Where did The Bible originate?

Answer 1

The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is the one who assembled the Sacred Canon of Scripture as we now know it. It was the Catholic martyrs who chose to defend the scriptures with their blood when the Roman authorities came to collect and destroy them. Then came the Edict of Milan, the age of Nicaean Christianity and the establishment of the Biblical canon (lists). (The word "Bible" comes from the Anglicized Latin "biblia" which means "books".) The Hebrew Scriptures were already in existence. The first council to address the canon of scripture was the Council of Rome in 382 AD. Headed by Pope Damasus it produced the so-called Damasian list, a canon of scripture which is identical to the current Biblical canon of 73 books. It is only fair to say that a number of authorities suggest that the Damasian list might be a later forgery, possibly dating from the sixth century. Regardless of this, there are other councils shortly afterwards which produced canons which no one considers to be anything other than genuine. The Synod of Hippo (in No. Africa) was held in 393 AD and produced a canon identical to the Damasian List. This synod was held under the authority of the great St. Augustine, as were the two Councils of Carthage (also in North Africa) in 397 AD and 419 AD. These councils ratified and approved what the Synod of Hippo had already declared; a canon identical to the one produced in the Damasian List, which is identical to the current Catholic Biblical canon of 73 books.

Individual scholars may choose to argue over the Damasian List, contending that it is not genuine, but what they fail to realize is that - even if it could be proved that it was a forgery- less than 15 years later another council approved exactly the same list! So, the canon of Scripture was either approved and affirmed by a council in 382, or in 397 AD. In either case, it is clear that the contents of the Bible were determined by councils of the Catholic Church.

St. Jerome, a Christian scholar who was so highly regarded for his scholarship, was commissioned by Pope Damasus to translate the Gospels into Latin in 382 AD. Pope Damasus presided over the Council of Rome and produced the Damasian List, which is identical to our current canon. A Latin translation was desirable because Latin was the common language of the Roman Empire which had come to dominate Europe, Africa, and the Near East. Jerome not only undertook to translate the Gospels, but in fact, over the course of 23 years, translated the entire Bible as we have it today. He translated the Hebrew (Old) and Greek (New) into the Latin, thus the Latin Vulgate of St. Jerome was the first unified Bible. This replaced the existing versions of the scriptures as the preferred text of the Church.

Answer 2

The first Book of The Bible - Genesis - was written in the Wilderness.