Why Didn’t Jesus...

[Cure of Ars]

Why didn’t Jesus commit his teachings to the written word?

[BLAZEr]

Cuz all the scribes were against him . . . :rolleyes:

[Anna]

Apparently, He didn't see it necessary, and felt the Church He was founding would do a good enough job spreading His teachings and good news of His salvation to all the ends of the earth.

Otherwise, He certainly would've told His Apostles, "Write this down!"

But, nooooooooooo.

He didn't do that!

He just said, "You're Peter, (the rock) and upon this rock, I will build My Church." "Feed My sheep...Feed My sheep...Feed My sheep." "Do this in memory of Me."

[IXpenguin21]

My opinion of why Jesus didn't write His teachings down is based on the sacraments...

all sacraments are done to bring God to us in a real and physical way. they all also involve interacting with people... you can't have a sacrament w/o God and w/o other people. the sacriments bring God to us, many times by imitating the methods of Christ (the Mass, confession, baptism, etc)

this in mind...

if Christ wrote these things down instead of actualy DOing them, we would then be able to have Mass in our house reading out of the bible. Christ was all about action (this is an amazing understatment). if He did write them down, it would take away from the lasting effects He made on the world and the church. to think, there would be no need to bring your new born baby to the church for their baptism because you could just do it in your home over the kitchen sink, while reading how to do it. You wouldn't go to confession because you could just read how to talk with God. sure, the bible does give accounts of Jesus' land and methods of forgiveness, but they are mear substitutes, rather they are counterfits, for the actual sacraments!!! Thank God He didn't write them down! :P

[cmotherofpirl]

Why didn’t Jesus commit his teachings to the written word?

Why would he?

He was founding a Church, not writing a book.

Muslims and Jews are people of the book.

Christianity is a Church based on physical sacramentality: water, wine and bread, oil, human touch.

The New Testament is a portrait of the Church frozen in first century time.

It is our history.

It is not the sum of Christianity, but a slice.

Jesus left us a living Church, always the same, always renewing.

A book cannot baptise, ordain, consecrecrate or anoint, only a living Church can do that.

A book cannot interpret itself, only an authority outside can do that.

And our Churchs authority is guarenteed by God himself.

[jasJis]

Ah. Because Jesus is the Living Word. His Word entered the world and will not return to Him unless all is completed. His will on Earth is not complte yet. Check out ICTHUS' Acts 15 thread which shows the Living Word operating in the Living Church without it being written down. If Jesus' Word was committed only to paper, it would be the same as our word, or Tao's or Confusious.

If Jesus word was limited to it's presence on paper, it would strictly be a temporal exisitence and be assailed by the limits of strictly a temporal existence. Even Sola Scripturists recognize the problem with that, and look for the Holy Spirit to work within them to discern the Living Word. They just need to take another 1/2 step back and realize the Living Word remains constant in the Chruch and continues to operate as we see validated in Acts 15. It did it then, it does it now.

[Mary's Knight, La]

missing one of the main points, God created man to be social that's why man was sad when none of the animals were like him, so if mans nature is to be social then when redeeming humanity it must be done in a social way and books are not social

[Cure of Ars]

Ok now with your answers what conclusions can be drawn about the nature and mission of the Church, the relationship between the Bible and the Church, and evangelization with the Internet?

I know I'm maken you guys do all the work but you guys gave some amesome answers. :)

[Cure of Ars]

St. Thomas Aquinas's answer;

Whether Christ should have committed His doctrine to writing?

I answer that, It was fitting that Christ should not commit His doctrine to writing. First, on account of His dignity: for the more excellent the teacher, the more excellent should be his manner of teaching. Consequently it was fitting that Christ, as the most excellent of teachers, should adopt that manner of teaching whereby His doctrine is imprinted on the hearts of His hearers; wherefore it is written (Mt. 7:29) that "He was teaching them as one having power." And so it was that among the Gentiles, Pythagoras and Socrates, who were teachers of great excellence, were unwilling to write anything. For writings are ordained, as to an end, unto the imprinting of doctrine in the hearts of the hearers.

Secondly, on account of the excellence of Christ's doctrine, which cannot be expressed in writing; according to Jn. 21:25: "There are also many other things which Jesus did: which, if they were written everyone, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written." Which Augustine explains by saying: "We are not to believe that in respect of space the world could not contain them . . . but that by the capacity of the readers they could not be comprehended." And if Christ had committed His doctrine to writing, men would have had no deeper thought of His doctrine than that which appears on the surface of the writing.

Thirdly, that His doctrine might reach all in an orderly manner: Himself teaching His disciples immediately, and they subsequently teaching others, by preaching and writing: whereas if He Himself had written, His doctrine would have reached all immediately.

Hence it is said of Wisdom (Prov. 9:3) that "she hath sent her maids to invite to the tower." It is to be observed, however, that, as Augustine says (De Consensu Evang. i), some of the Gentiles thought that Christ wrote certain books treating of the magic art whereby He worked miracles: which art is condemned by the Christian learning. "And yet they who claim to have read those books of Christ do none of those things which they marvel at His doing according to those same books. Moreover, it is by a Divine judgment that they err so far as to assert that these books were, as it were, entitled as letters to Peter and Paul, for that they found them in several places depicted in company with Christ. No wonder that the inventors were deceived by the painters: for as long as Christ lived in the mortal flesh with His disciples, Paul was no disciple of His."

Summa Theologica III, 42, 4

Edited October 12, 2003 by Cure of Ars

[hecklingsoul]

I believe that He did, but not directly. Jesus instruced his apostles to spread his Word (which he taught them directly). The Holy Spirit gave them all gifts that aided them in teaching (spreading) that Word. In their journeys to spread Jesus' teaching they chose the methods in which they were graced.

[Katholikos]

amesome answers, phamily!

Here's another -- most people in the first century could not read and write!

God wills all men to be saved (1 Tm 2:4). Therefore, His message had to be transmitted in the most accessible way to reach the maximum audience -- orally. Judaism was transmitted orally, from the time of Abraham (c. 1850 B.C.) to the time of David (c. 1000 B.C.) before the first word of the OT was written. Then it took about a thousand years for the OT to be to completed, just before Christ was born. Jesus lived in a society where communications and transactions were oral.

It took about 100 years for the NT to be written.

Societies in those days were not literate. Few were literate until the invention of the printing press. Even then, literacy did not become widespread in the U.S. until the 19th century. My own grandfather could not read and write. And 40 million adults in the U.S. are illiterate now (Tom Brokaw, NBC News, August, 2003).

The Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura is meaningless to anyone who is illiterate -- which was 90% of the world at the time of Christ and 50% of the world today!

Ave Cor Mariae,

Katholikos

[Anna]

St. Thomas Aquinas's answer;

Whether Christ should have committed His doctrine to writing?

And if Christ had committed His doctrine to writing, men would have had no deeper thought of His doctrine than that which appears on the surface of the writing.

Summa Theologica  III, 42, 4

Wow, it appears by that statement that Thomas Aquinas predicted, 300 years in advance, that a man with limited insights would embrace, what was declared 3 centuries later--the man-made doctrine, sola scriptura!

Aquinas predicted sola scriptura 300 years before Luther invented it!

Pax Christi. <><