There are two main sources of Scriptures:

1- The Bible.

2- The Tradition.

Some denominations claim "only the Bible"!, but it is not true: Every denomination has its own way of organization, worship, and specific ethical and moral standards, due to their "Tradition", to the way their founders or leaders interpret the Bible.: The Lutherans have different organization than the Pentecostal or Presbyterians, with different church services... and it is due to their own "Tradition".

The "Bible" ("books") is the most sacred book, the "Word of God" for the Christians... the whole Bible has been translated into 275 languages, and substantial parts into 1,720.

- It contains two main parts: The Old and the New Testament; both are the "Testaments" left by God for you and me, and we should read them with as much care and love as we would read the Testament of our father, or the one of the rich uncle who left a fortune for us... God, our Father, left us an immense fortune in his Testaments.

- A total of 73 books in the Catholic Bibles, and 66 in the Protestant Bibles.

1- The Old Testament:

It is he same as the Jewish Tanakh.

- The Catholic Bibles have 46 books, as the Bible of the Jewish of Alexandria, who wrote the Septuagint, the version quoted by the Apostles in the Gospels and Epistles.

- The Protestant Bibles have 39 books, as the Bible of the Jews from Palestine. They do not have:

... 4 Historic Books: Tobit, Judith, 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees.

... 2 Wisdom Books: Wisdom of Solomon, and Ecclesiasticus of Ben Sirach.

... 1 Prophetic Book: Baruch.

2- The New Testament:

With 27 Books in all the Bibles.

- The "Four Gospels":

They are the heart of the Bible: The Old Testament prefigures and characterizes the Christ of the Gospels; and the books after the Gospels show the development and expansion of the Church of Christ, and clarify important points of the Gospels... every page of the Old Testament talks about Christ and his Church... so, if when you read any book of the Bible you don't see there Christ or his Church, you have missed the main message of that book, read it again after praying! (Lk.24:27,44, Jn.1:45, 5:39).

The Books of the Old Testament: 46 books:

1- Historic: 21 Books:

From Genesis to Maccabees. Narrate the formation and development of the "People of God" with his glories and tribulations.

2- Wisdom or Poetic: 7 Books:

On the golden period of the nation.

Job; Psalms of David; the 4 of Solomon: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom; and Ecclesiasticus of Ben Sirach.

3- Prophetic: 18 Books:

On the darkest days of the nation.

- The 4 great prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel... plus the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and Baruch.

- The 12 minor prophets: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Melachi.

The Books of the New Testament: 27:

1- The 4 Gospels:

The heart of the Bible, just commented.

2- Acts of the Apostles:

Also called the "Gospel od the Holy Spirit", narrate the life and acts of the primitive Church, and its expansion to the whole world known at that time, from Jerusalem to Rome... in 32 years!.

3- Epistles of St. Paul: 14:

- The 4 theological: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians.

- The 3 Christological, written in prison: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.

- The 2 Scatological, on the end of times: 1 and 2 Thessalonians.

- The 3 Pastoral, organization of Church:1 and 2 Timothy, Titus.

- 1 Social: Philemon, Amos of the N.T.

- The 1 on Apostasy: Hebrews.

4- Universal or Catholic Epistles: 7:

- St.James: the Proverbs of the N.T.

- 1 and 2 St. Peter:

        1- The enemies from outside the Church.

        2- The enemies from inside the Church, and the "fire" that will consume the world.

- The 3 of St. John: Each one dealing with the "way", the "truth", and the "life"... the way of "love", and the "Antichrist".

- St. Judas: The pure faith, the Spirit.

5- Revelation or Apocalypse: The total and eternal triumph of Christ in his Church, for his Church, to his Church... and the total and eternal failure of Satan and his friends.

How do we know what Books form the Bible?:

Because the Church tells us so, says St. Augustine, "if the Church won't tell me these Books are the Bible, I won't believe it".

- The Church, gave us the list of the Books that form the Bible, by Pope Damasus I in the Council of Rome, in 382 A.C.

- There are another 30 good books, dealing with themes of the Old and New Testament, and attributed to St. Paul, St. James, St. Peter, Virgin Mary, St. Joseph... and they are not in the Bible, because the Church says so.

- Many Protestants do not realize that the Bible they cherish was given to them by a Pope, the Spaniard holy and wise Pope St. Damasus, at the times of St. Jerome and St, Augustine.

- When Luther broke with the Pope, he kept the same Bible Pope Damasus I had given... if the Pope is no good, the Bible is no good!.

- The same Bible was confirmed by Pope Paul III at the Ecumenical Council of Trent (1545), and 7 books more were added, but not accepted by the Protestants... but the same authority who gave us the first list of the books of the Bible, has given us the 7 books more... if you don't accept the authority this time, you should not accept the same authority the first time, in 382.

Jesus did not write the Bible,

and he did not gave it to us... in fact, all the books of the New Testament were not even written when Jesus died... Jesus founded "his Church" (Matt.16:18-19), and gave her the greatest power on earth: "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven" (Matt.16:19, 18:18)... and gave to his Church an order: Go and preach the Good News of Redemption, the Gospel, to the whole world... and one of the ways she is doing it, is by giving us the Bible... without the Church, there is no Bible.

The "original documents" of the Bible:

1- The "New Testament":

All books written in Greek, with the quotations from the Old Testament taken from the Septuagint.

- We have 4,500 manuscripts in Greek, 67 papyrus, 2,578 parchment, 1,600 leccionaries mainly in the Codex of the Vatican, London, Paris, Cambridge, and Washington.

2- The "Old Testament":

It was written mostly in Hebrew and Aramaic, some in Greek... and we don't have any of the "original documents"; what we have today mainly are the "Greek Bible", the "Hebrew Bible", and the "Dead See Scrolls":

A- The "Greek Bible", the "Septuagint",

from the 3rd century before Christ, is the oldest document we have. It is the Greek translation made in Alexandria by a group or 72 rabbis (6 from each one of the 12 tribes), and hence the name of "Septuagint" given to the translation. It has 46 books like the actual Catholic Bibles, and it was the common version of the Bible among the Jews during Christ and well after Christ ; the one used and quoted by the Evangelists and Apostles when they wrote the New Testament.

- It was translated to Syriac, Coptic, and Latin in the 4th century (the "Vulgate" of St. Jerome).

B- "Hebrew Bible", Masoretic Text",

written in the 6th to 10th centuries after Christ, by a group of scholars from Babylon and Palestine, introducing vowels and accent signs to the Hebrew. They, of course, used the Septuagint to produce it. It has 39 books, like the Protestant Bibles.

C- The "Dead See Scrolls",

are very important, because they are in Hebrew, dating from the 3rd century "before Christ", when the oldest Hebrew Bible we had, the Masoretic, is from 700 "after Christ"... it pushed back the curtain 1,000 years! on the earliest Hebrew document we had.

- Every book of the Bible is represented. 7 scrolls are in Israel, but most of them are in Jordan, with a remarkable similarity to the ones we have in Greek and Hebrew. A most important discovery on the O.T.!.

- This Tradition is transmitted "orally", and often it is printed (Luk.1:2). In Christ's time there was no printing, so, very few people could read anything from the Bible... and the Gospels were not yet written... and they were very good Christians those in the Catacombs, without New Testament written!.

- "Faith" comes from "hearing" the word of God, says Paul, he does not say from "reading" (Rom.10:17)... in fact, a person becomes a Catholic, a Lutheran, or a Pentecostal, because his mother or father or friend talk to him about that Church, and brought him there... the word Lutheran is not even in the Bible!.

- St. Paul gives very much importance to the Traditions in Ga.1:14, 1Cor.11:2, 15:2, 2Tes.2:15, 3:16, 2Tim2:2, 3:14... also St. Peter in 2Pet.2:20-21, 3:16.

- Of course, there are bad interpretations of the Bible, and bad Traditions, as we are told in the Bible: Mr.7, 2Tes.2:15, Col.2:8.

- Some Protestants argue that they only have the Bible, and no Tradition. But they deceit themselves, because the way they celebrate worship, is "Tradition", very different from a denomination to another; they understand and live the different Sacraments in very different ways from denomination to denomination, but the same denomination lives them always in the same way, as a Tradition taught by the founder or the leaders of that church... they sing and dress and behave by Tradition...

- By its nature the Church is tradition; by its mission the Church is development. If the Church abandoned tradition it would be unfaithful; if it abandoned development it would play the traitor... and true development is possible only in tradition, in fidelity to Gospel, Christ, and Church.

There are many good Traditions:

1- The Gospels,

and the teaching of the Apostles are oral traditions written down (Luk.1:1-4, 1Cor.11:2, 15:2, 2Tes.2:15, 3:6).

2- The Ecumenical Councils,

are also traditions written down, to clarify doctrines: There have been 22 Ecumenical Councils in the Church, all presided by the Pope, exercising the power given by Jesus to the Church, in Matt.18:18, 16:19:

- The first Council, in Jerusalem, to establish the position of the Jewish and non-Jewish people in the Church (Act.15, Gal.2).

- The second in Nicea, now Iznik, (in 325 AC), to declare that "Jesus is God", a doctrine denied by Arrianism.

- The third, in Constantinople (381), to declare that "Jesus is a man", being denied by Apollinaris, and to declare that the "Holy Spirit is God", a doctrine denied by some Christians.

- The forth in Ephesus (431), declaring that Virgin Mary is the Mother of God, a doctrine being denied by the Nestorians.

-The last one, the 22nd., well known, is the Vatican II, in our days, with 16 beautiful documents (1962-1965).

3- Teachings of the "Popes", and Founders of the different Denominations.

- There have been 262 Popes since St. Peter until the present, John Paul II. Some of them have been public sinners, most of them holy, and all of them "infallible", when they speak "ex-cathedra", on dogma and faith, with the power given by Jesus to Peter and his successors in Matt.16:19: "Whatsoever you shall bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven"... and when they declare a "Dogma of Faith" is to be believe by every Catholic.

- Some Protestants cry out, only the Bible!... but the teachings of Luther, Calvin, Smith, Baker, etc. are very important for the members of that Denomination, and important for all Christians to know... in fact, the Lutherans read the Bible as taught by Luther, the Adventists as taught by Helen White, the Methodists as taught by Wesley, etc., etc...

- The book of Henrici Denzinger,

"Teachings of the Church", is an excellent compendium of the teachings of the Ecumenical Councils and the Popes, with excellent referral indexes. The "Bible" and the "Denzinger" both should be at hand for any Christian.

- For example, the Denzinger presents the "5 dogmas on Virgin Mary":

1- The Mother of God: In the Council of Ephesus, 431.

2- Always Virgin: St. Siricio, 392, Council of Letran, 649.

3- Immaculate Conception: Pius IX, 1854.

4- Assumption: Brought to Heaven in Soul and Body: Pius XII, 1950.

5- Mother of the Church: Paul VI, Vatican Council II, 1964.

4- The "writings of the Fathers of the Church", let us know the problems and glories of their time (like another Acts).

5- The "Liturgical Books",

are very interesting to see how Christians worshiped in different times and circumstances, and learn from them.

6- The "Lives of Saints":

Each Saint is the word of God made life, by so different people in so many different circumstances... they are an excellent source to stimulate and help us to be Saints, because they were human and sinners, like you and... and became Saints!... you and I can also be Saints... like St. Augustine, St. Therese, St, Francis, St. Catherine, St. Ignatius, St. Dominic, St. Jerome... so many thousands, and so different lives and circumstances... any Christian who is not a Saint, is an idiot!.

- In Genesis God speaks in "plural": "Let us make", "to our image", "to our likeness"... it does not say, "I make", "to my image"... (Ge.1:26)... and continues, "God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them" (Ge.1:27).

- God is like the "sun": The sun is the Father; the light is the Son; the heat is the Holy Spirit... only one sun, only one God.

- In the "creation" of Gen.1, the Father gives the "order"; this order is made by the Word, the Son; but the Son does not need engineers nor architects, nor workers... he does everything with the power of the Holy Spirit... and, in fact, the Spirit is the first person of God mentioned in the Bible, in Gen.1:2.

- In Gen.2:24 God created "marriage" at he image of God, "the two of them become one flesh"... and the actual beautiful plan of God for marriage is "3 persons in one flesh", "husband, wife, and God", like the Trinity!, and marriage would be like "a piece of heaven on earth"!... but many marriages are like "a piece of hell on earth", because the 3 persons are "husband, wife, and Satan"... if you are in sin, your marriage is hell, even if you are a millionaire... guaranteed!... if you want to fix your marriage, it is easy, live with Jesus in your heart, and your marriage will be a piece of heaven on earth... guaranteed!.

- The Trinity is also represented by the "three men" who visited Abraham in Gen.18:2.

- These biblical quotations are valid for Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

- God is repeatedly "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob", in Ex.3:6, 3:15, Lk.20:37... symbolizing the Holy Trinity: Abraham is God the Father, Isaac is God the Son, and Jacob is God the Holy Spirit... Jacob was transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit from "Jacob", a cheater, into "Israel", the kindest man in the Bible.

- God is himself a community of love: The Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and this love of the Father to the Son and of the Son to the Father is the Holy Spirit: Three persons, but only one true God.

- The Son exists from eternity, as the Father, because if at any moment the Son would have not existed, the Father would not have been a Father at that moment, and that's an impossible, because one of the characteristics of God is that he is immutable, unchangeable, the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow... and the Holy Spirit has also the same eternity, because he is the mutual love of the Father and the Son, eternally, immutable.

In the Baptism of Jesus, the three persons appear distinctively (Matt.3:16-17, Mar.1:10-11):

1 - The "Son" is a person, fully God and fully man, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah.

2 - The "Father" is a person who claims, "this is my beloved Son".

3 - The Holy Spirit is a person, descending like a dove coming upon Jesus.

- The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob; the compassionate, the merciful, the King on the day of reckoning... three persons, only one God!... to Him only we worship, we cry for help, he only guides us (The Koran, Sura 1).

- St. Peter teaches that the Holy Spirit is the person most important now in our lives, because the Father already created us; the Son already redeemed us; and the Holy Spirit is the person who sanctifies us now, who makes us to appropriate in our lives the redemption of Christ, for the glory of the Father (1Pet.1:2).

- The Holy Spirit comes to our lives as a "dove", very humble, wanting to nest in our hearts, but with the hurricane power of Pentecost of Acts 2, able to fill our lives with the love of Christ, for the glory of the Father, and of his Church, and for our own good.

- Come, Holy Spirit, on any person reading these lines, make in him the same job you did in Virgin Mary, fill him with Jesus, to serve the neighbor and to sing the praises of the Lord, like Mary did in Luk.1:35, 39-56... it is the essence of the Pentecost in Act.2... and in our lives!.

Anything Jesus did

on earth was with the "power of the Holy Spirit": He was conceived in the Virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luk.1:35); he went about doing good and healing the sick by the power of the Holy Spirit (Act.10:38); he offered himself on the Cross through the eternal Spirit (Heb.9:14); resurrected by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom.8:11); now he becomes bread and wine in the Eucharist by the Spirit, as every priest says in the Mass...

The Spirit is the life of the Church:

He guides the Church now, fills her with life with his charismas, and mainly with the daily Eucharist (Jn.16:13, 1Cor.12)... he is the Lord and giver of life, the one who inspired all the Holy Scriptures (2Pet.1:21).

Do you need a good Lawyer?:

Take the Holy Spirit, your Great Lawyer, your Advocate, your Guide, your "Paraclete", "the one who is always at your side" (Jn.14:16, 16:7-13).

Everything good in the Bible

was made by the power of the Holy Spirit: The "creation" of Gen.1, as we commented; Moses was filled with the Spirit and that same Spirit was given to other 70 in Num.11; Samson, Gideon, and all the Judges were filled with the Spirit; Saul, David, Solomon, were anointed with the Holy Spirit; all the Prophets were inspired by the Spirit (2Pet.1:21)... and Joel says that in the last days, now!, God will poor out his Spirit upon all flesh, upon all humanity, prophecy fulfilled in the Pentecost of Acts 2:16-21.

Virgin Mary:

Psalm 45 is the one of the King an d the Queen: The second half of the Psalm is like a riddle: It presents the Queen as the mother, the spouse, and the daughter of the King.... the answer to the riddle is "Virgin Mary":

1- Mother of God the Son

2- Spouse of God the Holy Spirit.

3- Preferred Daughter of God the Father.

The last verse of the Psalm makes a prophecy about the Queen which is exactly the same to the one made by Mary herself on Luke 1:48: "All generations will bless me".

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