p. 1080; also NCE, vol. xii, p. 407).

THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 3


ARTICLE 3 - SACRED SCRIPTURE
I. CHRIST - THE UNIQUE WORD OF SACRED
SCRIPTURE
101 In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks
to them in human words: "Indeed the words of God, expressed in the words of men, are
in every way like human language, just as the Word of the eternal Father, when he took
on himself the flesh of human weakness, became like men."[63]
102 Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his
one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely:[64]
You recall that one and the same Word of God extends throughout Scripture, that it is
one and the same Utterance that resounds in the mouths of all the sacred writers, since
he who was in the beginning God with God has no need of separate syllables; for he is
not subject to time.[65]
103 For this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the
Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life, taken from the
one table of God's Word and Christ's Body.[66]
104 In Sacred Scripture, the Church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength,
for she welcomes it not as a human word, "but as what it really is, the word of God".[67]
"In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his children,
and talks with them."[68]
II. INSPIRATION AND TRUTH OF SACRED
SCRIPTURE
105 God is the author of Sacred Scripture. "The divinely revealed realities, which are
contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture, have been written down under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit."[69]
"For Holy Mother Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred
and canonical the books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all
their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, they
have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself."[70]
106 God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. "To compose the sacred
books, God chose certain men who, all the while he employed them in this task, made
full use of their own faculties and powers so that, though he acted in them and by them,
it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no
more."[71]
107 The inspired books teach the truth. "Since therefore all that the inspired authors or
sacred writers affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must
acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that
truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred
Scriptures."[72]
108 Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book". Christianity is the religion of
the "Word" of God, a word which is "not a written and mute word, but the Word which
is incarnate and living".[73] If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ, the
eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit, "open [our] minds to
understand the Scriptures."[74]
III. THE HOLY SPIRIT, INTERPRETER OF
SCRIPTURE
109 In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture
correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm,
and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words.[75]
110 In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account
the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the
modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current. "For the fact is that truth is
differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical writing, in
prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of literary expression."[76]
111 But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important
principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter.
"Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it
was written."[77]
The Second Vatican Council indicates three criteria for interpreting Scripture in
accordance with the Spirit who inspired it.[78]
112 Be especially attentive "to the content and unity of the whole Scripture". Different
as the books which compose it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of
God's plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover.[79]
The phrase "heart of Christ" can refer to Sacred Scripture, which makes known his
heart, closed before the Passion, as the Scripture was obscure. But the Scripture has
been opened since the Passion; since those who from then on have understood it,
consider and discern in what way the prophecies must be interpreted.[80]
113 2. Read the Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church". According
to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church's heart
rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living
memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual
interpretation of the Scripture (". . . according to the spiritual meaning which the Spirit
grants to the Church"[81]).
114 3. Be attentive to the analogy of faith.[82] By "analogy of faith" we mean the
coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of
Revelation.
The senses of Scripture
115 According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of
Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical,
moral and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees
all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church.
116 The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered
by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: "All other senses of Sacred
Scripture are based on the literal."[83]
117 The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only the text of Scripture
but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs.
1. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by
recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type
of Christ's victory and also of Christian Baptism.[84]
2. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly. As
St. Paul says, they were written "for our instruction".[85]
3. The anagogical sense (Greek: anagoge, "leading"). We can view realities and events in
terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the
Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem.[86]
118 A medieval couplet summarizes the significance of the four senses:
The Letter speaks of deeds; Allegory to faith;
The Moral how to act; Anagogy our destiny.[87]
119 "It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules, towards a better
understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture in order that their
research may help the Church to form a firmer judgement. For, of course, all that has
been said about the manner of interpreting Scripture is ultimately subject to the
judgement of the Church which exercises the divinely conferred commission and
ministry of watching over and interpreting the Word of God."[88]
But I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the
Catholic Church already moved me.[89]
IV. THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE
120 It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be
included in the list of the sacred books.[90]
This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old
Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New.[91]
The Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua,
Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah,
Tobit, Judith, Esther, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song
of Songs, the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Lamentations, Baruch, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah,
Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah and Malachi.
The New Testament: the Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Acts
of the Apostles, the Letters of St. Paul to the Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians,
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus,
Philemon, the Letter to the Hebrews, the Letters of James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3
John, and Jude, and Revelation (the Apocalypse).
The Old Testament
121 The Old Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are
divinely inspired and retain a permanent value,[92] for the Old Covenant has never been
revoked.
122 Indeed, "the economy of the Old Testament was deliberately SO oriented that it
should prepare for and declare in prophecy the coming of Christ, redeemer of all
men."[93] "Even though they contain matters imperfect and provisional,[94] the books
of the OldTestament bear witness to the whole divine pedagogy of God's saving love:
these writings "are a storehouse of sublime teaching on God and of sound wisdom on
human life, as well as a wonderful treasury of prayers; in them, too, the mystery of our
salvation is present in a hidden way."[95]
123 Christians venerate the Old Testament as true Word of God. The Church has
always vigorously opposed the idea of rejecting the Old Testament under the pretext
that the New has rendered it void (Marcionism).
The New Testament
124 "The Word of God, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has
faith, is set forth and displays its power in a most wonderful way in the writings of the
New Testament"[96] which hand on the ultimate truth of God's Revelation. Their
central object is Jesus Christ, God's incarnate Son: his acts, teachings, Passion and
glorification, and his Church's beginnings under the Spirit's guidance.[97]
125 The Gospels are the heart of all the Scriptures "because they are our principal
source for the life and teaching of the Incarnate Word, our Saviour".[98]
126 We can distinguish three stages in the formation of the Gospels:
1. The life and teaching of Jesus. The Church holds firmly that the four Gospels,
"whose historicity she unhesitatingly affirms, faithfully hand on what Jesus, the Son of
God, while he lived among men, really did and taught for their eternal salvation, until
the day when he was taken up."[99]
2. The oral tradition. "For, after the ascension of the Lord, the apostles handed on to
their hearers what he had said and done, but with that fuller understanding which they,
instructed by the glorious events of Christ and enlightened by the Spirit of truth, now
enjoyed."[100]
3. The written Gospels. "The sacred authors, in writing the four Gospels, selected
certain of the many elements which had been handed on, either orally or already in
written form; others they synthesized or explained with an eye to the situation of the
churches, the while sustaining the form of preaching, but always in such a fashion that
they have told us the honest truth about Jesus."[101]
127 The fourfold Gospel holds a unique place in the Church, as is evident both in the
veneration which the liturgy accords it and in the surpassing attraction it has exercised
on the saints at all times:
There is no doctrine which could be better, more precious and more splendid than the
text of the Gospel. Behold and retain what our Lord and Master, Christ, has taught by
his words and accomplished by his deeds.[102]
But above all it's the gospels that occupy my mind when I'm at prayer; my poor soul has
so many needs, and yet this is the one thing needful. I'm always finding fresh lights
there; hidden meanings which had meant nothing to me hitherto.[103]
The unity of the Old and New Testaments
128 The Church, as early as apostolic times,[104] and then constantly in her Tradition,
has illuminated the unity of the divine plan in the two Testaments through typology,
which discerns in God's works of the Old Covenant prefigurations of what he
accomplished in the fullness of time in the person of his incarnate Son.
129 Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of Christ crucified and
risen. Such typological reading discloses the inexhaustible content of the Old Testament;
but it must not make us forget that the Old Testament retains its own intrinsic value as
Revelation reaffirmed by our Lord himself.[105] Besides, the New Testament has to be
read in the light of the Old. Early Christian catechesis made constant use of the Old
Testament.[106] As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in the Old and
the Old Testament is unveiled in the New.[107]
130 Typology indicates the dynamic movement toward the fulfilment of the divine plan
when "God [will] be everything to everyone."[108] Nor do the calling of the patriarchs
and the exodus from Egypt, for example, lose their own value in God's plan, from the
mere fact that they were intermediate stages.
V. SACRED SCRIPTURE IN THE LIFE OF THE
CHURCH
131 "And such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can serve the Church
as her support and vigour, and the children of the Church as strength for their faith,
food for the soul, and a pure and lasting fount of spiritual life."[109] Hence "access to
Sacred Scripture ought to be open wide to the Christian faithful."[110]
132 "Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul of sacred theology.
The ministry of the Word, too - pastoral preaching, catechetics and all forms of
Christian instruction, among which the liturgical homily should hold pride of place - is
healthily nourished and thrives in holiness through the Word of Scripture."[111]
133 The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful... to learn
the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures.
Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.[112]
IN BRIEF
134 All Sacred Scripture is but one book, and this one book is Christ, ‘because all divine Scripture
speaks of Christ, and all divine Scripture is fulfilled in Christ’ (Hugh of St Victor, De arca Noe 2, 8:
PL 176, 642: cf. ibid. 2, 9: PL 176, 642-643).
135 "The Sacred Scriptures contain the Word of God and, because they are inspired, they are truly the
Word of God" (DV 24).
136 God is the author of Sacred Scripture because he inspired its human authors; he acts in them and by
means of them. He thus gives assurance that their writings teach without error his saving truth (cf. DV
11).
137 Interpretation of the inspired Scripture must be attentive above all to what God wants to reveal
through the sacred authors for our salvation. What comes from the Spirit is not fully "understood except
by the Spirit's action' (cf. Origen, Hom. in Ex. 4, 5: PG 12, 320).
138 The Church accepts and venerates as inspired the 46 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books
of the New.
139 The four Gospels occupy a central place because Christ Jesus is their centre.
140 The unity of the two Testaments proceeds from the unity of God's plan and his Revelation. The Old
Testament prepares for the New and the New Testament fulfils the Old; the two shed light on each
other; both are true Word of God.
141 "The Church has always venerated the divine Scriptures as she venerated the Body of the Lord"
(DV 21): both nourish and govern the whole Christian life. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a
light to my path" (Ps 119:105; cf. Is 50:4).
ENDNOTES
1 Cf. Dei Filius DS 3015.
2 DV 2; cf. Eph 1:9; 2:18; 2 Pt 1:4.
3 I Tim 6:16, cf. Eph 1:4-5.
4 DV 2.
5 St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 20, 2: PG 7/1, 944; cf. 3, 17, 1; 4, 12,
4; 4, 21, 3.
6 DV 3; cf. Jn 1:3; Rom 1:19-20.
7 DV 3; cf. Gen 3:15; Rom 2:6-7.
8 Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer IV, 118.
9 Gen 10:5; cf. 9:9-10, 16; 10:20-31.
10 Cf. Acts 17:26-27.
11 Cf. Wis 10:5; Gen 11:4-6.
12 Cf. Rom 1:18-25.
13 Cf. Gen 9:16; Lk 21:24; DV 3.
14 Cf. Gen 14:18; Heb 7:3; Ezek 14:14.
15 Jn 11:52.
16 Gen 12:1.
17 Gen 17:5; 12:3 (LXX); cf. Gal 3:8
18 Cf. Rom 11:28; Jn 11:52; 10:16.
19 Cf. Rom 11:17-18, 24.
20 Cf. DV 3.
21 Dt 28: 10; Roman Missal, Good i Friday, General Intercession VI;
see also Ex 19:6.
22 Cf. Is 2:2-4; Jer 31:31-34; Heb 10:16.
23 Cf. Ezek 36; Is 49:5-6; 53:11.
24 Cf. Ezek 2:3; Lk 1:38.
25 DV 2.
26 Heb 1:1-2.
27 St. John of the Cross, The Ascent of Mount Carmel 2, 22, 3-5 in The
Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, tr. K. Kavanaugh OCD and O.
Rodriguez OCD (Washington DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 1979),
179-180: LH, Advent, week 2, Monday, OR.
28 DV 4; cf. I Tim 6:14; Titus 2:13.
29 1 Tim 2:4.
30 cf. Jn 14:6.
31 DV 7; cf. 2 Cor 1:20; 3:16 - 4:6.
32 DV 7; cf. Mt 28:19-20; Mk 16:15.
33 DV 7.
34 DV 7.
35 DV 7 # 2; St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 3, 1: PG 7/1, 848;
Harvey, 2, 9.
36 DV 8 # 1.
37 DV 8 # 1.
38 DV 8 # 3.
39 DV 8 # 3; cf. Col 3:16.
40 DV 9.
41 Mt 28:20.
42 DV 9.
43 DV 9.
44 DV 9.
45 DV 10 # 1; cf. I Tim 6:20; 2 Tim 1:12-14 (Vulg.).
46 DV 10 # 1; cf. Acts 2:42 (Greek); Pius XII, Apost. Const.
Munificentissimus Deus, 1 November 1950: AAS 42 (1950), 756, taken along
with the words of St. Cyprian, Epist. 66, 8: CSEL 3/2, 733: "The Church
is the people united to its Priests, the flock adhering to its Shepherd."
47 DV 10 # 2.
48 DV 10 para 2.
49 Lk 10:16; cf. LG 20.
50 Cf.Jn 8:31-32.
51 Cf. Vatican Council I: DS 3016: nexus mysteriorum; LC 25.
52 UR II.
53 Cf. I Jn 2:20, 27.
54 Cf. .Jn 16:13.
55 LG 12; cf. St. Augustine, De praed. sanct. 14, 27: PL 44, 980.
56 LG 12; cf. Jude 3.
57 DV 8 # 2; cf. Lk 2:19, 51.
58 GS 62 # 7; cf. GS 44 # 2; DV 23; 24; UR 4.
59 DV 8 # 2.
60 DV 8 # 2.
61 St. Gregory the Great, Hom. in Ezek. 1, 7, 8: PL 76, 843D.
62 DV 10 # 3.
63 DV 13.
64 Cf. Heb 1:1-3.
65 St. Augustine, En. in Ps. 103, 4, 1: PL 37, 1378; cf. Ps 104; Jn
1:1.
66 Cf. DV 21.
67 Th 2:13; cf. DV 24.
68 DV 21.
69 DV 11;
70 DV 11; cf. Jn 20:31; 2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pt 1:19-21; 3:15-16.
71 DV 11.
72 DV 11.
73 St. Bernard, S. missus est hom. 4, 11: PL 183, 86.
74 Cf. Lk 24:45.
75 Cf. DV 12 # 1.
76 DV 12 # 2.
77 DV 12 # 3.
78 Cf. DV 12 # 4.
79 Cf. Lk 24:25-27, 44-46.
80 St. Thomas Aquinas, Expos. in Ps. 21, 11; cf. Ps 22:14.
81 Origen, Hom. in Lev. 5, 5: PG 12, 454D.
82 Cf. Rom 12:6.
83 St. Thomas Aquinas, S Th I, 1, 10, ad I.
84 Cf. I Cor 10:2.
85 I Cor 10:11; cf. Heb 3:1 -4:11.
86 Cf. Rev 21:1 - 22:5.
87 Lettera gesta docet, quid credas allegoria, moralis quid agas, quo tendas anagogia : Augustine of Dacia,
Rotulus pugillaris, I : ed. A. Walz : Angelicum 6 (1929) 256.
88 DV 12 # 3.
89 St. Augustine, Contra epistolam Manichaei 5, 6: PL 42, 176.
90 Cf. DV 8 # 3.
91 Cf. DS 179; 1334-1336; 1501-1504.
92 Cf. DV 14.
93 DV 15.
94 DV 15.
95 DV 15.
96 DV 17; cf. Rom 1:16.
97 Cf. DV 20.
98 DV 18.
99 DV 19; cf. Acts 1:1-2.
100 DV 19.
101 DV 19.
102 St. Caesaria the Younger to St. Richildis and St. Radegunde: SCh 345,
480.
103 St. Therese of Lisieux, Autobiography of a Saint, tr. Ronald Knox
(London: Collins, 1960), 175.
104 Cf. I Cor 10:6, 11; Heb 10:l; l Pt 3:21.
105 Cf. Mk 12:29-31
106 Cf. I Cor 5:6-8; 10:1-11.
107 Cf. St. Augustine, Quaest. in Hept. 2, 73: PL 34,623; Cf. DU 16.
108 1 Cor 15:28.
109 DV 21.
110 DV 22.
111 DV 24.
112 DV 25; cf. Phil 3:8 and St. Jerome, Commentariorum in Isaiam libri
xviii prol.: PL 24, 17B.