The first of the two central tenets of Protestantism is to read the bible and discern the Christian faith for yourself. Hummm... Which bible would that be exactly...there are many different versions. The fascinating tale of the bible can be read at the link above.
For the "cliff note" summary it works out like this: The Catholic Church commissioned a complete volume of sacred scripture to be assembled so as to combat errors and false translations which were already a problem in the fourth century. They evaluated the volume compiled faithfully by (now) St. Jerome and completed in the year 405. That bible, certified by the Church, was THE BIBLE for over 1,100 years. It is known as the Latin Vulgate.
The Douay-Rheims bible is the faithful translation from the Latin Vulgate into English.
All the others do not have such a pure pedigree. They started appearing at the confluence of two notable events in history, the invention of the printing press, for now anyone could afford to print whatever they wished, and the Protestant revolt. In order to shore up their tenet of “scripture only” they needed “scripture” to shore them up. A most circular arrangement. Reminds me of Obama proving he was born in Hawaii by providing a birth certificate made by Obama, not Hawaii.
The Bible did not simply fall out of the sky in God's own handwriting. It was assembled by a true authority, God's own stewards, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.
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