Comments on: Did the Catholic Church Chain Up Bibles?

By: Robert Mader

Robert Mader — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:22:32 +0000

I would like to add, and you should be well aware, that 99.9 % of the population could not read anything. Even in the late 1800, probably only 10% of the population in the US could read anything. Let alone a bible. They were illiterate. The Church had invented Universities – but it hadn’t invented public schools yet when the Bible was chained in those churches. You didn’t have to be able to read to know how much it would sell for if you could steal it.

By: Robert Mader

Robert Mader — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:16:48 +0000

What is the source for Your information. Anyone can make a video of assertions that are complete lies or just as bad, Half truths.

By: Sincerely

Sincerely — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 09:15:07 +0000

I watched a video a few years ago that explained that they were not left for the public to read, they were only for the priests to read and interpret, they wanted them chained to keep the public from having access and taking them home, but also so the public could not read it and interpret differently, so I’d like to know more sources for the information posted here.

By: Matthew Warner

Matthew Warner — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 21:16:39 +0000

Anuroop – Here is another post I wrote over at the National Catholic Register that speaks to some of your objections: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/friday_fast_fact_luther_wycliff_and_the_bible/

The Catholic Church did indeed translate before Wycliff…much before. That’s the tragedy of the misinformation out there that you seem to be buying into. There’s a good book out there called “Where we got the bible” that goes into a lot of this in greater detail.

By: Anuroop

Anuroop — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 19:53:30 +0000

Very interesting justification. Which language Bible was chained up out side the Church building? If it was Latin translation, (by Jerome in 406), then who could read it? Was all Europe reading Latin? Surely not! Next what was the literacy rate in those days, even if there were some in Roman provience? In either case people were not able to read and the Church did not help. Wycliffe, Luthur and many people translated the Bible into peoples litature. If the Church was interested in people reading the Scriptures, why did they not translate before Wycliff? Why did they wait till 1957 (around 600 years)to receive the translation of compleet Catholic Bible with the Apocrypha? Please read the history and present the facts. Let us be bold to say, we are sorry. Peace be with you. Anuroop

By: Michael Zappe

Michael Zappe — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:09:22 +0000

What also should be mentioned is the sheer expense of producing a Bible before printing. (Even after the invention of the printing press, compared to now, a printed version would be expensive.)

A great comparison is the Saint John’s Bible (http://www.saintjohnsbible.org/) that was produced recently, by hand. The Heritage Edition (http://www.heritageedition.com/about.htm), a photographic reproduction of the hand-calligraphed Bible, costs $145,000 each. (Of course, the printing doesn’t cost that much, but the proceeds go to a foundation for the preservation of Christian manuscripts.)

By: Caroline

Caroline — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:20:27 +0000

Thx for the post, Matthew. And, to add to that, something that I read — the Catholic Church did in fact confiscate people’s bibles & burned them; but that was becos there were so many different translations that were defective & inaccurate (eg. the Tyndale or Wycliffe bibles) and those were the ones that were opposed by the Church.

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:00:41 +0000

Very interesting piece of history, Matt.
Thanks for clarifying. Yes, I have heard more than a few practices by the early church characterized in a way to make them sound crazy by today’s way of thinking. A shame that often the context and reasoning are sometimes purposely left out, particularly by other Christian fundamentalist groups who want to portray Catholics as some kind of weird cult. I am a minority Catholic in the south who has experienced this many times in a group of otherwise great Christian people who seem more than energetic about sharing some of these “strange Catholic behaviors” that they probably heard about in their church. It happens all the time.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:57:00 +0000

As a convert, this is one of the many fallacies I had to wade thru on my road to Rome. Great Post!

By: Doug

Doug — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 01:03:31 +0000

However those who want to believe what they have always believed, aren’t going to let something fact or reason stand in their way. Human nature.

By: memoriadei

memoriadei — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:11:58 +0000

Thank you for this. I didn’t know and now I do ! Plus, I can tell anyone who comes up with the tired thing about Catholics keeping Bibles away from people